The House of Representatives has summoned the management of the Benin Power Distribution Company (BEDC) and the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to cut out power in other affected areas in Mosogar, Edjemuyafwe and the Delta Western Local Government District for seven years.
The House of Representatives also urged NERC to fulfill its responsibility to monitor and ensure that distribution companies across the country will not continue to thrive in a way that deceives and deceives consumers.
The resolution of the House of Representatives is the sequel to an urgent motion of national importance passed yesterday in the plenary meeting. Ben Rowlands Ibakpa.
Igbakpa said that for about seven years, the main areas of western Ethiopia, especially the communities of Mosogar and Edjemudarho, have been in a state of complete power outages due to BEDC's complete failure to fulfill its responsibilities to distribute electricity/electricity to the affected areas.
He said that BEDC collects bills from customers in a timely manner, but whenever there is a technical problem or failure that requires them to pay attention to repairing the transformers, cables, poles and other assets under its control, the company will waive or waive such responsibilities through mandatory requirements. The customer repairs such failures or provides funds to purchase.
Igbakpa emphasized that since 2015, efforts to purchase transformers (step-down) from BEDC have not yielded results.
He added that in 2016, BEDC made a condition in its memorandum to the community to use step-down transformers to meet the increased power demand of the community due to expansion, requiring the community to repay all outstanding debts, totaling more than N12 hundred. ten thousand.
Igbakpa said: “Despite the timely payment, BEDC brought to the community an unqualified transformer with a low capacity, and the transformer broke down less than two days after installation.
"Also in 2018, the state government stepped down again, which was reluctantly and improperly installed by BEDC and was immediately damaged."
The legislator pointed out that the community again approached the Delta state government at some point in 2020, and two 2.5 KVA transformers were approved for use in Mosogar and divided into two substations.
Igbakpa pointed out that when the project was completed, BEDC refused to supply power for the downgrade, but asked the community to pay a reconnection fee of 10 million guilders, but shortly after BEDC installed the transformer, they crashed again.
Legislators expressed concern that leaders of the affected communities have made multiple efforts to cooperate with BEDC, including paying millions of nairas to provide solutions, but because BEDC failed, refused and or neglected to perform its duties in a credible manner , And therefore no results continue to deprive the community/consumer of millions of naira through their illegal demands.
The House of Representatives resolution: "Invite the management of the Benin Power Distribution Company (BEDC) and the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to interact appropriately to determine the root cause of the long-term lack of power supply or complete failure, and or distribute it to Mosogar, Edjemuoyavwe and The other affected areas of the LGA in western Ethiopia in the Delta state, with a view to finding a lasting solution."
At the same time, the House of Representatives also called on BEDC to restore power supply to the Enuani tribe in Delta.
The resolution of the House of Representatives was made after a motion put forward by Hon, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, was passed. Ndudi Elumelu, in the plenary meeting yesterday.
In the motion, the legislator stated that Enuani is a tribe in the Delta State. The Ba-Uno and Adonte communities are formed.
Elumelu pointed out that due to the dilapidation of the 33KVA line, the power supply of the Enuani family and other nearby communities was cut off, which plunged the entire community into permanent darkness for nearly 20 years.
The legislator emphasized that the power shortage in the past 20 years has brought unspeakable difficulties to the residents of the affected communities and hindered development.
He added that calls to BEDC and the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) to restore electricity in the area through a 2.5MVA line including a substation in Ewulu have been ignored.
Legislators expressed concern that BEDC encourages stakeholders living in affected communities to repair the 11KVA line connected to the area to quickly repair the 33KVA line. Community stakeholders complied and spent N4 million to repair the line, only for BEDC Part of the deal that violated them.
Elumelu lamented that the continuous interruption of community power supply not only brought unspeakable difficulties to the indigenous people, but also brought setbacks and development advantages to neighboring communities, so urgent intervention was needed. Therefore, the House of Representatives authorized the Electricity Committee to communicate with the management of BEDC and the Rural Electrification Bureau on possible ways to restore electricity supply in the affected areas.