Etsu Nupe warns electricity providers over crazy billing of customers

 From: JOHN ADAMS, MINNA

The Etsu Nupe and Chairman Niger State Council of Chiefs, Alhaji (Dr.) Yahaya Abubakar, has warned electricity providers in the country to stop issuance of what he called “crazy bills” to their customers.

The emir said that the frequent conflicts between electricity providers and their customers was due to the crazy bills being issued to consumers in the country.

The royal father who spoke when he granted audience to a delegation of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) who paid him a courtesy visit in his palace, in Bida, on Wednesday.

He urged the electricity providers to, as a matter of necessity, place more emphasis on providing regular electricity and pre-paid meters to customers as a way of reducing friction between them and the public.

Said he, “I want to advise you to stop the momentum of crazy bills and increase your services, this will encourage your customers to pay their bills.

“When we are expecting light and we don’t see light and the bills are getting higher every day then there is bound to be trouble

“My people are ready to support you, my people are ready to pay their bills but you must first give them electricity”

Alhaji Abubakar submitted that the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria by the federal government was designed to achieve stable electricity supply in the country as such the new owners should assist the government to achieve that objective.

The monarch however pleaded with the people to be ” patient with the electricity companies because the rot in the sector has been on for so long”

He also asked the people to protect installed equipment, saying destroying them would draw back the hand of the clock.

Alhaji Ahmed Satti Maiyaki who led the delegation, on behalf of the chairman of the board of the AEDC Alhaji Shehu Malami, had earlier praised the fatherly role played by the traditional ruler which doused the tension generated as a result of poor electricity in the area.

The delegation later donated assorted drugs to the emirs palace clinic as part of its social responsibility.