EKEDC accuses soldiers of invading substation, abducting workers over power outage

The Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) says military personnel invaded its substation and abducted two staff members in the early hours of Friday.

Confirming the incident to TheCable on Sunday, Babatunde Lasaki, general manager (GM) of corporate communications and strategy at EKEDC, said the military personnel cited prolonged power outage as the reason for their actions.

Lasaki explained that the outage was due to an ongoing project upgrade at the Agbara facility of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and has been communicated to the “commanding officer of the barracks, Lt. Col . S.L . Lawn”.

“It happened at exactly approximately at about 1.00am on Friday 14th of March,” he said.

“Military personnel from the 15th Field Engineer Regiment, Topo Barracks, Badagry forcefully entered the premises of our sub-station and abducted the distribution substation operator and a proton security personnel on duty.

“The abducted staff members were subjected to physical assault with attendant injuries following the assault.”

Lasaki said the workers were released in the early hours of Friday.

“There was no evidence of infrastructure destruction,” he added.

The GM said the incident has been reported to the police, and a formal letter of complaint has also been submitted to the military high command in Abuja.

A similar incident occurred on March 6, when the premises of the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) was invaded by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) personnel over the disconnection of electricity at Sam Ethnan Air Force Base, Ikeja, Lagos state.

IKEDC said the NAF personnel vandalised the company’s office, “assaulted” staff members, and made away with several company assets.