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The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has described the invasion of Ikeja Electric Distribution Company’s head office at Alausa by its armed operatives as unfortunate, promising to investigate and bring those responsible for the rage to justice.

Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Logistics Command, AVM Adeniran Ademuwagun gave the assurance when he visited the DISCO’s premises after the incident to broker peace.

The briefing followed hours of meeting with top management of IKEDC and NAF delegation led by the AOC.

AVM Ademuwagun said: “What happened this morning was quite unfortunate, and certainly it will not happen again. As you heard from the chairman, electricity in the base environment is not a luxury, it is an essential commodity.”

Armed soldiers numbering over 60 on Thursday morning invaded the DISCOs’ headquarters, disrupting business activities, injuring more than 10 staffers and damaging properties.

Eyewitnesses recounted how the soldiers, angered by the disconnection of their light for more than 10 days stormed the business premises located not far from the Government House, allegedly pointing their cocked guns at civilians while ordering them to lay down with their faces to the ground.

They were alleged to have used planks and metal objects to assault some of the workers.

Over 200 workers present in the building received slaps, fist blows and other physical assaults from the soldiers.

The soldiers, who held the premises hostage for over two hours, were said to have also grounded vehicular movement in that part of the road as armed soldiers were stationed on the expressway to prevent access to and from that part of the expressway.

During the briefing, IKEDC Chairman Kola Adesina, confirmed there were skirmishes at the premises which left at least 10 staffers brutalized, offices vandalized and assets carted away.

Notwithstanding the incident, Adesina said as a leader, he has the responsibility to de-escalate the situation, adding that immediate steps were taken to engage with the leadership of the Air Force, and they responded.

“Not only did they respond, eventually they left the premises with some of our people as well as some vehicles, but those vehicles were returned.

“Then we had to pay visits to the Air Force base, and we were not only kept abreast with the sad situation at the base itself in terms of the criticality of the infrastructure, as well as the fact that there are morgues out there, and a large number of other critical infrastructure that didn’t have electricity.

“We were told all these. We were shown evidence of why it is important we have a facility that’s strategically, appropriately electrified.

“Unfortunately, on our own side of the business, we’re being owed a significant chunk of money, about $4 billion plus, for which we’ve not been able to receive revenue.

“We’ve been discussing this for some time now, about seven years that we’ve been at it, but somehow the money wasn’t coming through.

“Sadly, because of the fact that we have a system whereby, as a distribution company, the responsibility of collection lies primarily with us, and remission of that money into a common account, which is excess crude, of course, with that responsibility of it being upstream.

“The gas suppliers, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), and other critical market participants. Of course, that has led to liabilities in our books that we’ve been carrying in our balance sheet, and it has made us quite a bankrupt organisation, so to speak.

“Somehow, we’ve been riding the wave, but it’s been very difficult and challenging, and if we cannot collect, how do we pay our staff? How do we incentivise them to be able to do what they are paid to do?

“So this unfortunate situation arose, and of course, we woke up to this sad event.

“This is a traumatic day in the life of our organisation, because as an organisation, one of the things we pride ourselves for is the safety of our people first, safety of our assets, and ensuring that we give electricity to our customers alike. But somehow, that has been impaired today,” said Adesina.

He revealed that the Federal Government has promised to ensure the money being owed the DISCO would be paid speedily, just as he acknowledged the enormous sacrifices military personnel make for the safety and security of all Nigerians.

The chairman estimated the losses incurred by the invasion to a billion naira, noting that operations were disrupted and they had to evacuate the building as the workers were not in good state of mind.

“But when we engaged with the Air Force, we met a leadership that was quite unusual in their ability to not only listen, but to equally assess the entire situation end-to-end, and the kind of conversation that has taken place today is quite far-reaching and ennobling.

“So the leadership not only accepted that certain things ought not to have happened, it decided to visit us to assess the state of affairs, and that’s why we have the entire leadership of the Air Force Base in Lagos here with us today.

“We’ve gone around the offices, and he has even had the privilege of addressing some of our staff that were injured in the course of the rage that we saw today.

“So one would want to say that we say thank you, at least, for the response of the leadership, and thank you for the emotional intelligence and empathy that has been shown today in terms of the conversations we’ve had.

“We’ve been discussing that for about five hours, and calls have come from Abuja and everybody concerned.”