Sunday S. Olowofela & Ololade O. Adegbesan

Electricity is an ever important discovery for mankind with major role to play in every sphere of our lives but with cases of mishaps such as fire outbreak, burns, and electrical shock and lack of its preventions, it becomes pertinent to assess the earthing resistance of locations where structures are situated. The soil resistivity of six different locations within Ilaro, a town in Yewa South LGA of Ogun State situated on Latitude: 6° 53' 20.44" N Longitude: 3° 00' 50.98" E was determined using fall of potential method by passing an alternating current (I) through an outer electrode C placed 18m from the electrode under test and then measuring the voltage through an inner electrode P at chainage of 1.5m and continued till P was within 3m of the current probe. The results showed that the average resistances for the locations under consideration ranges between 3.51 – 77.08 ohms, However, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) have recommended a ground resistance value of 5.0 ohms or less which means out of the six considered locations, only two can be said to fall within this stipulation. Based on this, Ilaro town soil can be said to have high resistance and not suited for grounding without increasing the soil's conductivity Keywords: Conductivity, Earthing, Electrical shock, Ground, Resistance 0150