Esan Monarch, Residents Decry Vandalism As Community Reels In Darkness

The traditional ruler and residents of Ugbegun Esan Central local government area of Edo State have decried the alleged  vandalism of facilities at the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) which caused total darkness for over six weeks in the community. 

The community also fingered a member of staff of BEDC caught vandalising armoured cables and was handed over to the police but was  later said to have been  released which worsened the situation. 

They said the action of the community leaders and vigilantes in apprehending the said BEDC staffer and handing him over to the police was behind the reasons why BEDC officials remained adamant in not restoring electricity to the community. 

They said the plan to cover up the crime by the said official has crippled business activities in the community just as they called on the BEDC management and other relevant authorities to come to their aid. 

Speaking on the development, the traditional ruler of Ugebgun, Samuel Obade (JP) and the Itohan of Ugbegun, chief Mathew Emiohe, lamented the suffering in the community due to non-availability of electricity occasioned by the cable theft.   

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Obade said, “We have been mandated to defend our facilities in our domain and that we have always done. Sometimes in August we increased our vigilance arising from what we are hearing from neighboring clans and we caught someone in Ikiogbe substation but he ran away.  We caught the second person vandalising armoured cables at the sub-station and was handed over to the police.

“This last one that happened was the engineer in charge of Igueben sub-station called Charles. The vigilante saw him red-handed. A day before they saw him take a ladder from someone’s house, climb the high tension and loosened the cable on the pretense that he was clearing grass around the transformer.

“We have a force station in Ugbegun with over five staff and if he had no ulterior motive he should have asked the staff to come and clear grass around the sub-station. The vigilante saw Engineer Charles on a motorbike with another person behind him holding the armoured cables. We called in the police but they were neither here or there.”

Corroborating the position of the traditional ruler, Emiohe called for the immediate restoration of power and said residents had been thrown into total darkness since the theft, adding that they were being victimised for crying out.

BEDC spokesperson, Evelyn Gbewen, denied knowledge of the incident, saying they were yet be briefed on the matter.