By Uche Osunkwo
Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) is one of the establishments licensed by the government of Nigeria to buy and sale/distribute electricity energy/power to patrons of public power supply in a large swathe of the Eastern part of the country.
It took that power supply engagement, which is now done on full commercial basis, from the unbundled Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). However, even with the discomforting steady rise in charges following the full commercialization of her services, as well the country’s inflationary trends, no matching improvement in power delivery, for which the private company came in, is being recorded.
Instead of power supply becoming better, what is experienced is its steady dwindling, amidst understandable demand spiral, despite galloping charges and billing.
Supply has continued to remain poor, haphazard and inconsistent for household and commercial purposes.
Far from how it should be, consumers, who are consistently charged more often arbitrarily, experience long periods of ‘no light,’ incidences of destructive power fluctuation by ways of what people describe as ‘power surge’ and ‘half-current,’ which the company doesn’t even care to explain not to talk of paying compensation for.
This is the very unpleasant situation, from which a closer look reveals activities by which EEDC makes undue profit from its costumers’ pain and discomfort. Unjustly and against EEDC’s guiding conditions of service, consumers are compelled to pay for all its supply equipment, including reading metres, wires, poles and transformers, and yet take care of inconsistent charges.
Besides, there is no end to the dirty business deals of the company’s personnel, agents and others operating under its canopy.
From the look of it, there is no reason not to conclude that EEDC is only bent on making maximum profit, not caring about the interests of its costumers!
Uche Osunkwo
