The Eko Electricity Distribution Company Plc (EKEDCP) says it has launched “Operation Name and Shame’’ in its continued fight against energy theft within its area of operations.
Mr Oladele Amoda, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, said in a statement in Lagos, on Saturday that the exercise was aimed at fishing out all those engaging in energy theft through meter bypass.
Amoda said that the company would publish names and addresses of customers who engaged in illegal connection or reconnection in both conventional and social media.
This, he said, would be in addition to handing over such culprits caught in the act to law enforcement agencies for possible prosecution.
Amoda said that apart from depriving the company of revenue due to it, energy theft was also an act of economic sabotage capable of derailing the desired total transformation in the energy sector.
He said that the company would not fold its arms and watch some unscrupulous criminal elements preventing it from its goal of rendering best services to its customers.
Amoda said that since energy theft was a crime against the law of the land, law abiding citizens should not aid and abet the perpetrators by keeping quiet when they see such acts being perpetrated in their vicinity.
Amoda, in the statement issued by Mr Godwin ldemudia, the DISCO General Manager, Communications, implored members of the public to report cases of energy theft to the nearest EKEDC office or security agencies.
He enjoined customers to avail themselves of the company’s newly introduced whistle blowing policy, which has enticing rewards for anybody who comes up with useful information leading to the apprehension of energy thieves.
“If we all desire good electricity supply services, we must also be ready to play our part in sanitising electricity supply system and environment in order to rid it of unwholesome practices, “ Amoda said.
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If energy theft is viewed as unwholesome practice, then outrageous, spurious and crazy billing by energy suppliers should also be viewed as such; the forceful takeover by energy suppliers, of power transformers which procurement and installation is fully paid for by a community, should also be viewed as indecent, thievery, wrongful take-over, evil, and all that constitute unwholesome practice.