Mrs. Nkeiru Ejiro was already out for her daily business. At about 1pm, one of her tenants, Johnson Ade residing in the same compound as hers, called her that Ikeja Disco officials from Abule-Oso Egbeda, Lagos were in her premises demanding proof of payment of the September 2025 electricity bill. She explained that she had already paid her bills the previous day.
Unfortunately, she did not have a prepaid meter, despite all the efforts she had made. She kept getting excuses of “Payment portal is not open,” from staff of Ikeja Disco at Abule-Oso. Ejiro pleaded with the DisCo officials to crosscheck their documents.
The DisCo staff, Abdul (not real name), collected the phone from the tenant, and told Ejiro that she must send proof of payment to them or her light would be disconnected.
She searched her vehicle, found the receipts of payment, snapped them with her phone and sent them to her tenant so he could show them to the DisCo officials.
Thinking that all had been resolved, only for the tenant to call her again that the officials of the DisCo had disconnected her light despite seeing the receipts of the payment of N70,000 she paid into the two electricity accounts she normally pays into.
She asked the tenant to pass the phone to the DisCo staff and gently asked why her electricity supply was disconnected. Instead of the staff proffering any reason, he asked her to go to their Abule-Oso office to find out.
Frustrated and angry, she drove back to her house having not gone very far. She demanded that her light be reconnected as she did not owe. The three officials in their usual bravado show of power argued that they could not trace one of the electricity accounts she paid into in their documents to reconcile it with the receipts of payment she made.
Ejiro angrily told them that if they were looking for gratification that this time they were not going to get it from her and they told her that she would stay without light except she went to their Abule-Oso office.
Exasperated, she placed a call to one of the officers of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission [FCCPC].
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After explaining to him, he asked her to pass the phone to the DiSco officials, asked them some questions, and took their details. Ejiro then called a top official from the Ikeja DisCo. The man asked her to pass the phone to the Abule-Odo staff. He asked them where they were coming from, the offence, if they had any Disconnection Order. The staff said they had no disconnection order and the top staff reminded them that they had no business with disconnecting a consumer if the person had not been served with a disconnection notice, with at least 10 working days between the bill’s delivery date and the payment deadline.
The top DisCo staff ordered them to reconnect Ejiro’s light within an hour.
He then asked Ejiro to get the names of the three Abule -Oso staff involved. “Take their pictures and if possible make a video of them.”
Thoroughly humiliated, the staff reconnected the light.
The above are some of the hassles consumers face from electricity DisCo officials.
Not long ago, a widow, Hajia Suleiman, residing at Unity Rd, Ikeja, Lagos, contacted this reporter through this page that Ikeja Disco slammed her with a bill of N1million for stealing energy.
Baffled with the allegation, she contacted them, telling them it was not true as they were the ones that installed her prepaid meter. “However, when they refused to listen and kept harassing me, I had to contact Consumer Watch,” explained Hajia.
This reporter called the Ikeja office of the Ikeja DisCo, they asked the aggrieved customer to fill the complaint form. I asked that an investigative team be sent to Hajia Suleiman’s house to confirm if she had indeed stolen energy but all these fell on deaf ears as they continued harassing her with the one million naira penalty.
Fortunately for her, as this was going on, members of her Community Development Association [CDA] organized a meeting with some staff of the Ikeja DisCo to iron out some issues in their community. Hajia being a member of the CDA used the opportunity to present her matter. An investigative team from the DisCo was sent to her. They confirmed that there was no energy theft. No compensation or apologies were offered to her for all the emotional stress she was subjected to.
The cases are inexhaustible, as none of the 11 electricity DisCos in Nigeria is exempted. The abuses from DisCos run across the country. Consumers report harassment of various natures like aggressive billings, illegal disconnections, verbal abuses, estimated billings, lack of prepaid meters etcetera.
These harassments continue despite supposedly legal protections for consumers and are often driven by distribution companies that profit from these practices.
DisCo officials reportedly force consumers to pay for electricity not supplied, even demanding payment based on incorrect or inflated estimated bills.
Consumers complain about being disconnected without any notice, even after paying their bills like in the case of Ejiro.
Cases of verbal abuse, insults and in some instances, physical assault by officials, abound.
While consumer protection rights exist, they are often underutilized, and effective enforcement of punishment for misconduct by DisCos is lacking.
Unfortunately, consumers most often choose to appeal or dance to the tune of the DisCo officials by giving them money because of the long time and the inconveniences (like remaining in darkness) it takes before they get justice.
As they spend their money, time, seeking justice may take weeks or months to come, and they stay without light. The electricity officials that caused the problem will be going about their businesses. At the end of the day when the aggrieved consumer’s light is restored, they would have lost a lot while the DisCo staff loses nothing.
“Stiffer punishment should be meted out to any DisCo official culpable, we should stop treating this matter with kid gloves if we want to rectify this problem,” advised Barrister Kunle Oloyin of Consumer Advocacy Platform.
