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By Ayobami Ife, Abeokuta
Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) has lamented the increasing huge debt being owed by residential consumers in Ogun State, saying this has become a heavy burden to bear.
IBEDC says residential consumers in the state are owing her a whooping sum of over N67bn, noting that disconnection of residential areas may follow if people failed to offset their debts.
The Chief Executive Officer of the power distribution company, Engr Kingsley Achife, who made this known on Monday also urged the public not to shield staff of the company indulging in unwholesome practices as about 20 of such erring ones had been laid off in the last five months
Achife disclosed this at a community engagement in Abeokuta with its customers within Abeokuta metropolis and Sagamu to seek better working relationships and to particularly appeal to them to settle the debt owed the company.
Achife who was represented by Mrs Busolami Tunwase, Lead Media Relations Officer, IBEDC, Ibadan lamented that the debt is suffocating and a source of concern, appealing to consumers to begin payment to avoid disconnection.
Achife said “We have called this meeting to seek better working relationships with our customers but this we cannot do if they are not paying for the services being rendered. As we speak customers in Ogun State are owing us over N67bn, this is very huge and we all know that no business can survive with suffocating debt like this. So we are appealing to them to pay up before we begin to disconnect them
“Another issue is that of theft of the energy whereby the customers are short-changing the company. They are either not paying for what they use or not paying completely for the energy consumed. Some customers do this by bypassing their metres, some don’t have metres at all, they just connect to their houses directly. They do these mostly in the night, these are pure economic sabotage. The people should stop this, they should get their metres and eradicate problems of crazy billings
“In addition to this is the use of illicit meters, when the customers don’t buy such metres from us the money goes elsewhere and we have made the metres available. You don’t even need a third party to obtain your metres, all you have to do is to pay into a designated bank account.
“Another thing here is the dangers of using illicit metres. This could cause fire outbreak and electrical shock among others. To avoid this danger, the customers should patronise IBEDC their metres which has been tested and approved by relevant regulatory bodies.”
Engr Achife also urged the customers to stop beating and maiming their staff saying that they can always report such staff for appropriate disciplinary measures.
He said, “In the last four of five months, about 10 of our staff found wanting have been shown the exit. We encourage our customers to always blow the whistle and once we carry out our investigation and the person is found culpable, the company will take up such individual because one of our core values is integrity.”
