Human and vehicular movements were halted for several hours on Monday as residents of Idokpa Community in Aduduwawa blocked a major highway leading into and out of Benin, Edo State. The residents, protesting several weeks of power outage in the community, barricaded the bypass, causing hours of gridlock. “We are protesting because of the power outage that has crippled our businesses. During a phone interview with PUNCH Metro on Monday, a BEDC official said the outage was not deliberate. “The power outage being experienced in some parts of Edo is not deliberate; it is due to a shortage of gas used to generate power,” the official said.

Source: Punch December 23, 2025 04:16 UTC