Military owes EKEDC N600m

Electricity Distribution Company, Eko Disco, has disclosed that all the Military formations within the company’s license area are indebted to the company to the tune of N600m.

This was disclosed by the MD/CEO of the company, Engr. Oladele Amoda in Lagos on Wednesday.

According to him, 60 percent of the debt is being owed by the Army while about 30 and 10 percent of the debt profile are respectively shared by the Navy and Airforce.

This is not the first time the Discos would reveal the enormous debt owed it by government institutions, public inclusive.

As a matter of fact, bag logs of debt had forced the Discos and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, to recently declare that all persistent debtors should be disconnected.

Amoda also disclosed EKEDC’s plan to begin installation of bulk pre-paid meters in all military and other security agencies’ barracks within its operational territory.

Expressing his displeasure over the harassment of the company’s staff on their legitimate duties by some military personnel, Engr. Amoda said molesting staff who were performing their lawful duties would not augur well for the promotion of military-civil relations which the high echelon of the military has been canvassing for in recent time.

The Eko Disco chief helmsman said since the Distribution Company pay for energy received from the grid, no segment of customers can be allowed not to pay as no business can thrive when services rendered are not paid for by its patrons.

Engr. Amoda then appealed all military formations and MDA’s to make payment of electricity bills a priority on the list of their proposed expenditure.

He expressed the hope that with the signing of the budget for the current financial year, many government establishments would offset their huge electricity bills.

He further appealed to military personnel having either private or official quarters outside the barracks to pay for electricity consumed in such premises instead of tagging such premises as military zone and using that as an opportunity to harass and scare the company’s staff while on their official duties.

According to him, the company had to resort to disconnecting some military formations after all efforts to make them defray their huge debt to the company proved abortive, adding that the order to disconnect was only given after several letters and notices of intention to withdraw service were not responded to.

Engr. Amoda then assured all customers having complaints over their billing to lodge such complaints through any of the company’s channels of attending to customer’s complaints stressing that each complaint will be treated on its own merit with full regard for safeguarding the customer’s interest.