Lagos Community Slams N200m Suit On EKEDP, NERC Over Prepaid Meters, Illegal Disconnection
Residents of Lagos Mainland Local Government Area, Lagos, under the aegis of Concerned Community Development Association (CCDA), Ebute-Metta West, have instituted a N200 million suit before a Lagos Federal High Court, against Eko Electricity Distribution Plc (EKEDP), for alleged failure to supply them the pre-paid meters
The applicants in the suit marked FHC./L/CS/1680/18 and filed by their lawy, Abdu-Salaam Abbas are: Alice Odusanya, Adenike Okubanjo, Kofoworola Olaitan, Williams Oladapo, Olusegun Sojinu, Emmanuel Benson, Oladipupo Joseph and Folarin Joseph, suing for themselves and on behalf of the CDA.
Joined as respondent is Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
Apart from the the sum of N200 million damage for losses on businesses, the applicants are also seeking an order restraining the first respondent from further disconnection in a manner that is inconsistent with the regulations of the second respondent.
They also asked the court for an order mandating the EKEDP to install prepaid meters for their proper electricity billing, reconnect disconnected lines and to increase in quantity of supply in line with the regulations of the NERC.
They also asked the court for a declaration that the first respondent acted contrary to power regulations with regards to the treatment of their complaint. And award of N1.5 million, as cost of instituting the suit.
An affidavit in support of the motion in notice of the applicants deposed to by Alice Olusanya, averred that sometime In 2014, the areas covered by the representation of the association started experiencing incessant power outages without any solutions from the EKEDP, whose responsibility It Is to resolve such problem as a service provider. And that the Applicant in a bid to resolve the recurrent problem Investigated the cause of the said power outage and as a result made physical complaints with the EKEDP at its offices on several occasions.
The deponent also averred that due to the continuous occurrence of the power outages in the communities, the inhabitants thereof organized themselves under the association and complained to the first respondent complaining amongst other things; the overloading of the EB-1 Network Feeder, unmetered billing charges. constant power outage despite consistent compliance with payment of electricity bills and the Issuance of arbitrary and exorbitant estimated bills.
The deponent further stated that on the June 29, 2015, the association through the Applicants wrote the first Respondent registering her pains and sufferings due to the issues outlined above.
Adding that about one year after writing to the first Respondent and the Applicants received no response, the association escalated its complaint to the Eko Forum office of the second Respondent on June 20, 2016, registering its frustration and displeasure at the lack of response by the first Respondent despite several attempts at resolving the poor service in electricity supply to the concerned communities.
Further to its previous complaints to the EKEDP, the Applicants in this letter also complained of gross epileptic power supply, arbitrary cum exorbitant charges, Overloading and congestion of the EB-1 Network Feeder and non~provision of the standard meterage for the affected communities; Issues which have remained unresolved by the EKEDP.
