Investigation: How impunity, theft thwart stable electricity in Benin
As the Federal Government, operators, regulators and consumers of electricity continuously engage in the effort to turn around the ailing sector, the combination of theft, fraud, violence and vandalisation of facilities has been found to be responsible for the intractable blackouts nationwide.
Investigation has revealed through numerous cases and examples that operators such as generators (GenCos) and distributors (DisCos) particularly engage in impunity, exploitation, indiscriminate billing, misinformation and refusal to tackle customer complaints while customers, whose cases are often worsened by long, frustrating processes, resort to stealing electricity through illegal connections, meter by-pass, refusal to pay bills, vandalism, violence etc.
Expressing lack of faith in the privatization of public electricity assets, citizens say until these problems are effectively tackled, the hope for stable electricity supply by the Federal Government could remain a mirage even after the commitment of more than USD $26 billion (N4 trillion) between 1999 and 2014, according to data and documents from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
House Number 3
House Number 3, behind Zion Spot in Ujoelen Quarters, Ekpoma, is a building under construction, on a land fenced off from the squalor of its rustic environment. The house highlights a case study of impunity, illegality and stealing colluding to keep Nigerian households in perpetual darkness.
The Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) distributes power to Ekpoma and the entire Edo State as it does to Delta, Ondo and Ekiti states, where problems bedevilling the electricity sector and complaints trailing poor services are similar.
Looking like a home in a developed capital city, the building contrasts its rural and bushy environment, a putrid underdevelopment that is largely aided by lack of basic amenities, beyond its suffusing darkness. In a mockery of Nigeria’s heartbeat, BEDC has unplugged the entire Esan West Local Government Area of the state from the national electricity grid more than once without warning.
With a distance of about 800 meters and less than three kilometres from the Benin-Ekpoma-Okene-Abuja Expressway, the street, Behind Zion Spot, is neither accessible by vehicles, motorcycles or on foot nor good enough for residents to negotiate homes, offices and farms. With visible marks of the destructive impacts of erosion everywhere, tall grasses reign over available spaces of the uneven street and unfenced houses as well as others in Ujoelen community.
Investigation showed that the pains residents bear from lack of accessible roads, potable water, healthcare centres and other basic social and infrastructural amenities pale into insignificance when compared to the helplessness of paying for electricity, which they swore they don’t get.
Like many other towns and communities visited in Edo Central District during a month-long investigative expedition in October 2017 that also took this reporter to Edo North District, Ekpoma has been in total darkness since August even as the residents were still receiving BEDC’s monthly power bills.
Owned by Barnabas Agbonifoh, a professor and lecturer at the Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Benin, the storey building intended as hostel for students had neither occupant nor electricity at the time of visit, even after completion.
Billing building unconnected
In March 2017, Mr Agbonifoh formally applied to BEDC at Ekpoma for a prepaid meter for his building that was still under construction then. While the meter was yet to be supplied or the house connected, BEDC sent him bills for the next three months: totalling N56,817.96.
The landlord returned on 17th July to complain and demand connection of his house before BEDC eventually assigned a technical field staff to do the connection.
But Mr Agbonifoh was shocked when a superior BEDC staff handling his complaint told him after the work to pay the bills he received if he hoped to be metered. They promised he would be metered within two weeks if he paid.
In a petition, dated 30th August, 2017, titled: ‘Complaint of Fraudulent Electricity Billing’, the applicant narrated his shock, pain, anger and helplessness.
“I filed a request for a prepaid meter through an electrical contractor sometime in March 2017. Very curiously, while the meter was yet to be supplied and the house yet to be connected to your electricity supply grid, I was billed as follows for electricity by BEDC.”
In April 2017, BEDC alleged he consumed 550 units of electricity for a bill of N18, 058.43k; in May, 650 units for N21,341.78k and June, 500 units for N16, 417.75k.
The petitioner concludes: “The purpose of this petition is two-fold: To request, as a matter of right, that you cancel all the bills you issued to me for the months of April, May and June 2017 and to request that you supply me a prepaid meter to which I am entitled as a consumer. I wish to further appeal that you resolve the above issues within 14 working days, failing which I reserve the right to seek other forms of redress as provided in our laws.
“Finally, as a very responsible consumer, I wish to affirm my willingness to pay promptly and correctly all legitimate, reasonable, accurate and nonfraudulent electricity bills as I have always done in respect of my properties.”
While Agbonifoh threatened to explore other legal means of redress, BEDC neither fulfilled his 14 working-day demand nor tackled his complaint till today. Instead, BEDC is still sending monthly bills to the building even without an occupant or electricity supply in the local government area that it has long removed from national electricity grid without warning. Even when the complainant’s lawyer, Barrister Collins Ojeme, is seeking dialogue with BEDC, the company is insisting on Agbonifoh paying the bills of electricity he was never supplied.
“At the meeting, BEDC said it will not bill me for the next five months if I pay. Yet, they had already told me they don’t have meters,” Agbonifoh explains.
Many customers similarly exploited exercise no respect for the law. In protest, some resort to illegal connection, meter by-pass, theft of electricity and vandalism of electricity facilities.
BEDC denies unfair billing claims
Agbonifoh alleged that BEDC still bills him, with debt of N84, 100.83k by October. But the company tactically lowered his bill after his complaint, bringing November down to N11,032.06k with a warning to his account.
Getting BEDC’s official reaction was as painful as what BEDC customers with complaints experience. Firstly, it demanded for the journalist’s ID-card after being directed on phone by an indisposed BEDC PRO, Tayo Adekunle and days later, physically, by Adekunle’s colleague, Mrs Gloria Mbagwu, on how to get official management reply. Secondly, it demanded to know where his report will be published. Thirdly, it requested and got a formal letter addressed to: The Managing Director, BEDC. After being referred, three weeks later, to Edo State Business Head, Fidelis Obishai, BEDC demanded for more time to “consult” management and sectional heads. Subsequent calls and visitations only yielded result two months later.
Briefly, Mr Obishai failed to satisfactorily explain why BEDC bills customers not connected to electricity. He dismissed Mr Agbonifoh’s petition and denied BEDC ever asked him to pay its bills before getting a meter.
“There is no issue in his petition. He filled a form for a meter. Filling a form is not a qualification for a meter. On his claim of being told to pay, it’s a lie. Nobody pays for energy not used,” Obishai said.
Effort made to clarify at the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) Forum Office on Akpakpava Road was not similarly unsuccessful. Three visitations met a locked office allegedly manned by a serving youth corps member, who doesn’t come to work. The situation aptly buttresses customers’ helplessness and grief. Many believe NERC neither regulates nor is it relevant.
In the view of chief responsibility officer of Josemaria Escriva Foundation, Jude Obasanmi, billing before connection is the new method distributors adopt to raise meter fees unlawfully. He alleged that investigation by civil society groups showed BEDC particularly encouraged its customers to owe bills, from which debts it simply deducts the cost of meters, which are still not given to applicants.
“Agbonifoh’s complaint is not the only one we have. The problem is everywhere. The question is: how did BEDC arrive at billing a house under construction that is not even connected?
What the law says
According Part 13, sections 100-101 (Interpretation and Citation) of the Nigerian Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA) 2005, which lists rights and obligations of electricity customers, “All new electricity connections must be done strictly based on metering before connection. That is, no new customer should be connected by a DisCo without a meter first being installed at the premises.”
The law clarifies: “All customers have a right to a properly installed and functional meter” and added, “All customers have a right to transparent electricity billing” before concluding, “All customers have a right to file complaints and to the prompt investigation of complaints.”
Even under NERC-approved Credited Advance Payment for Metering Initiative (CAPMI), which DisCos implement, customers lamented not getting meters in 60 days while still getting bills.
Billing an unconnected building without meter or electricity and avoiding tackling complains constitute infraction of business rules and regulations. On the other hand, customers’ resort to selfhelp also constitutes infraction of business rules and regulations. They constitute an illegality that is inimical to stable, adequate and safe electricity. to
This report was supported by Whole Soyinka Centre for Investative Journalism (WSCIJ)