The Nation Newspaper

Tag: EEDC

  • Has EEDC increased their tariff?

    SIR: I was surprised when I received my March electricity bill from EEDC (Enugu Electricity Distribution Company). The highest I had paid per month previously was N6,500 but I was surprised that in March it went up to N13,000 which translate to 100 per cent  increase. I began to wonder whether the electricity distribution companies were given approval to increase electricity tariff to 100 per cent. I think if I am not mistaken, they were only given approval for 45 per cent increase on tariff. So, how come I was charged 100 per cent increase for the month of March? I checked around neighbours in World Bank Housing Estate, Aba, Abia State where I lived, I discovered that  this 100 per cent increase affected most of my neighbours.

    The question now is – has the increase in tariff been approved? After much debate, the Senate came to the conclusion that  judging from the hardship many Nigerians are going through, it will be suicidal to increase the tariff and so stopped electricity distribution companies from going ahead to charge the increase. The labour unions also concluded that before the electricity distribution companies should talk about increase, that  there should be visible improvement in the services. How come they went ahead to increase their tariff and who approved it?

    We users of electricity in Aba have been taken for granted. We call on the regulatory body to check and stop the exploitation by EEDC on electricity users in Aba. We also call on the ministry of power to let GeoMetric to start operation so that we users in Aba can choose which company to patronize and stop this exploitation by EEDC.

     

    • Nnamdi Ikechukwu, Aba.
  • EEDC worker ‘defrauds’ Mushin monarch of N1.6m

    EEDC worker ‘defrauds’ Mushin monarch of N1.6m

    AN Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) worker, Nicholas Ufot, was yesterday arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court in Lagos for allegedly defrauding a monarch of N1.6 million.

    Prosecuting Inspector Victor Eruada said Ufot committed the offence last August 23 at the Olu of Mushin palace.

    He said the accused obtained the N1.6 million from Oba Fatai Aileru, with the promise to install transformer in the palace, but never did.

    He said the monarch sought the services of the accused to help him install a transformer in the palace.

    “The accused came to the palace through referral and the complainant told him he wants to install a transformer in the palace that he should bring quotation for his job. The following day, the accused came with a quotation of N1.6 million for the erection of three poles, conductors, wires, a 100-KVA transformer and meter. The accused wrote an undertaking to complete the job within three weeks,” he said.

    Eruada alleged that after collecting the money from the monarch, the accused disappeared.

    “The accused disappeared with the money, and all efforts made by the complainant to get him do the job or retrieve his money proved unsuccessful.

    “The accused was arrested seven months later,” Eruada added.

    The accused pleaded not guilty. Magistrate F. A. Azeez granted him N500, 000 bail with two sureties. She adjourned the case till April 7.

  • EEDC, Ecobank unveil pre-payment meter

    EEDC, Ecobank unveil pre-payment meter

    The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) and Ecobank Nigeria Limited have partnered to provide pre-payment meters for electricity consumers. Payment for the meter will be through bank draft or cash deposit into designated Ecobank branches.

    In a statement, the EEDC said the Credit Advance Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) scheme was designed to enable customers of obtain smart meters.

    It said the scheme enables customers pay for the purchase and installation of meters within 45 days.

    EEDC is currently offering two types of meters; they are: single phase smart meter with split unit, which goes for N39,375 and three-phase smart meter with split unit, which goes for N68,901. These costs cover installation of the meters. “The cost of acquiring the meter and meter box will be paid back to the customers in form of energy recharge, over a period of 36 months, at 12 per cent interest rate,” the statement said.

    The EEDC remains passionate about improving electricity supply to its customers, metering them and addressing their complaints and other power needs.

  • Two jailed for vandalizing electricity cables in Ebonyi

    A Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi, on Monday sentenced two persons to various jail terms for vandalizing cables of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) in the state.

    The convicts – Ndubuisi Ogbonna (18) and Gabriel Chinedu (21) were arrested on October 19 in Amaechara, Amasiri Afikpo North local government area of Ebonyi State, where they committed the crime.

    Chinedu bagged six- year jail term, while Ogbonna was jailed for four years.

    Police prosecutor, Solomon Orond, told the court that the convicts were caught cutting the electricity cables when they were arrested.

    He said Chinedu lost one of his fingers and sustained serious injury on his hand following electrocution during the act.

    The trial Judge, Justice Maureen Oyetenu, found the accused guilty and convicted them accordingly.

    She warned them against indulging in such crime in future.

    She ordered that the electricity cables vandalized by the accused be returned to the EEDC office.

     

     

  • EEDC’s two-year-old impunity

    There is corruption and there is impunity; then there is corruption meshed with impunity. Hardball will want to wager that corruption is perhaps the most versatile noun in its class. That act of impairing the integrity of a process or thing lends itself to numerous other meanings and interpretations and all of them vile.

    Here are some samples: the word corruption can also be interchanged with bastardisation, defilement, destruction, deterioration, decomposition, debasement, depravity, adulteration, bribery, wickedness, putrescence… One can go on and on. In other words, corruption is as bad as they say it is. Now when you combine this with impunity, which means simply to escape punishment; the result would be too difficult to contain in any one word.

    This scenario seems to capture the matter between Interstate Electrics Limited, owners of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) and Geometric Power (GP), owners of Aba Integrated Power Project (AIPP).

    As the story goes, in May 2004, GP entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) to build an integrated power project in Aba. The MoU came with a concession of a ring-fenced area of the Aba metropolis and Ariaria districts. These contiguous areas would be the off-takers of the power generated by the project.

    In April 2005, GP upgraded the MoU into an agreement between it, the Federal Government and the National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA). And with the unbundling of NEPA in 2005, a further supplemental agreement was reached between GP, FGN and all the unbundled successor company of NEPA including the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and EEDC. Further, as part of the agreement, the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) in 2006 registered Aba Electricity Distribution Company Plc (Aba Disco) at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as the 12th distribution company. Both the BPE and the Ministry of Finance Incorporated are shareholders in Aba Disco.

    With all these seemingly proper procedures, why is there now a long-running dispute between GP and the EEDC? Hardball seems to have no other explanation than IMPUNITY, yes with capital letters. According to a series of SOS sent out by GP, no sooner did Interstate acquire licence for EEDC to distribute power in the five states of the Southeast than it moved into GP’s Aba metropolis and Ariaria district and physically disrupted the ongoing projects. Thus for most of two years, GP has been unable to meet on its delivery targets with huge attendant costs.

    Apparently, the overwhelming impunity of the Goodluck Jonathan era was working very well for EEDC so it would not obey legally binding agreements and all entreaties even from the regulator failed so far. Impunity.

    Here is a telling statement from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC): “In view of the above mandate and the pending transfer of the ownership of the EEDC to Interstate Electrics, it is important to reiterate, for the benefit of doubt, the existence of a legally valid and binding lease agreement dated April 28, 2005 between the Federal Government of Nigeria, Geometric Power Aba Limited (GPAL), Aba Power Limited (APL), and PHCN. While the encumbrance on the property purchased by EEDC is unrelated to the issue ownership of EEDC, Interstate Electricity as the new owner is legally bound to respect the lease agreement which it is inheriting along with the purchase of EEDC.”

    You see why the impunity here is the heedless kind?

  • Aba artisans, industrialists rue power outage

    Aba artisans, industrialists rue power outage

    RESIDENTS, traders and industrialists who depend on public power supply to run their homes and businesses in Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State, have decried the economic loss they have suffered two days after the whole city went into total darkness as a result of power outage.

    Though reasons for the sudden and unannounced power outage could not be officially ascertained at press time, information has it that it could not be unconnected with the recent sealing of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) offices in Aba and other parts of the state by the Abia State Board of Internal Revenue over non-remittal of taxes to the coffers of the state government.

    Sources said EEDC embarked on the revenue drive after they got a court order to effect such closure.

    It could be recalled that Abia Board of Internal Revenue had in the past carried a similar operation in Umuahia and Aba but it was not clear how the matter was resolved even though the closure didn’t affect electricity supply in the state then.

    Some respondents who spoke to our correspondent in Aba on Saturday described the power outage as counterproductive to their businesses.

    Mr. Ephraim Nwachukwu, a welder in Aba, said, “We learnt that some people from Umuahia came to Aba to seal their offices. Though the story behind the Board of Internal Revenue’s visit is still sketchy, “some say it was a debt owed by PHCN  before they were acquired by EEDC. But our concern is how shutting down of their premises affect electricity supply? This is why we want another independent power distribution in Aba.

    “The two or three days we have stayed without power from EEDC has affected our businesses negatively and we want the state government and EEDC to resolve their issues amicably so that we can have light to do our businesses,” he said

    An Ice block dealer, Mrs. Ngozi Ihekwaba, said “it is cheaper for us to power our ice block machine with power from the general public source of power supply than using generator. You cannot compare the hours it will take a block to form using generator with what it takes a block to form using public power supply.”

    An official of the Board of Internal Revenue, who spoke on anonymity, said they embarked on the action not to cause hardship on anybody, but to make sure that debt owed to the state government was recovered.

     

  • Abakaliki residents protest power outage

    Abakaliki residents protest power outage

    Over 150 residents of Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, yesterday protested epileptic power supply and high rate of bills given by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC).

    They stormed the headquarters of EEDC chanting songs and carrying placards.

    Some of them read: “We don’t have electricity”. “You have been stealing from us”. “EEDC, we are tired of darkness”. “We need transformers”. “EEDC you are wicked, the bill is high”, among others.

    Policemen from Ekumeyi division, however, intervened to prevent violence.

    The leader of the protesters, Mr. A.N. Ukwa, said they demonstrated because of poor service for over two years.