The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, (EEDC), has warned that it would not supply electricity to any of its consumers who obey the directive of the Enugu State House of Assembly not to pay their bills.
The company said that the House by its directive was encouraging lawlessness, saying that it would hold the assembly responsible if any of its staff or workers were molested while carrying out their legitimate duties.
The state House of Assembly last week passed a vote of no confidence in the EEDC over alleged overbilling of its customers, erratic power supply and non-supply of prepaid meters.
However, reacting to the incident, the Chairman of EEDC, Emeka Offor and other management staff of the company including the Head of Operations, Vincent Ekwekwu, and his Communications counterpart, Emeka Eze said that part of the company was sold to the electricity generating company adding that there was no way it could distribute what it doesn’t have.
“We lose 62 percent of our money through stealing of our electricity. Recently, we caught a top government official stealing electricity. The said official (name withheld) dug a hole and connected electricity at the back of the Air Force Base. He connected electricity to his house using an armoured cable which he buried in the ground after we had tossed his line for failing to pay bills.
“The four South East state governments and other consumers in our area of franchise are owing us over N40 billion and we had disconnected even the Owerri Government House before we took actions to recover our debt in Enugu and this should not be an exception.
“We are capable of evacuating 1,037 kilowatts of electricity but we are supplied only 854 kilowatts. That is what we are evacuating. We have also committed over N10 billion on prepaid meters which are certified by the relevant authorities,” just as all our Major Consumers of Energy, MCE, have been metred…,” they further said, pointing out that they had between 750,000 and 800,000 customers in the southeast.