Man bags three-year jail term for allegedly stealing prepaid meter

An Agbara Magistrate court has sentenced one Segun Abiodun to three years imprisonment for allegedly stealing a prepaid meter in the Ajangbadi area of Eko Electricity Distribution Company’s (EKEDC) network.

Abiodun, an installer for one of the meter-asset providers was arraigned before the court on one count charge of stealing.

He was accused of stealing a meter allocated to a customer in the Ajangbadi area of Lagos and selling it to another customer in Agbara, Ogun State. 

The Magistrate, Babajide Ilo found Abiodun guilty on the said charge and sentenced him to three years imprisonment.

He ordered the convict to be remanded at the Ilaro facility of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) for his jail term.

EKEDC General Manager, Corporate Communications, Godwin Idemudia, in a statement, yesterday said, “the meter installer sold a customer’s meter to an unsuspecting customer, who wanted to do his due diligence by buying units on the said meter, but our system flagged it as the meter had already been allocated to another customer in an entirely different location.

“Upon investigation, it was discovered that the installer stole the meter and sold it to the customer”.

Idemudia urged customers to go through the official process of applying for prepaid meters via the Company’s website at https://ekedp.com/online_meter_order , rather than going through people posing to be meter agents to avoid being defrauded.

He also appealed to customers to report any case of demand or extortion from staff or agents to the Company through its whistleblowing email and phone number (whistleblower@ekedp.comfraudwatch@ekedp.com 08000033333). 

Idemudia reiterated that the company will continue to ensure that fraudulent and unprofessional practices become a thing of the past by applying the full weight of the law on erring vendors and staff members involved in such practice.