The Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) has continued to disregard a subsisting order by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) from December directing it to discontinue deducting from electricity bill payments made by Kayode Jeffrey, a Lagos customer, on his prepaid meter.
Shortly after Jeffrey moved into his apartment in the Ebute Metta area of Lagos State on January 1, 2024, a new meter was installed in the building. Six months into his tenancy, he discovered that he was receiving only 50% of every purchase he made on the meter.
Jeffrey would later find that there was an accumulated debt the EKEDC claimed the previous occupants of the house had left unpaid. The same debts were transferred to the new meter. Before the meter installation, EKEDC was issuing estimated bills, an unjust system that allows electricity suppliers to randomly determine customers’ electricity consumption over a period of time.
READ ALSO: Some Streets in Lagos’ Ebute-Metta in Darkness for 6 Months Over Faulty Transformer
Out of the conviction that electricity regulations forbid power suppliers to transfer debt from one customer to another, Jeffery approached the supplier for a meter adjustment to stop the deductions. His interactions with the company produced no positive results.
On October 21, he filed a complaint with Eko Forum, a body established by the Electricity Act of 2023 to resolve customer complaints.
“A debt of N202,382.48 was on the bill before I moved in and we were forced to make a payment of N50,000 on the bill in December before moving in. NERC’s consumer protection regulation prevents power companies from recovering incurred by an old tenant of a house from a new tenant,” Jeffrey told FIJ on Tuesday.
“On September 11, I wrote an email to them requesting a bill adjustment in line with the laws. After a prolonged back and forth, EKEDC responded on October 21 that I should liaise with my landlord to retrieve the deductions made on my meter.
“This is a contravention to the laws available. So, I escalated the matter to the Eko Forum on the same October 21. The forum sent my complaint to the supplier and three days later, Olajumoke Gbadamosi, a member of Regulatory Help at the company responded that they were reconciling my account.”
On November 11, Jeffrey communicated with the forum that the supplier had not provided any feedback on the reconciliation it was doing. Subsequently, the forum held a sitting to look into the complaint on December 9 with the customer and five representatives from the company in attendance.
The company’s representatives argued that it was the customer’s responsibility to offset the debt.
Finally, the forum resolved the complaint against the EKEDC pursuant to Section 115 (4) of the Electricity Act. It also mandated the company to comply with the order by January 8.
READ ALSO: After FIJ’s Story, IKEDC Removes N2,013,283 Penalty Imposed on Innocent Lagos Tenants
“[The] EKEDC is to refund all debts collected through deductions from the complainant’s vending transactions from January 1st 2024 till date and is also to stop further deductions on the said meter,” the forum ruled.
“This is to be effected latest by 8th January 2025.”
Despite the ruling, the company has failed to stop the illegal deductions on the meter.
On February 7, Jeffrey recharged the meter with N5,000 but he only got half the value of the purchase.
“I called the NERC to inform them of the non-compliance. They said they have escalated to the compliance department but no word from them afterwards,” he told FIJ.
Since the deductions started, EKEDC had illegally collected N34,000 from the customer, leaving a balance of N168,382.48 on the meter.
According to the Electricity Act, any appeal against the forum’s decisions could be made within ten days from the date of the delivery of the order. But EKEDC had neither appealed against the order nor complied with it even though it was made 71 days ago.
An email FIJ sent to the EKEDC on Tuesday requesting its comments had not been responded to at press time.
The post EKEDC Disregards NERC’s Order Against Illegal Deductions From Customer’s Bill appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.