The Enugu State Government, yesterday, said that it sealed off offices of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) in the state over its inability to provide customers with prepaid meters in line with the Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission’s (NERC) order.
It said that the company had continued to rip off customers in the state by estimated billings, adding that it had gone ahead to disconnect some state government’s offices on account of non-existing debts, describing the action as unlawful, malicious, callous, and vexatious.
The EEDC had decried the sealing of its offices in the state without notice by officials of the state government, stressing that the development had disrupted its operations.
But a statement signed by the Secretary to State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, faulted EEDC’s claim of government’s indebtedness to the company to the tune of N1.3 billion, explaining that besides prompt payment of all electricity bills received from the EEDC since May 2023, the Governor Peter Mbah-led administration had equally cleared two months backlog of debts in line with the governor’s commitment to offset all legitimate electricity debts inherited from his predecessors.
The statement entitled, “Re: Notice of Disconnections to Indebted Customers and Actual Disconnections of Enugu State Government Offices,” reads in part: “Enugu State Government received the disconnection notice published in national daily newspapers. We have also received the information that EEDC has disconnected some Enugu State government institutions.
“We note that both the publication of notice of disconnections and the actual disconnections on Saturday, June 8, 2024, were based on wrong premises and total disregard to NERC rules and standing Order on estimated billing of Maximum demand customers.”
