AEDC disconnects community over indebtedness in contravention of NERC order

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company has disconnected Sabon Gari Community in Mararaba, near Abuja, from the national grid for non-payment of bills by individual customers.
The Chairman of the Community Residents Association, Ismaila Mohammed, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Abuja that the disconnection was carried out on January 31.
A NAN correspondent, who visited the area during the week, observed that the cables connecting the community’s step-down transformer to the grid were removed.
Describing the company’s action as unjustifiable, Mohammed wondered why the entire community should be disconnected over debts owed by individual customers.
Mohammed said: “The AEDC has put us in blackout since January 31 and when we approached them, they said the community was not paying bills, which is not true.
“In this community, there are people using prepaid meters; there are several others on estimated and post-paid billing, who are not indebted to AEDC.
“By disconnecting the entire community, the company is short-changing customers like us who are up to date in the payment of their electricity bills.”
When contacted, the spokesman of the AEDC, Ahmed Shekarau, referred NAN to the Mararaba Area Manager, Lameed Obadaki, who confirmed the general disconnection.
Obadaki said that the community was indebted to the company to the tune of N68 million.
He said that the debtors were in the majority and efforts by the company to carry out targeted disconnection in the past had failed.
According to him, the debtors kept reconnecting themselves as soon as AEDC officials left their premises, hence the decision to cut off the entire community.
NAN reports that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission had warned distribution companies against blanket disconnection in communities, villages, local government areas and estates.
In a public announcement on May 31, 2016, the commission drew the attention of Discos to its Connection and Disconnection Procedures for Electricity Services Regulation, 2007.
NERC said: “Electricity customers who pay their bills should not be disconnected via a mass disconnection of their community, block of flats, estate, and so on.
“Any mass disconnection carried out by the Discos in contravention of the provisions of the above regulation is illegal and should be reported to the commission.”
NAN also reports that sections 5-6 of the regulation contain guidelines for the disconnection of only defaulting customers and not an entire community.
NAN.