…Alleged Unbridle Extortion Of Customers, Corruption
By Wole Adedeji in Kaduna
As there seems to e no way out of the poor electricity supplies in Nigeria each day, one of the electricity distribution companies in the country, the Kaduna Electric, may be in big trouble, as its consumers have accused it of shortchanging them and extorting them.
A check by this reporter, who was on a visit to Kaduna and experienced a worse power supply in the Northern city than other places across the country, showed that there could be more than meets the eyes in the operations of Kaduna Electric.
Findings revealed that the activities of multi-billion naira industries like Peugeot Automobiles Nigeria, PAN, Limited, Kaduna Furniture and Carpets Company, KFCC, and several others are almost grounded when this reporter visited the factories.
They were seen operating at about less than five per cent of their production capacity, described by them as skeletal productions.
A resident of Kaduna, Alhaji Danladi Umar of the Federal Housing Estate, who first spoke with this reporter said that Kaduna Electric had subjected its customers to untold hardships in recent time, because of its gross under-services and poor customer relations.
Alhaji Umar said that aside irregular services to customers, Kaduna Electric also, with brazen acts of impunity, supplies power on occcassions it wishes, providing customers with only a maximum of two hours per day and that is if it does at all, accusing it also of supplying to selected areas.
This includes the Government Reservation Area, GRA in the metropolis.
Another resident, Mallam Sunkur Ado, who spoke with this reporter at Kazua market said, “We are made to pay for electricity we do not consume by force. I have pre-paid meter in my house, but Kaduna Electric compels us to recharge every month, whether we have used up our card or not.”
Another consumer, Richard Okoli, a trader at Abuja junction, said, “I understand this Kaduna Electric people want us to keep recharding so that they can meet up with the target they were given in order to escape the big hammer of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN. They dont care whether we enjoy electricity or not. For more than one year now, I have been using solar in my house after using generator to recharge its inverter. My brother, na trouble we dey o.”
At the PAN Limited, the complex of the Franco-Nigerian outfit was like a ghost community. The carcas of a Peugeot 304 was seen placed on some kind of stand, while the number of staff one can see in the premises could not be more than 20.
A source however said that the car carcas seen was meant for staff training. The few staff seen walking around, however, did not look like trainees. They were not putting on overalls, neither were they seen in any workshop.
The situation at the Kaduna Furniture and Carpet Company, KFCC, was extremely bad. The company that had been in operation since the Second Republic is said to value billions of naira by today’s factory estimate.
Painting a gloomy picture of the company in an interview with this reporter, the duo of Alhaji Abdulnuhaminu Dauda and Engr. Shamsudeen Sanusi, General Manager, Production and the Company Production Engineer, respectively said that the KFCC on the 16th of May, 2023 in particular, as a multi billion company that it is, enjoyed only 30 minutes of public power supply.
According to them, that supply was even during the break time and was the climax of their terrible ordeal in the hands of Kaduna Electric since this terrible power supply began few months back, gettin worst by the day. The electricity distribution company, they said, began to supply them 40 hours of electricity in five days, then it nose dived into 10 hours in five days, making it two hours per day and this is even done on Sundays, when KFCC might not be producing.
These top managers of KFCC further disclosed that their plight, which precisely began four years ago was that as against the old regular supply, the electricity company began by supplying power early in the morning till noon, then resume later in the afternoon till 5 pm. With time, it got limited to the harmathan period of November to January.
They added that it is by the end of January each year, that electricity supplies begin to collapse again and this had been the situation for four years running.
They said, “We have 850 kva, 500 kva and 60 kva generators, which we use to generate alternative power supply, which initially was gulping N1 million, later N3 million, which is not in any way profitable to keep producing, but we still keep on producing at far below our production capacity. We have laid off reasonsble number of our staff, but that had not helped in anyway. We just cannot shut down baring in mind the harsh effects on the workers. Its like we are doing charity services now.
“It is sad that despite this poor services of Kaduna Electric, electricity tariff is still increased, a development that does not in anyway reflect their services to the public. They should either proof that they are ready to serve the people or not. At this rate, for us to keep afloat, we will need about N50 million monthly to generate power for production.”
This reporter was at the offfice of Kaduna Electric, located along Kazua-Kawo area of the metropolis to get clarifications on issues raised, but its Head of Corporate Communications, Mallam AbdulAzees Abdullahi, simply said, “I am not aware of these complaints you are talking about.”
