Police Hunt For 4 Ikeja Electric Staff Over Extortion

MICHAEL AKINOLA

The Police at Ikotun Division led by CSP Adagba Johnson  have started manhunt for four officials of Ikeja Electric, whose branch is located at Liasu Road in Idimu, led by one Gabriel, who were said to have moved around houses in the Ikotun area extorting money from people with the threat to disconnect their light.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that the officials walked into serious mess after they went to DonCy Hotelz & Suites located on Governor’s Road in Ikotun, which was not owing arrears of bills and disrupted activities in the hotel by disconnecting the power supply.

The officials reportedly carried ladder from the Ikeja Electric office and moved from one house to another extorting money while claiming that they were sent from the office by their Manager, one Mr. Femi, to raise money for the weekend.

The disconnection at the hotel reportedly affected the air-conditioners, fridges and other electrical appliances, which prompted the owner of the hotel, Ambassador Ezewele Cyril, to contact the Police over their conduct.

When P.M.EXPRESS contacted the owner of the said hotel, Ambassador Cyril, he explained that the Ikeja Electric officials came to the facility and the utility bill was shown to them indicating that they had been paying regularly and promptly. He said when they saw the bill and confirmed that the hotel was not owing, they insisted that he must give them money or they will disconnect the light.

“I thought they were joking until they climbed the pole that brought light to my hotel and disconnected the cables. While they were doing it unprofessionally, it affected some of the electrical appliances and they got damaged” he said.

Ambassador Cyril said that he did not know that people can exhibit such madness in this country and that has demonstrated what many people are passing through in the hands of Ikeja Electric officials and that the money they are extorting are meant for themselves not the management.

He said he intends to take legal actions over the damage they had caused him at the hotel by their irrational conduct to serve as deterrent to others who might try such illegality in future.

Ambassador Cyril was not the only person who had suffered such similar fate in the area. P.M.EXPRESS findings revealed that it has been a routine in Ikotun and its environs that the officials usually move from one house to another to extort money from people using the name of the Manager, Mr. Femi, to do so.

Our correspondent could not reach the Manager, Mr. Femi, as it was not certain if he was the one behind the conduct of the officials. But an insider source said that after the house-to-house extorting, they usually go to the office and share the money among themselves while complaining that Ikeja Electric pays them peanuts.