Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) yesterday sealed the Ikeja Electric (IE) headquarters in Lagos over alleged refusal to comply with a Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) directive to unbundle a Maximum Demand (MD) customer account into 20 Non-Maximum Demand (NMD) residential units, a dispute that has left the complainant without electricity for more than two years.

The enforcement, led by the FCCPC’s Director of Surveillance and Investigation, Bola Adeyinka, followed months of regulatory correspondence, including an April 2025 directive and a Compliance Notice issued on October 2, which the commission said IE failed to honour within the required seven business days.

Documents made available to The Guardian, including IE’s detailed compliance response dated October 14, 2025, showed that the DisCo informed the FCCPC that the property in question, a hotel located in the Akute axis, remained a single consolidated structure and not a residentiallock comprising 19 flats, as claimed by the complainant, Providence Nominees & Real Estate Ltd.

In the letter, IE explained that a NERC Forum ruling (Appeal No. IFO/NERC/2024/10/11127) had instructed it to unbundle the existing MD account and provide 20 NMD prepaid meters. However, the company told the FCCPC it conducted a site inspection and found that the premises had not been converted into separate dwelling units, lacked low-voltage sub-networking, and remained connected through a single MD configuration.

According to the technical assessment contained in the documents, IE said the transformer configuration and MD supply line had not changed, there was no verifiable physical structure showing residential partitioning, the internal network required to safely support 20 NMD meters did not exist and implementing the unbundling could pose safety and regulatory compliance risks.

The company insisted that its position did not represent disobedience or unfair tactics but was guided by “technical, operational and safety considerations.”But the FCCPC maintained that Ikeja Electric breached a binding regulatory order and ignored multiple opportunities to comply voluntarily.

In a statement issued by the FCCPC, Adeyinka said the enforcement action was carried out in accordance with the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA) 2018 after months of unheeded reminders.

The commission noted that NERC had issued a binding order directing IE to recognise 19 residential units and a service point as independent customer units and to provide metering and connection accordingly. The FCCPC stated that the complainant had been without electricity for over two and a half years, despite paying all required charges.

According to the commission, the prolonged lack of supply has prevented the complainant from utilising the residential units. The FCCPC also disclosed that it reminded IE of the outstanding NERC order several times; issued a directive in April 2025 outlining steps for compliance; issued a Compliance Notice on October 2, giving the firm seven business days to act, yet “no action was taken,” prompting Thursday’s sealing.

Ikeja Electric, however, warned that the sealing of its corporate headquarters by FCCPC could trigger widespread operational disruptions across its network if not quickly resolved, describing the action as disproportionate and potentially damaging to electricity supply coordination.

For now, the seal remains on the company’s headquarters, with IE calling for renewed dialogue to prevent disruptions to electricity supply, while the FCCPC insists compliance must precede any reopening.

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