Residents of Magboro community in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State have decried the activities of a dredging company, Teejay Sand Dredging, around the power grid in the area.

They accused the firm of eroding the base of the grid, which passed through the Ogun River in the Gaun area of the community.

The residents said the activities of the firm could collapse the power grid and cause hardship to the community.

The residents stormed the Cele-Oke-Ayo Road on Saturday to protest against the activities of the firm.

During the protest, they prevented heavy-duty trucks from moving to the dredging site.

They alleged that the heavy-duty trucks also damaged their road and made it impassable for smaller vehicles.

The Coordinating Chairman of the community development association in the area, Mr Adekunle Adebanjo, said a letter was sent to the Transmission Company of Nigeria over the impending danger.

“About three teams of TCN came and commended the community for raising the alarm. On Saturday, another team came to take pictures of the fragile state of the power grid base,” he added.

During the protest, the Chairman of the New Generation Estate, one of the communities in the area, Mr Kunle Awosiyan, said the chief executive officer of the company had been evasive despite efforts by the community to have a meeting with him.

He said, “We only had a meeting with him once online and he promised to show up, but never did. His foot soldiers drop stones on the road once in a while for their trucks to pass, while our cars are stuck in the gullies created by the heavy vehicles.

“These dredgers and the truck drivers always threaten to attack residents and shop owners along the road if they dare to block their way. The matter was reported to the state government, a meeting was held and the dredging company was sealed only for it to be opened again.

“At the meeting, the Special Adviser to the Ogun State Governor on Environment, Mr Ola Oresanya, told the dredgers to listen to the residents by providing the necessary palliatives on the road. But till now, nothing has been done and residents are living in panic over the looming disaster.”

The Regional Transmission Manager of the TCN, Oluwagbenga Ajiboye, told our correspondent that the agency was working on the matter.

He said, “We sent it to our cooperate headquarters and a team of TCN engineers was sent last week from Abuja to access the site of the incident and report back to the head office in Abuja, to enable the company to determine the next steps.

“The issue is being handled and in a very short time, we will be informed about what has been decided. We’re definitely working on the matter.”

The owner of the dredging firm, Tajudeen Abioye, said the community was witch-hunting him for sending away another dredger who used his (Abioye) licence, adding that he was not dredging around the power grid.

He said, “But after the person was driven away, the community started writing petitions to the state government and the media that I was dredging towards the power grid, the state government shut down our site and I went to Abeokuta and showed them my documents and the site was opened back.

“When the site was opened, the community was shocked and didn’t know what to do, so they said we should do a meeting and in that meeting, they said I should repair the road. I told them we could not repair the road in the rainy season and I also asked them to write the bill that would be spent on the road and they wrote N136m. I told them I could not spend that amount on the road after spending about N100m before.”