Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Hundreds of women from the Ifesowapo, Irewolede, and Ifesokan communities in Imowo Nla, Ikorodu, took matters into their own hands on Thursday, May 14, 2026, when they marched to the Ikorodu Business District office of Ikeja Electric (IKEDC), barricaded the entrance, locked the gates, and held staff hostage for hours. Their demand was blunt: return the transformer the company had removed months ago and end a blackout that has crippled their businesses, ruined frozen goods, and forced families into the impossible choice between buying food or buying fuel for a generator.
“Before we came out to protest, the CDAs had several meetings with officials of Ikeja Electric so that the transformer they took away could either be repaired or replaced, but nothing was done,” said Bisi Oluwo, the women’s leader. “All they gave us were empty promises.” The demonstration, which began on Wednesday, escalated when the women locked the gates of the Omitoro office, trapping employees inside and blocking access for several hours. Placards carried by the crowd read “IKEDC! Give us our transformer,” “Prolonged blackout: Enough is enough,” and “Our businesses are suffering due to blackout.”
The transformer, which served the three communities, was removed months ago after developing a fault, ostensibly for repairs. Residents say repeated engagements with the power company yielded no results, only vague assurances and ignored deadlines. “Economic and commercial activities have been crippled because of the blackout,” Oluwo said. “The few privileged residents who can afford fuel for generators are doing so at huge costs.” For frozen food seller Teju, the loss has been devastating. “We are suffering severe losses because of the blackout caused by the removal of our transformer. It has damaged the goods in my shop and left me stranded.”
The protest highlights a growing crisis across Lagos, where faulty transformers are often carted away for “repairs” and never seen again. In a separate but similar incident, residents of the Ajumoni Community Development Association in Meiran have been without power for nearly a year after their transformer was removed in March 2025. “We have been in darkness since March 27, 2025. Ikeja Electric took our transformer, saying it needed repairs, but since then, we have not seen anything,” community chairman Niyi Adeyanju told reporters. In the Aina Aladi community off AIT Road in Alagbado, a transformer breakdown in December 2025 has left over 300 houses in darkness, with residents accusing company officials of neglect. “Over 95 per cent of the 350 houses here use prepaid meters, so we don’t understand why our situation is being ignored,” resident Afeez Lawal said.
When police officers from the Igbogbo Division arrived at the Ikorodu office on Thursday, they initially appealed to the women to unlock the gates. The protesters refused. A senior IKEDC official, speaking from the office balcony on condition of anonymity, told the women that transformer repairs “involved laid‑down procedures which could take time.” He asked them to nominate three representatives to interface with the company. The women stood firm, insisting on a definitive timeline. It was only after the Divisional Police Officer personally intervened and the official pledged, in front of the police, that the transformer would be repaired and returned within two weeks that the women finally unlocked the gates and dispersed.
Behind the company’s procedural language lies a grim reality that the women already know. Across its franchise area, Ikeja Electric is grappling with a nationwide drop in power generation caused by limited gas supply to thermal plants, as acknowledged by the company’s Head of Corporate Communications, Kingsley Okotie, in a March 2026 interview. Residents of Waterfront Estate, Sekumade Estate, and NBC Community in Ebute, Ikorodu, had already protested an eight‑month blackout in February 2026, only to be told by an IKEDC official that “there are about 300 faulty transformers across Ikorodu currently in our workshop, and we can only fix or replace them one at a time.” For the women of Ifesowapo, Irewolede, and Ifesokan, that explanation is not acceptable. Their transformer has been gone for months. Their patience is gone too.
The protest in Ikorodu sent a clear message to electricity distribution companies across Nigeria: when the light goes out and the promises never materialize, the people will find other ways to be heard. For a few hours on Thursday, the women of Imowo Nla did not just lock a gate. They locked in a principle: that the right to electricity is not a privilege to be negotiated away, and that when the system fails, the mothers of the community will step in to fix it.
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