PHOTO: CNN
• Lagos communities revolt, bemoan outage, ‘crazy’ billing
• How consumers can calculate electricity consumed
• ‘We will disconnect any community once we perceive violence’
The trees dotting the corporate headquarters of Ikeja Electric (IE) on Obafemi Awolowo Way, Alausa in Ikeja, Lagos State have other uses besides providing shelter from the scorching sun. The sprawling trees, otherwise known as Abe-igi have become synonymous with Ojota’s Freedom Park, which in 2012, hosted two weeks of fierce protest against petrol subsidy removal.
Every other week, a group of exasperated electricity consumers, disenfranchised communities or disgruntled former employees gather carrying placards and chanting protest songs to express their dissatisfaction with the services rendered by the distribution company (DisCos). Their major grouse bothers on non-supply of prepaid meters, issuance of outrageous estimated bills and epileptic power supply.
When residents of Onilekere, Onipetesi, Valley Estate, Santos Estate Phase I & II, recently thronged the IE office to protest against the poor state of a substation mega transformer that feeds about 20 smaller transformers in the four communities, they were dramatic, dressing in an all-black attire to reflect the blackout the communities were experiencing, and they went bold with their demands, insisting: ‘No prepaid meter, No payment’.
There are two slogans Nigerians love to doubt. The first is promoted by the Nigeria Police Force that ‘bail is free’. The second is ‘the customer is always right’. In Nigeria, the customer is not king. While interrupted supply of electricity has become part of our national life, the ugly experiences of electricity consumers – estimated crazy billings, abrupt disconnection of cables, neglect of communities in need of transformer repairs, ordeals of getting pre-paid meters and nonchalance of DisCos to consumers’ complaints – are an unending bane.
In Iwowokekere, Ijede area of Lagos State, the community is at its wits end over failure of Ikeja Electric (IE) to energise the 33kv, 500kva transformer donated by the community since 2014. The community also lamented the high estimated bills imposed on consumers by the electricity company.
According to the chairman of Progressive Estate Community Development Association (PECDAS), Femi Ibrahim, the association has complained severally and written countless petitions on IE’s laissez faire attitude towards installing the transformer and restoring electricity to the community.
“We have remained in darkness for years, leading to incessant robbery attacks, and deprivation of economic activities in the area. We have invested emotional, physical, and financial expenses and commitment in the community only to suffer serious hardship of epileptic power supply from a single transformer used by over three communities,” he said.
Ijegun community in Lagos is still waiting on IE to repair the transformer in the area vandalised seven months ago to save them from perpetual power outage. Abimbola Alabi, a landlord in the area, said they had reported the case of vandalism of the transformer to the firm.
“Since the incident on May 3, the company has not made any effort to repair or replace it. We are left in darkness and this is really affecting us in the community. The outage has really affected socio-economic activities in the community. We were told until the community offset its backlog of bills before repair can be effected.”
Felix Ofulue, the Head, Corporate Communications Unit in IE, however said the company is aware of the outage. He added that they were collaborating with consumers in the affected areas to resolve the problem. He urged the communities affected to safeguard the company’s equipment in their areas, adding that the Ijegun community was notorious for frequent vandalism of power facilities.
After being inundated by the plights of consumers, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) recently made the rights of every electricity consumer public, which are: All new electricity connections must be done strictly on the basis of metering before connection; unmetered customers should be issued with electricity bills strictly based on NERC’s estimated billing methodology; it is the customer’s right to be notified in writing ahead of disconnection of electricity service by the DisCo; it is not the responsibility of electricity customer or community to buy, replace or repair electricity transformers, poles and related equipment used in supply of electricity; and it is the customer’s right to contest any electricity bill.
Furthermore, NERC has instituted a mechanism to redress consumer complaints through the establishment of consumer forum offices across the country. The customer is expected to lodge a complaint with the DisCo. If the customer is not satisfied with the resolution, he can escalate the complaint to the consumer forum.
At the Ikeja NERC forum office located a stone throw from IE’s headquarters, customers come in trickles to file their complaints. The office then investigates it and if necessary calls for hearing with the DisCo.
When asked why there seems to be less activity at the forum office, an official simply identified as Chinedu, said activities are usually at a peak at the beginning of a new month when IE usually carries out its disconnection exercise.
“People usually don’t know their rights, so they resort to begging officials not to disconnect them and attempt to bribe them. We are busy because of the perception that IE is not treating customers well maybe due to the fact that it is the largest DisCo in the country with so many communities under its network. We have been able to resolve many community disputes.”
In a bid to assert their rights, 57 streets in Onipanu wrote to IE in September saying there will be no payment of bills until prepaid meters are installed. The residents of the 57 streets, on the platform of Concerned Residents Community, led by their chairman, Engr. Yusuf Usman, said they would no longer pay any bill without prepaid meters.
“We have dropped our letter. We could not meet with any of the managers. If they want dialogue, let them invite us. Otherwise, this is the end of paying bills for darkness. How can anyone justify the increase of a three-bedroom flat bill from N4,000 to N30,000? Our lawyer is preparing. We have been making attempts to talk to officials of the undertaking office and the headquarters since January without success.”
Describing the estimated billing methodology as unfair and exploitative, president of Nigerian Consumer Protection Network, an advocacy group, Kunle Olubiyo, said the methodology is an incentive for DisCos not to invest in metering.
Metering statistics released by NERC in 2016 revealed that there were over six million customers with verified accounts throughout the country. While 3.3 million of them had meters, the other 2.
‘We can no longer pay for darkness’
