By Dipo Olowookere
The management of Kaduna Electric has called for strong collaboration between the company and its customers to bring to an end the twin menace of energy theft and vandalism of power supply infrastructures.
The Team Lead, Media and Community Relations of the firm, Mr Idris Muhammad, made the call during an interactive session with customers at Rigasa Area Office, Kaduna last Thursday.
Kaduna Electric, in a statement issued over the weekend, attributed over 70 percent of unplanned outages and unannounced interruptions of power supply in its franchise area to the activities of the perpetrators of energy theft and vandals.
According to the spokesman of the electricity distribution company, “the twin menace of energy theft and vandalism are responsible for almost 70% of the unplanned outages being experienced in our franchise area with the attendant inconveniences and unnecessary burden on the customers.”
“We are all (the Company and the customers) are at receiving end; paying heavy price in terms of loss of expensive equipment and scarce resources while the perpetrators losses nothing”, he further stated.
The unwholesome activities of the energy thieves and vandals is not only impeding the Company’s efforts at ensuring steady power supply, but are also placing additional and unnecessary burden on the customers, he contended.
He therefore called on the Rigasa community to expose the perpetrators of these acts who constitutes nuisance to both the Company and the customers stressing that the “collaborative effort could not have come at a better time”.
A community leader and the Chairman Gwamna/Mashi Roads Residents Association, Alhaji Abdullahi Lawan Adaraye charged all communities in the area to organize themselves and form neighbourhood associations to enable them address some the challenges identified during the interactive session collectively.
He pledged their association’s cooperation and appealed to the Management of kaduna Electric to ensure that all its service centres have the full compliments of staff and necessary logistics to discharge their responsibilities effectively.
According to him, “the present situation where Service Centres cannot attend to faults after 5pm due lack of personnel or functional vehicles contributes to the activities of the miscreants”.
The interactive session which had in attendance, community and religious leaders from Unguwan Sunusi, Badiko village, Gwamna road and Hayin Danmani, provided a veritable platform for exchange of ideas between the Company and its customers.
Adedapo Adesanya