An Electricity Consumer Protection Forum has called for the speedy passage of the bill seeking to criminalise estimated billings by Electricity Distribution Companies in the country.
Its National Coordinator, Adeola Samuel-Ilori, made the call in an interview with newsmen in Lagos on Monday.
Samuel-Ilori reacting to a recent resolution of the Senate which urged the Federal Government to explore nuclear options in resolving Nigeria’s energy crisis said that Nigeria was not adequately prepared to operate nuclear reactors.
According to him, lawmakers should rather focus their efforts on ending estimated billings in the country’s power sector which will make the Discos stand up to their responsibilities.
“It is wrong for a community to be tasked to contribute money to buy electricity poles, cables and transformers and as soon as this is done, they become the property of the distribution companies.
“The Discos will come in, without taking the actual meter reading, send outrageous bills to the consumers for electricity never consumed.
“If they are questioned about the exploitation, they will come and remove the cables bought by the community and put the locality in darkness.
“To worsen matters, the community will still eventually pay re-connection fees for them to return the cables,” Samuel-Ilori said.
According to him, the Discos even go as far as setting monthly revenue targets for their personnel despite the epileptic power supply to Nigerians.
Samuel-Ilori noted that the ongoing Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme should be intensified to cover more areas in order to protect electricity consumers.
While on Senate resolution on nuclear energy issue, he said that there was nothing currently on ground to encourage its usage in the country.
“How can a nation that has no nuclear weapon development base generate realtor or fission talk about using nuclear power for energy purpose?
“Do we even have what it takes to develop nuclear power not to talk of using it for generating electricity supply?
“We have sun and wind in abundance yet they are not thinking along that line.
“We have coal-and water-generated energy for people’s usage, they are not encouraging its usage as done by other countries.
“They are thinking of using nuclear power that is been phased out by many western countries including Asian countries to generate power which is not feasible,” he said.
