Eko Electricity Distribution Company on Thursday decried the spate of harassment and violent attacks on its staff while on official duties in some communities.
Mr Adeoye Fadeyibi, Managing Director of EKEDC, during a town hall meeting in Mushin area of Lagos, appealed to electricity consumers to desist from such act or face the full wrath of the law.
Fadeyibi, represented by the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr Joseph Ezenwa, said that the essence of the town hall meeting was to rub minds with the consumers on how to address issues affecting them and proffer solutions.
He said the company was aware of several incessant attacks on its staff by some consumers and vandalisation of its property.
Fadeyibi, however, said that the company would not hesitate to ensure that offenders were prosecuted.
According to him, Section 173 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State states that any person who unlawfully assaults another and thereby does him harm commits felony and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for three years.
“Consumers should support workers who come to rectify faults when reported.
“It is wrong for consumers to attack our workers who are on the ladder, it is also an offence to pull them down forcibly,” he said.
He said that neither poor power supply nor billing error should be a plausible excuse for consumers to take laws into their hands.
According to him, the company only supplies power to its customers based on the bulk energy load it receives from the National Grid.
Fadeyibi reiterated the company’s commitment to effective service delivery and continuous installation of pre-paid meters to consumers.
He said that the company had installed about 54,230 meters to various categories of customers in Mushin business unit.
He commended the Federal Government’s initiative on Meter Asset Providers.
The EKEDC boss said that the MAP initiative would also widen metering scope for consumers within its operation’s network when it finally kick-start.
He said that the company was currently doing due diligence on the MAP programme before engaging the indigenous meter manufacturers to commence operations.
“We are committed to installation of pre-paid meters in premises of all customers under our network.
“The metering process is an ongoing exercise; we promise that EKEDC will continue to ensure that more customers in the network are metered.
The managing director appealed to customers within the network yet to be metered to be patient with the company.
He, however, frowned at customer’s by-passing meters or engaging in energy theft, adding that the company would not hesitate to publish and prosecute anybody caught in such act.
Fadeyibi commended the efforts of the security agencies toward collaborating with the company in bringing offenders to book.
He said the company would continue to explore all legal means to ensure that perpetrators of such criminal acts did not go unpunished.
Meanwhile, Mr Felix Onyenjekwe, Chairman Odi-Olowo CDA, expressed appreciation to EKEDC for the improvement in power supply in the last few months.
Onyenjekwe said that the entire Odi-Olowo and Agunlejika community in Mushin axis had seen remarkable improvement in power supply in the last two months.
He said: “I have really been having a swell time in my area. Sometimes, the supply lasts for as long as 20 hours without any interruption.
“Things have really improved. Initially, we thought it was just a fluke. But with what we have witnessed in the past two months, it shows EKEDC is really working.”
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