WHY IKEDC STAFF MAY NEVER BE SAFE FROM HARASSMENT BY CONSUMERS
Read Time:3 Minute, 57 Second
By Ife Adewole
No doubts, if law is to be suspended and everyone is allowed to deal with Ikeja Electric Distribution Company, IKEDC staff according to the work of their hand, the probability of having less than 50 untouched staff will be very slim, because most of their consumers are hardly satisfied with the service the company is rendering.
I remember when I was much younger that staff of defunct National Electric Power Authority NEPA came to disconnect our house because of our refusal to pay a bill NEPA called “crazy bill.” After lots of arguments the staff decided to disconnect us, our Landlord’s son pulled the ladder off his feet which makes him to break one of his leg. The rest was story as none of us dare not get close to our house, let alone of sleeping inside the room due to the battalion of soldiers that took over our building, some arrest was made and power was eventually disconnected.
With the recent press release dated February 20, 2019 by IKEDC, there are indications that the company’s field staffs can no longer withstand the threats, assaults and attacks from consumers anymore, hence IKEDC resolution to suspend service from aggressive prone areas.
In the words of Peter F Drucker, “Quality in a product or service is not what you put into it, it is what the client or customer gets out of it.” Since consumers of IKEDC are not satisfied with the quality of service they are paying for, assaults, threats, attacks and protests of all sorts will be inevitable.
For instance, in an area in Ketu-Lagos, sometimes in September the residence had issues with their step down transformer, they consulted IKEDC staffs who resolved to replace the transformer with a new one. After due consultation, Landlords association with IKEDC staffs signed an undertaking to restore power to the area within 3 months, kudos to IKEDC staffs for keeping to the agreement.
But the unexpected happened when the so called new transformer begins to supply very low voltage and most times tripped off barely a month that they brought it. This angered the consumers and held IKEDC field staffs hostage for almost 5 hours the day they stormed the area for disconnection. Their demand was simple, restore power to this vicinity and start going.
After proper diagnoses, they concluded that a phase on the transformer was bad; therefore they resulted to load sharing and compelled consumers to pay for the power they do not consume at the detriment of their own lack of technical know-how, eventually power was restored to the vicinity around 8:00pm.
To mention few areas in Lagos who are having challenges with IKEDC due to faulty transformer is Oyenai Street in Odo-Eran, Bariga-Lagos. The residence have been in total black out since August 2018 till this moment, despite paying Five thousand naira reparation fee par house, yet IKEDC has refused to replace their transform let alone of restoring power.
The dilemma of gross estimated billing which emanated as a result of IKEDC’s refusal to do the needful is a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the emotion and psychology of consumers who are the victims of this disaster.
Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN, made several efforts, including issuance of deadlines to all Distribution Companies to ensure all consumers of power has a prepaid meter, all to no avail, as thousands of houses in Lagos still suffer gross estimated billing.
To salvage the situation IKEDC and other DisCo’s need to let go of estimated bills as that is the major contention of most of the aggrieved consumers and provide every consumer with a prepaid meter as directed by National Electric Regulatory Commission NERC, set up a vibrant task force that will from time to time survey every consumers consumption rate on the meter, ensure that their staffs are not prone to bribe as that is what most consumers caught with bypass do to cover up their sin, the whistle blowing method should be more effective, above all IKEDC should strive to attain greater level through prompt and satisfactory response to consumers complaints.
Consumers should take it cool with IKEDC staffs, as they are Nigerians and human like us, they are someone’s brothers, sisters, dad, husbands, mum and wife. Patience therefore they say can dissolve a stone, lets desist from jungle justices and embrace the rule of law. We have rights to complaint through all channels, we have rights to seek redress in court and we have rights to peaceful protest till solutions are provided to our grievances. Let’s put an end to threats, assaults, attacks and bullying.
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