PHCN Rewards 8 Communities Over Information

Authorities of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) have rewarded eight communities for giving useful information that led to the recovery of vandalised facilities of the company in its Benin zone.

Principal Manager, Public Affairs of the zone. Mrs Grace Nwobodo who disclosed this to newsmen said the gesture was in fulfilment of the company’s reward scheme instituted recently.

The PHCN zonal image maker, who did not disclose the exact figure of the reward sum given to the communities stated that the company, while instituting the scheme, promised to appreciate any community that gives useful information that would lead to the successful recovery of stolen equipment between N20,000 and N50,000 each.

Power analysts view this PHCN strategy as a novel catalyst that could  encourage other communities across the nation to be more active in  setting eagle eyes on the company’s facilities to ensure their protection.

Mrs Nwobodo who expressed worry over the growing cases of vandalisation of power facilities in the zone restated that PHCN does not have a replacement budget.

“The job of keeping these installations is not the exclusive preserve of PHCN but that of the people who reside there.”

The residents are the ones to suffer whenever there are cases of vandalism.”

He revealed that about 154 cases of vandalisation of the company have been reported in the zone within the past eight months while in 2010, about 170 cases were reported.

Mrs Nwobodo further disclosed that customers owe the company over N12 billion and remarked that the high debt profile has become a source of concern to the company in the zone.

She said the company management plans to meet governors of the concerned states that make up the zone to work out modalities on how to recover the debt because the debtors are not showing expected willingness to pay for the services provided to them by the company.

Benin zone of PHCN is made up of Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti states with its zonal office in Benin, Edo State capital.

Chris Oluoh