Eko Electricity Distribution Company has met the Lagos Islands district and its environment as part of its strategic engagement with customers under its franchise network.

The forum, held on Thursday, was attended by residents of Lagos Island, Victoria Island and Ikoyi environs.

A statement by the EKEDC General Manager, Corporate Communications, Godwin Idemudia, said, “The Island District is strategic to our business, hence the importance of the engagement forum to help the management to identify areas of improving power supply to the customers.”

While commending EKEDC for the recent improvement of power supply and turnaround time to clearing faults, the customers at the meeting raised the issue of old and overloaded distribution infrastructure affecting supply in their communities.

Many residents from Lagos Island complained about the faults as a result of weak underground cables and overloaded transformers and thus requested solutions from the Disco.

Reacting to the customers’ queries, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, EKEDC, Dr Tinuade Sanda, who was represented by the Chief Commercial Officer, Mrs Rekhiat Momoh, explained that the presence of weak and old cables in the network was due to the construction of buildings on such cables, which has made it difficult to carry out repairs.

She however stated that EKEDC was devising alternative means to mitigate this challenge.

Concerning the issue of the overloaded transformer, she assured the customers that the company, as part of its continuous improvements of projects, was working on providing relief distribution transformers to many areas under the Islands District.

Speaking, the Divisional Crime Officer, Ikoyi Police Divisional Headquarters, Mr Ishola Olaitan, explained to customers at the forum that the spate of vandalism in Ikoyi and Lagos Island also contributed to the damage of cables.

 He called on the customers to aid the Police Force and EKEDC in curbing the crime by reporting to the Police or EKEDC via its whistleblower platforms.