‘Electricity no longer social service, you have to pay’

• Group seeks regulator’s probe of EEDC

The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) has asked power consumers in the country to pay for the services because power was no longer a social service but an essential service that must be paid for.

It said electricity consumers should not expect to enjoy what they were not ready to pay for, insisting that should Nigerians need subsidy in electricity tariff, they should seek such from the Federal Government.

ANED’s spokesman and Director of Research and Advocacy, Sunny Oduntan, said this at an interactive session with journalists on current developments in the power sector.

He said the sector’s challenges had to be thoroughly examined such that government should ensure that it appropriates enough funds for capital expenditure in the sector.

Such capital expenditure, he said, should cover procurement of transformers, metering, refurbishing and expansion of transmission and distribution networks, as well as increase power generation up to 10,000MW and beyond.

He noted that the prevailing system in the power sector and the tariff were not sustainable because the distribution companies (DisCos) should not be expected to buy product at N68.00 and sell at an average of N31.50.

He stressed that unless something was done to take care of the shortfall, it would continue to build up until the system collapses with time.

Meanwhile, electricity consumers in Anambra State have decried what they described as obnoxious activities of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), lamenting that the company continues to send outrageous bills without the commensurate power supply.

The consumers under the aegis of Anambra State Electricity Customers Association (ASECA), alleged that the high bills EEDC gives to its consumers and their meter were unacceptable, just as they called for the investigation into the activities of the company.

Speaking during their meeting held at St. Patrick Cathedral, Awka yesterday, Gregory Okechukwu, a retired engineer alleged that the EEDC now tampers with the prepaid meters to read faster than normal, saying such practice was quite unbecoming.

“I am calling on regulatory bodies to investigate the activities of the EEDC because this is not the kind of services we expected from the company,” he said.

Earlier, publicity secretary of the group, Eloka Okafor, also alleged that the EEDC seems insensitive to the plight of consumers, regretting that they have continuously inflated their bills every month without commensurate improvement in their services.