Cry From the Darkness: Who Did Igboho Offend to Deserve Two-Year Total Blackout Amid Banditry?

An Open Letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) and the Minister of Power, Mr. Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe.

There is a heavy, painful, and suffocating question echoing through the ancestral streets of Igboho right now: Who did the people of Igboho offend? For the past two uninterrupted years, this historically strategic, fiercely loyal, and highly productive ancient town in the Òkè-Ògùn axis of Oyo State has been thrown into complete, unyielding darkness.

For twenty-four agonizing months, the socio-economic life of our people has been systematically choked to death, not by war, but by a deliberate, cruel infrastructure blackout.

How can a town develop in absolute pitch blackness? How can businesses survive? How do we justify our place as a critical agricultural food basket feeding thousands of families across Nigeria when our own home is treated like an abandoned wilderness?

The Agony of Our Leadership and Patriotic Investors
Our leadership, under Alhaji Hammed Adegoke, the President of the ‘Ifelodun’ umbrella body for all Igboho sons and daughters worldwide, has knocked on every corporate door. They have written letters, held meetings, and pleaded with power authorities—all to no avail. The silence from the electricity managers has been deafening and insulting.

Look at the devastating blow this darkness has dealt to local investment. A prominent son of the soil, Alhaji Rahman Olaoye (Lowo ori), driven by unalloyed patriotism and a desire to bring development home, invested multi-millions to erect a hospitality masterpiece—the ‘Awero Luxury Hotel’. Today, that magnificent establishment is drowned in deep regret.

Instead of reaping the rewards of local investment, the owner is forced to spend millions daily running heavy-duty generators just to keep the lights on. This is a clear warning to other indigenes in the diaspora: ‘do not bring your money home, because infrastructure will kill it.’ This is heartbreaking!

Blackout Meets Banditry: A Recipe for Terror
To make life completely miserable for our people, this two-year blackout has handed a powerful weapon to criminal elements. Òkè-Ògùn is currently facing severe security threats, and Igboho has become vulnerable to the hideous, midnight activities of kidnappers and forest bandits.

By keeping Igboho in total darkness, the electricity distribution authorities are actively helping bandits secure the shadows they need to attack our kinsmen, kidnap our mothers, and terrorize our local farmers. A town without electricity is a town gift-wrapped for insecurity. We are unsafe in our homes, and we are unsafe in our businesses.

A Direct Demand to the Ilorin Station, the Minister, and Mr. President

1. We Cry to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu: Your Excellency, look upon Igboho with pity. We are a people of peace, agriculture, and progressive values. Do not let our economy rot away under the weight of an artificial blackout.
2. To the Minister of Power, Mr. Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe:Sir, you are a son of Oyo State, newly sworn into this sacred office to reform a bleeding power sector. We beg you to look into our case immediately. Let your first major victory be the restoration of light to the vulnerable borders of Igboho.
3. The Ilorin Station Must Be Questioned: We demand an immediate administrative probe into the General Manager of the Ilorin Transmission Station, where the power grid feeding Igboho is controlled. Why has Igboho been singled out for total isolation? What is the technical or political justification for keeping a whole local government headquarters in total darkness for two full years?

Our Final Plea:
We have cried enough. Our cold rooms are rotting, our artisans (welders, hairdressers, tailors) have lost their livelihoods, and our streets are dangerously dark at night. We refuse to be treated as secondary citizens.

Mr. President, Minister Tegbe—please rescue Igboho from this literal and economic darkness before the town completely collapses. Bring back our light!

David Alani Ige (The Scribe)
Public Affairs Commentator & Media Consultant
For: Ifelodun Sons and Daughters, Home and Abroad.
Email: Phunshor01@gmail.com |
Phone: 07039641096