Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Residents of various communities that make up Okitupupa Local Government Area of Ondo State, on Wednesday, staged a peaceful demonstration to protest against the over 10 years of power outage in the area.
The protesters, including artisans, students, youths and adults marched through major streets of the town to vent their anger.
Chanting solidarity songs, the aggrieved protesters vowed not to allow elections hold in the area in 2019 should the situation persists.
Armed with placards with various inscriptions, the protesters issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal and State Governments to restore electricity to the area or face more mass action.
They also vowed not to pay their taxes until the state government did the needful on the matter.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, chairman of Tailors Association, Okitipupa branch, Wahab Muhammed, said politicians in the area had failed the people by not coming to their rescue.
Said he, “It is sad that our politicians from the Ondo South senatorial district have failed us. We have been in total darkness for over 10 years and they have failed to restore our electricity.
“We have made-up our minds that we are not going to participate in the 2019 elections, if our electricity is not restored. We will not allow them to campaign in our area.
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“We are also not happy that the state government has not done anything meaningful to address the situation. Henceforth, we are not going to pay revenue to the government.”
Also, he urged the Federal Government not to renew the contract of Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), because of its failure to provide enough electricity for the people.
According to him “it is crystal clear that BEDC has failed woefully, despite the fact that we are not owing them, they refused to give us electricity.”
It would be recalled that youths in the area also shutdown the Benin/Ore Expressway last week over power outage in the South Senatorial District of Ondo State.