EKO DISCO HEADS TO COURT OVER ATTACK ON STAFF

IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – The management of Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) has decried the spate of harassments and violent attacks of its staff on official duties in some communities, threatened to prosecute and jail offenders. Engr. Mr Adeoye Fadeyibi, the Managing Director of the company sounds the warning during a town hall meeting at Mushin Business Unit in Lagos on the needs for electricity consumers to avoid attacking workers of fields.

Fadeyibi who was represented by the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr Joseph Ezenwa said that the essence of the town hall meeting was to honestly rub minds together on how to address issues affecting consumers and proffers solution.

He said that it has come to the management notice over incessant attack of its staff by some consumers and vandalisation of its properties, threatening that the company will henceforth prosecute and jail the offender where its men are assaulted.

According to him, section 173 of the criminal law of Lagos State stated that any person who unlawfully assaults another and thereby does him harm commits a felony is liable on conviction to imprisonment for three years.

“Consumers should support workers who came to rectified faults when reported. It was wrong for consumers to attack workers who was still on the ladder, and pulled him down forcibly.

He said that neither poor power supply nor billing error should be a plausible excuse for anybody to take the law into its own hands and unleash violence on workers. According to him, the company only supplies power to its customers based on the bulk energy load it receives from the national grid.

Fadeyibi reiterates EKEDC commitment to effective service delivery and continuous striving to ensure adequate installation of pre-paid meters to consumers.

He said that the company had installed about 54,230 meter to various categories of customers in Mushin business unit, while commending the Federal Government initiative on Meter Asset Providers. (MAP) He said that the MAP initiative would also widen metering scope consumers within its operation’s network when it finally kick-start.

The EKEDC helmsmen said that the company is currently doing due diligence on the MAP programme before engaging the indigenous meter manufacturers to commence operations. According to him, we are committed to installation of pre-paid meters in premises of all customers under our network.

“The metering process is an ongoing exercise, we promised that EKEDC would continue to ensure that more customers in the network are metered. The managing director appealed to customers within the network yet to be metered to be patient with the company.

He, however, frowned at those customers bye-passing meter or engaging in energy theft, adding that the company would be hesitate to publish and prosecute anybody caught in such act.

Fadeyibi commended the efforts of the security agencies towards collaborating with the company in bringing offenders to book, adding that company would continue to explore all legal means to ensure that perpetrators of such criminal acts would not go unpunished. Meanwhile, Mr Felix Onyenjikwe, Chairman Odio-lowo CDA expressed deep appreciation to EKEDCfor the improvement in power supply in the last two months.

Onyenjikwe said that the entire Odi-Olowo and Agunlejika community in Mushin axis has been remarkable improvement in power supply in the last two months.

He said: “I have really been having a swell time in my area. Sometimes, the supply goes for as long as 20 hours without any interruption.

“Things have really improved. Initially, we thought it was just a fluke. But with what we have witnessed in the past two months s, it shows EKEDC is really working.”