Eko Disco invest N20bN, calls for stiffer penalty for vandals.
Eko Electricity Distribution Company has within the last two years, spent about N20 billion for system upgrade and network reinforcement just as it is advocating for a stiffer penalty against vandals of electricity equipment and other public facilities if such nefarious act is to be stopped in the country.
Oladele Amoda, managaing director and chief executive officer of Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), made this disclosure shortly after an interactive session with customers of the company from Surulere, Ijora and Mushin Akoka, Ijesha, Yaba and Lawanson.
He said apart from forty new distribution transformers recently installed to replace faulty ones, fifty others have been procured to serve as relief for overloaded transformers in various parts of the company’s coverage area.
On metering, he said the company’s plan for rollout of smart meters to all customers would soon commence. He said the company would always be concerned with the optimal service delivery to all its customers adding that with the planned issuance of smart meters for all customers, customers’ complaints about the accuracy of their bills would be drastically reduced.
On vandalism, Amoda, said the existing laws against vandalism of electricity equipment appeared too soft on those found guilty of the act, and decried a situation where a convicted vandal only bags two or three months of jail term after causing incalculable damage to economic and social wellbeing of so many people who are usually affected by acts of vandalism.
The Eko Disco boss further opined that vandalism of electricity equipment and other public utility facilities is a serious act of economic sabotage and should be treated as such.
He also advocated that the sales of public power equipment such as transformers, aluminium conductors and armoured cables should be better regulated to make it difficult for vandalised electricity equipment to be taken to open market for sale.
Apart from meting out stiffer penalty to convicted vandals, the Eko Disco boss also advocated expedited trial and determination of cases of vandalism. In this regard, he said special courts could be set up to ensure speedy trial of vandalism suspects.
He however advised customers who might be in a hurry for their premises to be metered before the smart meter programme reaches them to avail themselves of the opportunity provided by the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) which would allow customers to pay for meter and have the money paid for meter refunded back to them through the fixed elements of the billing. He said the refund of the meter programme would be spread over a period of time.
The repayment of the money so paid Engr., Amoda said, would be with 12 percent interest. He said the aim of the CAPMI programme was to serve as an interventionist relief pending the full take-off of the smart metering programme of the company.
The company, he said, was determined to meter all its customers free of charge before the expiration of the five-year metering deadline contained in the performance agreement signed with government by distribution companies before takeover of the companies in November 2013.
Olusola Bello