Magnus NwokporOn Aug 30, 2023
The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC, has referred to as on the National Assembly to enact legislations to guarantee stiff penalties for energy theft and vandalisation of electricity installations.
The EEDC stated this is able to assist to develop the facility sector to meet rising calls for throughout the nation.
EEDC’s Head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Emeka Eze made the decision in an unique interview with Voice of Nigeria in Enugu.
In addition to applicable laws, he additionally urged the Federal Government to discover a risk of offering funding avenues to help the expansion of the facility sector, noting that earlier administrations failed to pay a stipulated counterpart fund to the sector, as agreed some years in the past.
Mr Eze lamented the poor fee of electricity payments by shoppers, which has stunted the expansion and growth of energy provide in its protection areas.
He famous that the poor angle of consumers to pay their electricity payments, has drastically diminished the Company’s internally generated income; whereas the enterprise of energy era and distribution has additionally suffered.
He stated “this is outright sabotage on the business, they blame the company for not doing well, forgetting that if there is anyone to blame, they should be the ones. They engage in illegal connections and bypass, to avert payment of their bills and this affects our revenue strength and weakens the company’s capacity to generate enough power for distribution to the public.”
Mr. Eze condemned the spate of unlawful connections and energy bypass of the Company’s strains feeding personal places of work and houses inside the protection areas by unscrupulous members of the general public.
Eze, subsequently, enjoined the general public to all the time report circumstances of unlawful and fraudulent connections to the suitable authorities and threatened that henceforth, it can now not be enterprise as ordinary.
“It is not enough to say that any person who is caught in the act of power bypass should be compelled to pay fifty thousand naira. This is a very serious offense and the punishment should be more decisive. I mean, the perpetrators should always be made to face the full weight of the law, to serve as deterent to others,” he emphasised.
He additionally condemned the incessant circumstances of molestation and assaults on EEDC’s entrepreneurs within the discipline by prospects.
According to him, “we have severally received this reports and it is not in the best interest of this company. We have also issued warnings to customers in those areas and for some time now, we’ve not received such reports.”
