The management of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBDEC) has strongly condemned what it called “the spate of assaults of its staff in three different offices in Ilesa Business hub, Osun region within the past week.

The Head, Media Communications and Strategy of the company, Mrs. Angela Olarenwaju, said in a statement at the weekend made available to newsmen in Lagos.

According to her, the dastardly act was carried out by some hoodlums from Bolorunduro and Olomilagbala communities.

The company said such act should not have occurred based on the good relationship both enjoy vice-versa.

The statement further reads: “As a customer-friendly company which is always ready to attend to customers’ complaints and resolve them, we are disappointed at the attitude of the hoodlums who attacked the staff of the company at their various offices in Isare Service unit, Isokun Service unit and Ilesa Business Hub office, Oke-Omiru in Ilesa metropolis with various weapons such as guns, cutlasses and cudgels at about 8:30 am.

“It was gathered that our staff had resumed to their various offices to discharge their lawful duty when some hoodlums from Olomilagbala and Bolorunduro communities, both under Isare service unit at about 8:30 a.m.

“They had attacked the staff there, beating, shooting guns into the air, forcefully gained entrance into the cash office and carted away with the money from collections and handsets of some staff.”

The company insisted that the act was uncivilised and therefore unacceptable to the management of IBEDC, adding that while it is ready to serve its customers better, it cannot jeopardise the safety of its staff at the expense of satisfying the customers.

It said: “When a community is hostile to our staff we will take a drastic step until the concerned community come to terms with the company.

“In the case of this incident, we urge the security agencies to bring the perpetrators of this dastardly act to book and ensure they are prosecuted accordingly so as to serve as a deterrent to those who want to trail the path of violence to express their grievances.

“As a company we have numerous complaint channels that our customers can go through to lodge their complaints without resolving to violence to the extent or robbing us, causing bodily harm on our staff and destroying the properties of the company.

“We will ensure that those communities will be shut down till the perpetrators are brought to book and the safety of our staff are guaranteed in Ilesa and its environs.

“IBEDC wishes to advise our esteemed teeming customers to always adopt all our complaint channels to register their grievances in a civil way other than resorting to violence as it will not yield any positive result.

“Our complaints channels include our Service units, business hub office, customer care unit, regional office, head office customer care unit and Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

“Also, we have our community engagement meetings, reactive customer engagement meetings; and radio and television programmes where they can also lodge their complaints and it will be attended to and resolved.”