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Some soldiers of the Nigerian Army have reportedly attacked an office of the Eko Electricity Distribution Company in Badagry, Lagos State over a power outage.
PUNCH Online gathered that the attack happened around 1 am on Friday.
This is coming one week after officers and men of the Nigerian Air Force from the Sam Ethnan Air Force Base in Ikeja attacked the headquarters of the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company in Alausa, Lagos, brutalising staff and journalists while also vandalising property worth billions of naira.
Confirming the incident on Sunday to PUNCH Online, the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, Sunday Oduntan, expressed shock that another DisCo was attacked by the military within one week, underscoring the trend of military invasion of utility companies.
“While we are yet to recover from the brutalisation of Ikeja Electric staff and vandalisation of the head office by the Nigerian Air Force, the Nigerian Army has invaded the Eko Disco’s Injection Substation in Badagry at 1 am on the 14th of March 2025,” Oduntan said.
He said they “abducted two members of our staff and took them to their barracks at the Nigerian Army 15th Field Engineers Regiment at Topo Town in Badagry.”
Oduntan stated that the military men “abducted the DSO and a Proton Security Officer on duty.”
Their complaint, he said, was poor electricity supply to their barracks in the past week.
“Whereas, the proper information about the ongoing TCN Upgrade in Agbara was duly communicated to their Commanding Officer, Lt Col S. Lawan.
“At a point, we made all efforts to restore power to the barracks but the feeder went off due to excess load,” he stated.
He told our correspondent that the “abducted staff” were released at 4 am after they had been tortured.
In an interview with our correspondent, the spokesman for Eko DisCo, Babatunde Lasaki, described the incident as unfortunate, saying attacks on DisCos are becoming a trend as the Federal Government authorities take no action against those who carried out the previous attacks.
Lasaki said, “The soldiers attacked our office at night. They went to one of our stations in Badagry. They picked two of our staff. Though they released them later in the day, the fact that they went there and abducted our workers is unfortunate.
“Later in the day on Friday, they went there again, threatening that we should restore their supply. Our workers tried to explain to them that it was a fault and the outage was not deliberate, but they continued to harass our workers.”
Lasaki said the company’s legal team has reported the incident to the police while efforts are ongoing to petition the Chief of Army Staff, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Power, and others.
“This is very unfortunate. It is becoming a trend because this happened recently at Ikeja Disco and no one was held responsible for it. As far as I know, no one has been court-martialed. So, this will continue unless the authorities rise and nip it in the bud. Power supply is not the sole responsibility of the DisCo only; it is a value chain. The attack on our workers is uncalled for,” Lasaki said.
Contacted, the Nigerian Army Director of Information, Major General Onyema Nwachukwu, said a minor misunderstanding only ensued between soldiers and workers of Eko DisCo after a fire outbreak.
Nwachukwu said, “I’ve reached out to the unit to confirm your report. Contrary to the report you have, no Eko Electricity Distribution (Company) Staff was detained by soldiers. Rather, what actually transpired is that a fire broke out at one of the Eko Electricity Company’s facilities located in the barracks when they restored power after a long period of power outage.
“Soldiers on duty promptly liaised with the company’s personnel on duty to extinguish the flames.
“During the response efforts, a minor misunderstanding arose between a company staff member and one of the soldiers, but it was promptly resolved amicably. Additionally, I understand the unit’s leadership and the company’s management have consistently maintained a strong and cordial relationship, which remains unchanged.”
Nwachukwu added that the Commanding Officer of the unit has set up a Board of Inquiry to investigate the cause of the fire outbreak.
