Poor supply responsible for attacks on electricity workers

The high spate of attacks on electricity workers and the rate of vandalism in the power sector are the consequences of high bills and poor power supply across the country, the Acting Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Dr. Vincent Akpotaire, has said.

Akpotaire said this when he led a team of BPE officials on a fact finding visit to the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, according to a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Thursday by the Head of Public Communications at the privatisation agency, Mr. Alex Okoh.

The BPE helmsman decried the spate of vandalism of facilities and attacks on employees of power companies across the country and stressed that “these have to do with the gaps in the value chain in terms of tariff, power supply and the willingness of customers to pay, which need to be worked on.”

He enjoined owners of the successor companies of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria to make their rebranding effort to reflect in improved service delivery to consumers in the country.

According to him, no matter their genuine efforts to invest in equipment and infrastructure, “what the Nigerian consumer is concerned with is improved and efficient power supply.”

The BPE boss maintained that the efforts would come to naught if the companies did not impact on the quality of life of their consumers.

“Your effort to improve services is quite impressive but rebranding is not only in colours, but also in the way your operations and services impact on the quality of life of your customers,” Akpotaire told the management of the BEDC.

While advising the company to constantly interact with its customers through town hall meetings and publicity, he enjoined the BEDC to also use the instrumentality of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors to enlighten its customers on a continuous basis.

The BPE boss noted the positive infrastructural transformation by the company in the last two years compared to the dilapidated infrastructure that was the lot of the company when he visited some time ago, adding that if the customers were not enlightened on the efforts being made, the frequent confrontations with the field staff by some communities would not abate.

Akpotaire stressed that the fracas the power distribution companies were engaged in with their customers were tied to the twin issue of perceived high tariffs and poor supply.

In her presentation, the Managing Director, BEDC, Mrs. Funke Osibodu, said the company prides itself in the area of human capital development as it was constantly upgrading its employees at all levels through a Memorandum of Understanding it signed with Elizade University for continuous training of the staff.

Osibodu said for improved commercial operation, the BEDC had engaged a team of professionals from Kosovo through the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development to man strategic business units.

She said the firm was deploying a first-level grid metering monitor, especially for maximum demand customers right from the office.

She also decried the hostile activities of some customers resulting in physical attacks on the workers, vandalism of offices and equipment as well as the destruction of vehicles, which resulted in the shutting down of some stations in Auchi, Edo State, and Sapele in Delta State.