Edo state Governor Godwin Obaseki said that he has directed the attorney general of the state to file charges of criminal negligence against senior management of Benin Electricity Distribution company. Speaking at the power 4th National Council on Power event in Benin said that “as a government we have extended our cooperation to resolve some of these problems, but the company has remained uncooperative. “The people are over-billed with the estimated billing system of BEDC. We lost a student due to the negligence of BEDC, for refusing to fix a pole that was knocked down after receiving money to fix it. I have instructed the Attorney General of Edo State to file charges of criminal negligence against the senior management of BEDC”.
Also the State Governor accused the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) of frustrating a power deal with Ossiomo Power and Infrastructure Company Limited, to supply electricity to government offices in the state capital. Obaseki further decried the poor supply of electricity to the state, the company’s resolve not to supply pre-paid meters to electricity consumers and its culture of over-billing its clients. According to the governor, BEDC in the last 12 months has been writing petitions against the deal sealed between Edo State Government and Ossiomo Power and Infrastructure Company Limited, for the purchase of five megawatts of electricity to light up government offices in Benin City, and stressed that the petitions have hindered the success of the purchase agreement. He said that no community in the state enjoys more than eight hours of electricity supply daily despite its status as the power hub of the country.
He said “195 communities have never seen electricity as BEDC is not ready to extend electricity to these communities. 128 communities have issues of collapse of infrastructure which BEDC is not prepared to fix. 219 transformers purchased by the state government and the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) as replacements for faulty transformers are yet to be installed by BEDC”.
He said that the electricity distribution company has continued to deliver poor services to Edo people and maintained that evidence abound of deliberate attempt on the part of BEDC not to sell or distribute meters to customers. Earlier, the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Louis Edozien, expressed his appreciation to the people of Edo State for the hospitality extended to the power conference participants. He lauded Obaseki’s approach to governance as attested to by Edo people and residents, and explained that the country currently produces 7,000MW of electricity, but regretted that it is only able to distribute 5,000MW, leaving the country with unused 2,000MW, due to transmission challenges.
Businessnewsreport investigation revealed that Edo Electricity Distribution company has deliberately switched off some communities from the national grid insisting on installing meters on transformers installed in the communities. In the case of Okpella community where there is a power substation, BEDC has since December 2017 disconnected the entire community. According to the community leaders, Edo cement pay about N7 million to BEDC monthly to supply the community light. Despite this monthly payment, the company has switched off the entire community from the National grid. It has refused to supply meters and those with meters have also been switched off. A neighbouring c community, Ibie where the company has forced them to accept meter in the transformers have accumulated crazy bill they can not pay. The story is the same all over the areas where the company operates. An e-mail and text messages to the Chief Executive of the company severally were rebuffed.
