The Ikeja Electric (IE) has refused to comply with a recent Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) recommendation for the company to remove arbitrary debts it imposed on the occupants of an apartment building in Abesan Estate, Ipaja area of Lagos State.

In October, FCCPC made the recommendation and also included a full refund of all sums IE deducted after the agency found the distribution company guilty of corrupt practices.The Demand Notice the Tenants’ Lawyer Sent to IE

“IE has refused to comply with the resolution reached by the FCCPC,” said Anike Starmer (not real name), one of the residents of the house, in an interview with FIJ on Thursday evening.

“Our lawyer also recently sent the electricity company a demand notice and shockingly, they did not budge till the seven-day ultimatum that was given to them in the letter expired.

“The demand notice ultimatum expired on November 21.

“As I speak to you, IE has not addressed the FCCPC’s recommendations.

“What we plan to do at the moment is to take them to court. That’s our last resort. IE has continued to ignore the resolution reached.”

BACKGROUND

On October 25, FIJ reported how the FCCPC found IE guilty of corrupt practices after inflating the electricity bills at the Abesan Estate apartment Starmer and other occupants reside in.

Prior to this, the newspaper published a report on how one Babajide Ososanya, an IE marketing officer, inflated the electricity bills of the house after his demand for a bribe from Starmer and other residents was turned down.

When the IE staff could not get any money from the residents, he issued them an underbilling notice and left.

In the weeks that followed, the residents of the building were shocked when they discovered that they had been blocked from buying electricity tokens.

Apart from being prevented from purchasing tokens, the residents also later discovered that ‘arbitrary debts’ of N463,845, N244,362 and N218,030 had been imposed on eight out of 14 prepaid meters at the residence.

The arbitrary amounts were reflected on the meters after Ososanya carried out his strange inspection on them in April.

When the restriction was eventually lifted and the residents were able to load units on the meters, they discovered that the debts that had been imposed on the metres were automatically being deducted from the fresh units they loaded.

When the residents visited the IE office at Akowonjo for a resolution, another official demanded a penalty payment of N120,000 from them.

The official described the sum as a precondition for restoring the electricity supply.

The residents further wrote many letters and emails to the distribution company, but they were not responded to. (Foundation For Investigative Journalism)