Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) has asked Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), to refund monies already collected from customers for metering.
News Echo reports that this is coming few days after the Federal Government of Nigeria has said that it will sanction any electricity distribution company selling meters or asking Nigerians to pay money to get the item.
COSEYL said it is alarmed over the exploitation of Eastern Nigeria electricity users by the EEDC, stressing that the company has continued to violate the directive by Federal Government and still went ahead to collect money as high as N38,000 per meter from customers in the South East.
Recall that the Special Adviser to the President on Infrastructure, Mr. Ahmed Zakari, gave the warning recently at a stakeholders’ engagement on electricity tariff, organised by the FGN/NLC-TUC Ad-hoc Committee.
According to Zakari, government has made it clear through the regulator’s direct order, as well as the intervention from the Ministry of Power that meters are to be provided to Nigerians at no cost.
In a statement signed by COSEYL President General, Hon. Goodluck Ibem and Secretary General, Comrade Kanice Igwe, the group called on federal government to stand-up to its responsibilities by ensuring that EEDC complies with the directive.
“This is blatant abuse of power and we condemn it in its entirety. We demand that the EEDC should immediately refund its customers the monies collected from them for meters and the federal government should do the needful by sanctioning them for such act of disobedience and corruption. This will serve as deterrent to others not to disobey government’s directives.
“We call on the federal government to ensure that the meters to be provided by the discos are of the same initial approved standards because most of the meters we are seeing today being distributed by the discos for use by customers are sub-standard.
“Such meters are criminally manipulated to be reading very fast so that the units in the credit card will be consumed within a short possible time and the customer will have no other alternative than to get another card.
“This sharp practice has subjected many customers to a very tight corner. If the federal government is truly sincere about providing better service to Nigerians, they should immediately remove the zonal monopoly in the power sector,” the release reads in part.
COSEYL said the removal of the zonal monopoly given to discos will enable other interested companies to come into the business, stressing that it is only in a competitive business environment that customers are served better, government directives obeyed and efficiency guaranteed.
The Head, Communications, EEDC, Emeka Eze, failed to answer calls placed on his mobile line.
