The Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) has removed a revenue loss penalty fee placed on two innocent customers at Shagari Estate in Lagos State after a fellow tenant was found guilty of electricity theft.
The reduction followed an FIJ story detailing how the power supplier imposed over N900,000 each on the two prepaid meters being used by the customers in the same building, despite having earlier charged the actual defaulting customer a N51,500 fine and another unexplainable uniform charge of N68,000 on all the occupants of the said building.
Oladele Adeoti, the property manager, told FIJ on Saturday that one of the occupants, whose meter had earlier been deactivated by the IKEDC, checked his meter balance sometime in the previous week and discovered that the penalty had been reduced.
A screenshot of the meter with a reduced penalty of over N200,000
“They [IKEDC] have worked on it by God’s grace. The meter with almost N1.2 million penalty has been reduced to N218,347.89 and the second one with N900,000 has come down to N29,621.84,” Adeoti told FIJ.
“But we have no information about the secret bill their officials mentioned when we visited their office.”
Since September, the occupants of the building had been without power and all entreaties to have IKEDC vacate the penalties were unsuccessful. The tenants insisted that the penalties were unjustifiable.
“Immediately one of the tenants saw that his balance had been cut down to about N30,000, he recharged his meter to clear the debt and enjoy power supply. His meter is now active and power supplied to his apartment,” Oladele said on Saturday.
He thanked FIJ for reporting his plight, saying, “I cannot thank God enough. I appreciate you and FIJ so much.”
A screenshot of the meter with a reduced penalty of about N30,000.
The property manager had previously written separate emails to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the IKEDC for a resolution of the complaint without any positive response until FIJ reported it.
Before the earlier publication on December 10, FIJ had emailed a request for comment to the IKEDC but it got no reply.
On December 14 when Feyisola Orisan, a customer service specialist at the company, responded, she described the penalties on the two meters as a “loss of revenue charge computed for the duration of an infraction identified” on the meters in August and October, a month in which the customers had no access to power supply.
“The first loss of revenue (LOR) charge, amounting to N245,489.56, was computed for the duration of an infraction identified in August on meter number: 45083555776. An additional LOR charge of N992,713.28 was computed following another infraction identified in October.
“The account also reflects arrears of N11,858.33, representing the migrated balance carried over from the previous postpaid account to the prepaid meter.
On the meter numbered 0201000101042, Orisan said, “An LOR charge of N993,428.56 was computed for the infraction identified on this meter. The account also reflects arrears of N29,621.84, which represents the migrated balance carried over from the previous postpaid account to the prepaid meter.
“Please note that loss of revenue (LOR) represents the energy consumption value calculated for the period during which the meter was identified as having an infraction, while the penalty represents the fine charged for the infraction itself.”
The current balances on those two meters are evidence that the company had cleared the purported additional revenue losses imposed on them.
