FCT residents lament extortion

• Claim AEDC swindles landlords to maintain facilities

From Idu Jude,  Abuja

The  maintenance of privatised public infrastructure in Nigeria is no longer the duty of the government nor consumer’s responsibility, in line with the Act that established the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

Initiated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the policy was to restructure state-owned enterprises, operating on commercially viable, business-driven principles while remaining in the hands of government.

Accordingly, the BPE monitors these privatised companies for a mandatory five-year period after sale, to successfully maintain their privatised status and remain free from regulatory intervention, these entities must satisfy several critical conditions, such as adequately providing services to the public and maintaining the identified facilities.

Consequently, the policy of privatization has become an albatross, making it lose its touch due to poor implementation. However, residents of the FCT suburbs are presently at daggers drawn over the drama of who maintains privatised facilities.

As it stands, electricity consumers in the FCT satellite towns and suburbs are being forced to pay maintenance fees by staff of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) in cahoots with some local fraudsters and swindlers, who took undue advantage of unsuspecting public to feather their nest.

These acts range from paying installation fees of N40,000, N5,000 transformer maintenance fees depending on the area one lives in, and N10,000 electric pole replacement fees.

Records have shown that this extortion, has continued for so many years unabated at the expense of poor electricity consumers, who neither can challenge the swindlers nor know where to report such dastardly acts.

Mike Udensi was not perturbed on hearing this as he confirmed that the practice is becoming ancient in the FCT.

“What you see and hear today is not new and that is because people have refused to know their rights. It is only in Nigeria that education has become an obnoxious practice. It is only in Nigeria where people pretend to be wealthy by abandoning their rights for swindlers to manage.

“What do I mean? Whenever you see someone in Nigeria standing up for their rights, it means such a person is controversial or poor. In Nigeria, only poor people rise to contest wrong activities or injustice.

“So, they are feasting on them because they suffer from an inferiority complex. Some rich ones also suffer from a superiority complex or status conferral. Even though they are wrongly taking place, rich ones in society pretend not to know as we believe that such is the identity of the have-nots.”

Mrs Chinyere Aobundu a businesswoman in Karu Jikwoyi Phase 3, is indeed, stressed by the incessant extortion by the men allegedly from (AEDC) she said the group goes around the vicinity to forcefully demand money from unsuspecting residents.

“I knew that those men were fraudstars because I didn’t see them as employees of AEDC. I was also told that they are in cohorts with leadership of the communities because they can come in here to operate alone without insiders who show them the way.

“We know who they are. And some of them feed on unsuspecting public pretending to be maintaining AEDC facilities just to create a make-believe,” she said.

An indigene of Garki, Jonathan Gbefwi, added: “We were told not to tamper with government property but the same people turn around and ask us to pay for the maintenance of the same private property.

“AEDC is private property and we, the consumers, are not supposed to maintain their properties for them. Even when any individual buys a transformer, government and AEDC take it over. Please help us tell the story of extortion.”

Hassan Sakura Bindir said: “They came to my street and threatened that the whole power line will be dropped because we did not pay the maintenance fee, and leading them are those who are in the leadership of the community. We were surprised to see the leadership of the communities embark on such a journey.

“This made us ask some questions about who now controls the electricity facilities. And, these questions are in the minds of many Nigerians because this has been going on in so many FCT suburbs.

“Today, in Abuja, anyone with little knowledge of wire connections can arrogate self to be an EDC official and, with the help of hawks in the community they come home and dry.”

John Madaki a police man serving in one of the police divisions in Karu Jikwoyi Abuja, has confirmed the operation of such individuals, but said that the office has not been able to see a petition filed against any of the community’s leadership.

Said Madaki: “We can’t just act on hearsay but this report has gotten to us about individuals carrying out routine extortion in the villages like Nne Dagbadna, Old Dagbadna, Sambisa, Orozo, and Karahi part of Abuja. But II’malso sure that something security-wise is being done to arrest those perpetrators. What we just need is a tip-off whenever they operate again.”

Ibrahim Barau, revealed that individuals and groups in those affected communities are perfecting a properly written petition to the Managing Director at the AEDC Headquarters to quickly address the menace. “This is the only way we can stop these thieves around here. All hands must be on deck to expose and bring them to book.”