Community tackles EKEDP, NERC over prepaid meters, illegal disconnection

The cordial relationship existing between residents of Lagos Mainland Local Government Area and the Eko Electricity Distribution Plc (EKEDP) has gone sour over alleged failure by the latter to supply the community with pre-paid meters. Acting under the aegis of Concerned Community Development Association (CCDA), Ebute-Meta West, the community, represented by its leaders – Alice […]

The cordial relationship existing between residents of Lagos Mainland Local Government Area and the Eko Electricity Distribution Plc (EKEDP) has gone sour over alleged failure by the latter to supply the community with pre-paid meters.

Acting under the aegis of Concerned Community Development Association (CCDA), Ebute-Meta West, the community, represented by its leaders – Alice Odusanya, Adenike Okubanjo, Kofoworola Olaitan, Williams Oladapo, Olusegun Sojinu, Emmanuel Benson, Oladipupo Joseph and Folarin Joseph  –  has drawn the battle line between it on one hand and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and EKEDP on the other.

Odusanya said that sometime in 2014, the community began experiencing incessant power outages “without any solution” from the EKEDP, whose responsibility she maintained it was to resolve such a problem as a service provider. She added that in a bid to resolve the recurrent problem, the community members investigated the cause of the power outage and consequently made physical complaints to the EKEDP at its offices on many occasions.

The residents said that due to the continuous occurrence of the power outages in the communities, they organized themselves under the CCDA and complained to the EKEDP on alleged overloading of the EB-1 Network Feeder, unmetered billing charges, constant power outage despite consistent compliance with payment of electricity bills and issuance of arbitrary and exorbitant estimated bills.

They said that on June 29, 2015, the residents, through their leaders, wrote to the EKEDP and registered their pains and sufferings on the issues outlined above.

About one year after writing to the EKEDP and it couldn’t get a response from the EKEDP, the association directed its complaint to the Eko Forum office of the NERC on June 20, 2016. The members registered their frustration and displeasure at the lack of response by the EKEDP to address the poor service in electricity supply to their communities.

Further to its previous complaints to the EKEDP, the residents, in another letter, also complained of gross epileptic power supply, arbitrary cum exorbitant charges, overloading and congestion of the EB-1 Network Feeder and non-provision of standard meterage for the affected communities, issues they said had remained unresolved by the EKEDP.

The residents said that in response to their letter of June 20, 2016, the NERC by its letter of August 24, 2016, referred the residents through the NERC Legal Adviser to the EKEDP letter dated August 10, 2016, which was addressed to the Eko Forum office of the NERC, where it admitted the overloading of the EB-1 Network Feeder.

The EKEDP, the residents said, only responded to the issues related to the issue of overloading of the EB-1 Network Feeder, to which it stated that a deloading process was currently ongoing (at the time of its response) and nothing more.

Odusanya further said that sometimes in April 2018, the EKEDP moved in with its staff and equipment and totally disconnected then community’s wires with the help of armed security personnel “without any explanation whatsoever.”

She also stated that the action of both the EKEDP and NERC had greatly injured the individual and collective interests of the residents, “most of whose businesses are located within the communities affected by the actions of the EKEDP and have since gone out of business due to the said act.”

Some members of the community, she said, had to seek for expensive alternative power supply means, a step she said had occasioned financial hardship on them.

It is against this background that the community has instituted a N200 million suit against the EKEDP and NERC before a Lagos Federal High Court.

Apart from the sum of the N200m damage claim for losses on businesses, the community is also seeking an order restraining the EKEDP from further disconnection in a manner that is inconsistent with the regulations of the NERC.

It is also asking the court for an order mandating the EKEDP to install prepaid meters for proper electricity billing, reconnect disconnected lines and increase the quantity of power supply in line with the regulations of the NERC.

It also asked the court for a declaration that the EKEDP acted contrary to power regulations with regards to the treatment of its complaint and an award of N1.5m as cost of instituting the suit.

When the matter came up for hearing last Friday, the trial judge, Justice Sule Hassan, ordered that all the community processes be served on the respondents, and adjourned the matter till January 11, 2018 for report of service.