Tinuade Sanda, EEDC’s chief executive officer, spoke on
Friday during the customers’ engagement forum in Lagos tagged: “DisCo’s Energy
Theft Awareness Week.”
Ms Sanda, represented by Catherine Ezeafulukwe, the chief
customer experience officer of EKEDC, said a high rate of energy theft was the
major hindrance to steady power supply within the area.
She disclosed that the management of EKEDC was working with
the police and communities’ vigilantes to reduce vandalism on its network.
Ms Sanda said the DisCo had arrested many of the vandals
currently being prosecuted.
She also condemned the illegal activities of ex-officials of
EKEDC who were found to have been involved in defrauding customers within the
Lekki-Ajah axis.
According to her, EKEDC has taken actions, including
suspending and dismissing staff found guilty of this act.
She, however, advised customers to expose those bypassing
metres and energy theft in their areas.
“The fact is that over 80 per cent of these criminals are
our old and dismissed staff. We need the cooperation of the general public to
help us identify and hand them over to the police,” she said.
She lamented that it was unfortunate that many customers
were unwilling to pay for their consumption.
“This is why we are struggling to recoup our bills as an
electricity distribution company.
“To address this issue, we have implemented a policy
requiring all customers on distribution transformers to pay up to 50 per cent
of the energy consumed in a particular period before they can enjoy more
service,” she said.
On meter, Sanda disclosed that EKEDC had commenced
aggressive metering of all its customers who have paid for the facility.
Also, Oluwafemi Olaoye, the general manager technical,
EKEDC, addressed the discrepancies in power supply in some areas against
others.
Mr Olaoye explained that feeders in different locations are
classified into different categories and bands, ranging from band A to E.
“Each band has a specific hour of the day when electricity
is supplied on those feeders,” Mr Olaoye said.
(NAN)