Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The Management of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company of Nigeria (IBEDC) has revealed that its consumers in Kwara State owe the Company over N50 billion.
The Media Relations Officer of IBEDC, Olori Busolami Tunwase, disclosed this in Ilọrin, the Kwara State capital, on Tuesday at a stakeholders’ engagement, which was attended by electricity consumers across the metropolis.
The Ibadan Disco is responsible for supplying electricity to Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara, and parts of Niger, Ekiti, and Kogi states.
Tunwase, while giving a breakdown of the Company’s revenue loss data, said that electricity consumers in Jebba, Moro Local Government Area (LGA) of the state, topped the debtors’ chart with a debt of about N25.8 billion, followed by customers in Baboko, Ilọrin West LGA, which owe about N18.9 billion.
She said that the huge debt profile from Kwara is hindering the Company from fulfilling its obligations to its market operators and the Company can no longer fold its arm and watch the situation, as it is only when payments are made that services will improve.
The Media Relations Officer also advised consumers of electricity, who intend to procure new pre-paid meters to shun third parties in order to avoid purchasing illicit meters. She assured that IBEDC will flood the market with meters and that the new electricity act signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu criminalizes electricity theft in whatever form, it will now attract a jail term.
The Kwara State Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulations Commission (NERC), Ajanaku Adeleke, while also speaking, stated that the Commission is daily saturated with poor attitudes of IBEDC’S staff towards electricity consumers, urging the Management to call their staff to order so as to foster customer-management relationship.