By David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka
About 13 rights groups based in the South-east under the aegis of South-east Based Coalition of Human Rights and Good Governance Organisations (SBCHROS) have protested against the activities of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) in the zone.
The groups, in a petition to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, accused EEDC of illegal deals which has kept the people of the region in perpetual darkness.
The petition, which was also copied to the acting Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Anthony Akah; the Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Senator Enyinnaya Abiribe; and the Chairman, House Committee on Power, Â Hon. Effiong Daniel, was titled ‘Seeking for the rescue of the people of South-east from chronic bondage, oppressive and criminal conducts of EEDC’.
The petition referenced Ref:
Intersociety/SBCHROs 001/012/017/FG/ABJ, read in part: “This letter contains EEDC’s untamed and unbearable criminality, recklessness and lawlessness in the entire 18 business districts of the company in South-east Nigeria.
“These findings arise from our indepth investigation. The joint letter seeks for expeditious and competent intervention of its recipients to rescue the people of the South-east or Igbo people of Nigeria from shackles and manacles of EEDC in the Zone.”
The petitioners further stated that, “We are deeply concerned
over sundry criminal activities and other forms of lawlessness going
on in EEDC. Electricity as the livewire of the people of Southeast Zone or Igbo People of Nigeria and driving force of the economy of the Zone has been brutally denied the people of the Southeast especially since 2012 when EEDC
came on board in the Zone.
“The steady and affordable power supply and associated social convenience and happiness is speedily on the brink; to the extent that criminal syndicates have taken over EEDC; running riot on vulnerable consumers in the Zone with reckless abandon.”
The group expressed sadness that oversight agencies and other
mechanisms, such as NERC appear weak or compromised. It added that the failure of these oversight
bodies to check and tame the excesses of EEDC has emboldened and escalated the criminal activities and lawlessness of the company.
“As a matter of fact, EEDC appears to have become an outlaw; flouting
its terms of agreement with the Federal Government that led to
granting of license to same to distribute and market power supply to the people of Southeast Nigeria.
“The most disastrous of it all is the
reckless abandon and impunity with which EEDC breaches the clear
provisions of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission Act (Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act No 6 of 2005) and the
Fundamental Human Rights and other relevant provisions of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution.
The group ranked the EEDC as the worst of all the Distribution companies in the country, saying that it leaves its customers with the burden of procuring transformers, yet they take ownership of it, upon installation.
The coalition called on the relevant authorities to come to the aid of the people of the zone and also prevail on the EEDC to drop most of its hard stance against its customers.
