By Dangote Cement, Ibese plant has brought succour to the Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State that has been in total electricity power blackout in the last three years.
The 21 communities of the council were affected by a prolonged power outage but was just reconnected by the company.
In an unprecedented Social Investment gesture, management of the Ibese Cement plant moved to support the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) with all the items needed to reconnect the communities back to the national grid out of empathy for the affected communities.
Traditional rulers from the affected towns were full of praises to the Chairman of Dangote Cement Plc, Aliko Dangote for approving over N100million to procure the needed electrical items as they took delivery and in turn handed over to the IBEDC officials.
Lauding the rare gesture by Dangote Cement Ibese Plant to intervene for the second time by providing the electrical items, the community leaders enjoined the IBEDC to deliver speedily on the light reconnection, in view of the plant’s donation. Pressured by the communities’ leaders, the IBEDC assured that it would complete the reconnection of all the affected communities within four to six weeks from the hand-over date.
Speaking while handing over the electrical materials within the premises of Ibese Police Station, Ibese Plant Director, Roy Uttam said the donation was part of efforts made by the cement plant management to halt the prolonged blackout in the affected towns and villages, and advised the people to ensure the electrical installations are protected.
Uttam pointed out that the Plant management had invested millions of Naira to purchase the electrical materials in the spirit of good neighbourliness. He said, “Otherwise it should be the job of the IBEDC to provide the materials as a business venture that would be collecting money from the customers after reconnecting them.”
“The management of Dangote Cement Plc is donating the electrical materials to close out the lingering power outage in the affected communities which have been in darkness for years due to vandalisation of cables and other installations by unscrupulous elements”, he added.
The Ibese Plant Director further explained that the decision to intervene was borne out of genuine care for the people and the desire to help mitigate the negative impact of the outage on socio-economic activities of the people.
He reiterated the cement company’s commitment to the sustainable development of its host communities and continued collaboration on initiatives geared towards the general wellbeing of the people. “We cherish living happily with our communities,” he said.
One after another, traditional rulers from the affected communities eulogised the Dangote Cement Ibese plant management for their efforts to ensure that all the electrical materials were finally procured and donated to the people just as they had promised.
Traditional Rule Imasayi, Lukman Kuoye described the material donation as the result of some positive engagements the management of Ibese Plant had with various interest groups especially the communities and the IBEDC on the way out of the protracted blackout.
“We thank God it is a reality today that we are on the way to getting reconnected to national grid after over three years in darkness. We want to thank Dangote Cement Ibese Plant for this development. We are not taking this for granted.
“Dangote Cement is the only transformer that is illuminating the Yewa communities and Ogun State in general with its CSR projects. The management did not even consider the IBEDC’s inertia but still went ahead to donate materials that are supposed to be provided by the distribution company”, he enthused.
Receiving the materials on behalf of the management of IBEDC, Technical Engineer for the Sango Business Hub, Mr. Ayodeji Taiwo, thanked Dangote for the provisions. He assured the gathered stakeholders of speedy action by the electricity distribution company to facilitate quick reconnection of the communities within timelines.
