Just as Ijora Badia, Aiyetoro etc are boiling. Women from Ojo road, Atebo, Ibitoye etc in Ifelodun LCDA, followed suit under the platform of OJO ROAD WOMEN UNITE to preoccupied the street of Lagos today (22/6/2018) in their hundreds to say Enough is Enough to the Eko Distribution Company (EKEDC).
The women in their numbers spirited the whole community including Lagos Island with solidarity songs. The demands were very clear. (1) an end to overestimated billing. (2) for free prepaid metres. (3) 24 hours power supply etc. Other demand includes N600 per room or no disconnection which is now the ongoing slogan in the whole of Ajegunle community.
Many at the protest emphasize that the crazy bill is very criminal on the part of the Eko Disco. That the electricity company supply darkness and at the end will roll truck of overestimated bills to residents in the community and expected them to pay. The women said. The billing methodology is outrageous compare to when it was National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA).
Some of them also said. Then, when it was
under NEPA they pay at least N100 per room. But now, it is EKEDC. it is a different story entirely. Each room now is paying thousands of what they pay then. They pay thousand fold into the pocket of the Eko Distribution Company. For majority of the agitated women and as far they all concern, this is inhuman and exploitation.
This for many was a starting point. They are tired paying this charges. At Marina, many of the women in the protest ground demonstrated resilience and doggedness like 1929 and March, 1917 respectively. They spirited the whole place. Chanting songs of struggle against the exploitation carried in the community.
Leaders of the protest Grace Nwaocha and Williams Funmilayo addressed the women that this struggle must continue until victory is ascertain. Management of Eko Disco at the protest ground were unable to convince the crowd why there is light. They try to justify the crazy bill. But the protesters who have thicken their mind and ever ready in the battlefield believe Eko Disco has failed.
Immediately, after the protest rally at Marina. The women in their hundreds protested back to the community to preoccupied the Business Unit of Eko Distribution Company in Ajegunle. For more than forty five minutes. The whole building was preoccupied by women, demanding for improve in power supply and against the continuous bedevilling of them in the community by EKEDC.
Socialists from the Democratic Socialist Movement and the Socialist Party of Nigeria respectively in Ajegunle were actively involved in organizing the rally from the kick off venue. They fully solidarize with the women. Suggestions were given for the campaign to continue and be sustain in the community. Importantly, the role play by DSM was fundamental to encourage the spirit of the struggle.
Subsequently, the women on their part said they plan to have posters to popularized the campaign in the community. They will sustain it by holding regular meetings, ensuring the issue of crazy bill and disconnection comes to an end. Without doing this, the Eko Distribution Company will continue in their act of exploitation and criminal method of overestimating.
Fundamentally, the re-nationalization of the power sector remain a bigger demand in the voice of thousands of Nigerian especially the poor masses. In respective of the struggles breaking many walls in different community. The struggle for Free Prepaid Metres to all household, is connected to the overall demand of taking back the power sector from the hands of those who bought the sector.
SPN and DSM Ajegunle want to say the Nigerian working masses should continue to remain resilience in their campaign. They should not relent fighting for victory to be achieved. We also want to salute the courage of women leading many resistances in the Ajegunle community. Most importantly, for the AJEGUNLE STAND UP AGAINST DARKNESS. Beside, youths, workers, students in the community should join this campaign in order to ground EKEDC.
Privatization has failed to do the needful. It has fail to guarantee regular power supply because of the run policy the Nigerian politicians of APC, PDP etc are implementing. For us to move on, socialists and community activists respectively want the people of Ajegunle to begin to demand in this ongoing campaign, the re-nationalization of the power sector under the democratic management of workers and the poor.
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Copyright @ Fidel Davy
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