. Utility firm rallies royal fathers. CDC, Police, others, as it goes tough on equipment vandals, thieves
. Tamper with our equipment, face five to seven years imprisonment, EKEDC reads Riot Act to saboteurs
The Eko Electricity Distribution Company Plc (EKEDC) has disclosed that 90 alleged criminals were arrested over vandalism and theft of its assets in the last six months.
This came as the company rallied the Royal Fathers, Community Development Committee (CDC), Police, and others against vandals and thieves of its assets.
Managing Director of the utility firm, Dr. Tinuade Sanda, who said this at the EKEDC periodic customer engagement forum in the Orile district held at the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) Training Center in Surulere, Lagos, also read the Riot Act to those she described as saboteurs of power supply to the areas through destruction of power equipment.
Platforms Africa reports that the forum was held for customers in Doyin, Sanya, Surulere, Orile, Coker, Aguda, Itire/Ikate, Animashaun, all under Orile District on Thursday.
Sanda maintained that the rampart cases of vandalism of power infrastructure especially in Lagos Central Senatorial district have continued to place a heavy burden on the operational cost and balance sheets of the DisCo.
Represented by Mrs Rekhiat Momoh, Chief Commercial Officer, Sanda pleaded for the collaboration of traditional leaders, Community Development Committee (CDC), the Nigeria Police authorities and customers under Orile District to clamp down the rising wave of vandalism and sabotage of distribution infrastructures including transformers, cables, and poles as well as a bypass of prepaid meters under the franchise district.
She further warned that anyone caught tampering with its equipment would risk five to seven years imprisonment.
Speaking on vandalism and theft, Sanda said, “Especially in central. In Orile, Ijora, Apapa, and Mushin axis, vandalism is rampant. We are losing too much in terms of collections. This is becoming a huge financial burden running into millions of Naira. These are funds that should have been used to expand our network infrastructure.
“For instance, we spend an average of N1 million to replace four electrical cables when they are completely removed and stolen from a transformer. We record cases of transformer vandalism and other related issues on a weekly basis in these particular areas.
“EKEDC has apprehended over 90 criminals within the last 6 months, and all of them have been sentenced by the courts to different jail terms.”
“Enough is enough. Eko Disco will no longer tolerate this act of illegal tampering of our equipment and electrical installations.”
Momoh further disclosed that they need the customers to succeed in business and also encouraged them to pay their bills.
Mrs Momoh, when asked on how many PPM they are planning to install before the year runs out, she said, “We plan to install minimum of 7000 a month which means we are multiplying 7000 by 6”.
Speaking about what have being achieved so far with the Orile district customers, “Quite a lot of things have changed since the last time we met, especially in terms of the metering of customers and promptness in response to downtime, she said.”