Residents of a cluster of communities in Isolo, Lagos, have been effusive in their appreciation to Quest Times, after a story published on this website forced Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (DisCo) to fix their power after a year of prolonged blackout.
On January 22, 2023, Quest Times published a story with the caption: “How @IkejaElectric is punishing Lagos communities with poor power supply.”
The first paragraph captured the agony residents of Isolo were going through. The rest of the story elucidated how businesses in the area have been crippled because of poor power supply.
“Residents of Qudus Folawiyo, a serene, nondescript community in the Isolo area of mainland Lagos, didn’t see a flicker of electricity throughout the Christmas and New Year celebrations.
“Between December 2022 and January 2023, the community has only been handed 2 hours of electricity for their troubles,” our story read in part.
The story was widely shared in various WhatsApp groups of affected communities and on social media platforms.
“We were sharing the story everywhere like pure water. We slammed the links on our WhatsApp platforms and asked all neighbours to share aggressively,” says Abimbola Olusegun, who resides on Alhaji Ashiriabo, one of the affected communities.
Quest Times has been told that top bosses of Ikeja Electric immediately issued queries to managers in charge of power distribution to the area, and directed them to fix the perennial outage immediately.
On January 25, three days after the story was published, the electricity company invited aggrieved residents to a Zoom meeting to resolve the situation.
“Dear Customer, kindly be informed of the Zoom community engagement session on the ongoing Abimbola feeder rearrangement scheduled for Thursday, 26/01/2023. Time: 12.00pm. Kindly see meeting link below. Thank you for allowing us serve you,” the Zoom invitation read.
On February 1, power was restored to the affected areas.
“We now boast more electricity in a day than we’ve had in an entire year,” says Mama Bisola Onimisi who runs a restaurant in the neighbourhood. “I wanted to close this shop and go set up shop somewhere else. But the way light has improved since February 1, I may just stay back. Thank you, Quest Times, una do well o,” she adds, amid raucous laughter.
Mike Chukwujekwu, a banker who spoke to Quest Times for the story that forced change, says “Thank You, Quest Times. Without you guys, we’d still be in darkness. It’s why I always encourage people to speak up. Sometimes, we are just too quiet and docile as a people.”