Electricity: Lagos residents seek debt rebate

Residents of Shomolu area of Lagos State, Nigeria, have made an appeal to the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKDC) to offer debt forgiveness on their accumulated outstanding.

The appeal is coming after the deployment of thousands of prepaid meters by IKDC to the area.

Hitherto, the customers had lamented the burden of excessive and outrageous billing by the company, hence sought for pre-paid meters. This made IE to deploy over 1,500 prepaid meters to the community recently.

Chairman of Shomolu Community Development Committee (CDC), Mr. Adedapo Oduguwa, said the move will enable the residents meet up to its responsibilities.

“This will enable customers migrate immediately to recharge after exhausting the initial token installed in the meter. We request for debt forgiveness. So many properties are abandoned and not occupied but are still served bills which is mounting. It is not easy for some people to clear the backlog because the previous occupiers of the buildings that accumulated the bills passed down for so many years. If the company makes the migration easy for us, we will be in a position to spread the gospel that meter is free just as the police will say bail is free,” he said.

In a similar vein, president of the co-operative society of the association of printers in Shomolu, Chief Babajide Mark Anthony, expressed his joy at the new development and confirmed that the association is ready to cooperate with the DisCo to ensure smooth operation. He further advised the firm to fast-track the installation of meters and also attend to minor complaints on time, in order to build more trust and instill confidence in its customers.

In response, Business Manager of IE in charge of Shomolu, Engr. Taofeek Basanya, when contacted, said the company has made migration easy for customers. According to him, “we want consumers to come forward with their bills and pay 30 per cent of their outstanding, the rest can be spread out over a long period of time as long as they recharge their prepaid meters. Customers should not hide under the guise of community associations to frustrate the company’s efforts of metering more people, but should on individual basis come to our office to make their claims and dispute about their bills.”

On his part, Head of Corporate Communications, Felix Ofulue reiterated IE’s position to sustain the metering exercise in an equitable manner such that all category of customers that are yet to be metered will definitely benefit from the roll-out plan.

“Our records reveal that a lot of customers who were recently metered, especially in Shomolu and environs have not vended or purchased units on their meters several weeks after exhausting the initial token. Typically, this is the process that should follow after the complimentary units on the prepaid meter have been exhausted.

He called on metered customers to resist the urge to bypass meters, rather urging them to manage their energy consumption prudently. He also warned that IE would apply the authorized sanctions against any customer who engages in the act of meter bypassing.