By Adedapo Adesanya
The Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) has asked the National Assembly to consider legislation against energy theft and the establishment of electricity special courts to try offenders in the country.
The managing director of Eko DisCo, Mr Adeoye Fadeyibi, suggested this when the Senate Committee on Privatisation visited the company recently.
He also sought the intervention of the Senate for the recovery of N21 billion owed by some ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Mr Fadeyibi explained that the MDAs were the biggest debtor to EKEDC to date, adding that various efforts had been made to recover the debt but they have been unsuccessful.
The managing director said the inability of the DisCo to recover its debts from customers was impeding its efforts to invest in infrastructure upgrades — to improve power supply to customers under its network.
According to him, “The biggest threat to our operations are vandals and customers who illegitimately connect to the lines causing revenue loss.
“Prosecution of these types of cases are often prolonged and difficult to conclude because of the technical expertise required by the bench.”
The chairman of the Senate committee on privatisation, Mr Theodore Orji, agreed that the debt by the MDAs was huge and also an impediment to its mandate of providing a quality supply of electricity to its customers.
Mr Orji said: “We believe that there is a need to repay this debt because EKEDC has thousands of Nigerians as employees and the company is providing a critical service which is electricity.
“We will also be looking at the issue of unauthorised persons carrying out electrical installation duties in the country because it is creating problems for the power sector.
“We want to commend the management of EKEDC for being resilient in the face of these challenges.”
Dipo Olowookere