130 Yoruba groups back Lagos on new Electricity distributors, praises Sanwo-Olu

The Lagos State Government’s decision to officially grant electricity distribution licenses to two new Distribution Companies has received the support of 130 Pan Yoruba groups.

The coalition commended the Lagos State Governor Mr Babajide Sanwo Olu and his deputy Dr Obafemi Hamzat for the unique initiative. The Pan Yoruba groups describe the Lagos initiative as the most important public interest decision in Lagos since 1999.
In a statement after its Executive Council meeting on Monday, the Alliance for Yoruba Democratic Movements, (AYDM) said the decision of the Lagos State Government on the new licenses represent a ‘radical departure from’ gross corporate irresponsibility to a new frontier in the search for energy stability in Lagos State with far reaching implication on the South West and Nigeria. The coalition said Sanwo-Olu and his team have written their names in history.

The AYDM said it was not enough to register new DISCOs but that the State and Federal Government should probe the owners of DISCOs for their crime against the people. The group said the AYDM and other civil society organisations would push for sanctions on the managers of the DISCOs by the international community by documenting their crimes, saying that many people have died due to the activities of DISCOS in Lagos either in hospitals due to abrupt disconnection or through power surges that have led to the burning of many buildings where people lost their lives and property or through target attacks on property of energy users. AYDM said the DISCOS were worse that their NEPA, their predecessors.

‘Lagos and the people of the South West are praying for the Government of Lagos State for this bold step. The people have been subjected to the most horrendous crimes inflicted on innocent energy users by existing DISCOs who lack human conscience and driven only by primitive and UnGodly accumulation of wealth,’ the AYDM said in a statement signed by its Secretary Popoola Ajayi and Mobilisation Director, Chief Kunle Oshodi. Members of the AYDM included but not limited to Oodua Nationalist Coalition, (ONAC), Agbekoya, Yoruba Artisan and Traders Association, (YATA), Nigerian Automobile Technicians Association, (NATA-South West), Covenant Group, (CG), Oodua Hunters Union, (OHUN), Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC-New Era), South West Professional Forum, (SOWPROF), Oodua Peoples Congress, (OPC-Reformed), South West Women Congress, (SWECO) among many others. The AYDM described the former DISCOs as conscious economic saboteurs, urging the new DISCOs not to repeat the gross misconduct of their predecessors saying that the AYDM is ready to work with them to reclaim lost public confidence. It also urged the Lagos State Government to explore cleaner energy possible form the tonnes of waste generated daily in the State.

The Lagos State Government had registered Excel Distribution Company and the IE Energy Lagos Limited marking a major shift from energy misery to a new opportunity for the people and the Lagos industrial hub. The new companies will now take over Eko Electricity Distribution PLC and Ikeja Electric PLC

The coalition said the decision to register new DISCOs will save business and industries from the fringe of collapse. ‘When there is no efficient electricity, businesses, health and industrial growth will suffer while social and night economy will crumble. This has been the situation in Lagos. Millions of electricity users are sidelined by arrogant bullies who parade themselves as business operators but who lack any iota of human compassion but motivated by cruel zeal for profit,’ AYDM said. AYDM said there was no way DISCOs in Lagos can enjoy public goodwill when the companies has no human face but cruelty to the citizenry. The group said it was working on a book that would document all the atrocities of DISCOs in Lagos for prosperity.
Ajayi said the AYDM and several groups including labour and Community Development Associations, (CDAs) wrote series of complaints to the existing DISCOs but that the feedback was arrogance and contempt for the people.
‘The DISCOs are corrupt and irresponsible managers. They lack competence and they are arrogant about their lack of knowledge in the field they have chosen.

They see Lagosians as commodities to be brutally exploited and humiliated. The residents of Lagos bleed helplessly under their wicked and inhuman operations,’ AYDM said the debts DISCOs in Lagos claimed are fictitious and largely figments of fraud designed to extort individuals and corporate organisations saying that the DISCOs are led by inhuman and anti-democracy forces.