Residents capture man for vandalising newly-repaired electrical assets
An electricity vandal identified as Moses Joel, has been apprehended in the process of stealing some critical power assets worth millions of Naira belonging to the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Plc (PHED).
The incident occurred on Saturday, March 15, at about 3:30 a.m., in Eteo, Eleme Local Council, Rivers State.
The vandal, who hails from Delta State and in his twenties, was ambushed by indigenes, who have been keeping vigil due to the spike in criminal activities in the community.
It was gathered that PHED was undertaking the construction and stringing of electrical lines to the community when the suspect suddenly pulled down some poles insulated with copper with a sinister motive to sell them in the unregulated/open market.
Confirming the incident in a statement, PHED’s Head of Corporate Communications, Olubukola Ilevbare, said the photographs of the stolen items were taken but the vandal could not disclose how many times he has sabotaged the company.
She revealed that the company suffers from vandalism almost on a daily basis, noting that the replacement of these critical power assets is capital intensive, and wondered why faceless individuals are determined to threaten the operations of the company.
Ilevbare said the actions of the vandal has undermined the effort of the company in service delivery and has further deprived loyal customers their right to electricity supply.
She, however, commended the indigenes for their action and urged members of the public to be vigilant around the company’s facilities to prevent blackout, financial losses and prolonged downtime respectively.
According to Ilevbare, vandals have completely misconstrued the company’s benevolence as an act of encouragement to continue their evil deeds, warning that it will no longer be business as usual.
“For the purpose of public awareness, there are extant laws guiding the prosecution of electricity offenders not limited to 21 years’ imprisonment, as management is willing to institute litigations against offenders,” she said.
Ilevbare added that the suspect has been handed over to the Onne Divisional Police for interrogation and will assist the law enforcement agency for a wider investigation as well as providing relevant information about his cohorts.
Meanwhile, the management of PHED has enlightened its customers and warned them against all forms of unauthorised access to electricity, meter tampering and by-pass.
The Disco said the move has become imperative as the management of the company has observed with dismay, a spike in electricity related infractions by 25 per cent, which gravely threatens the sustainability of the company.
Ilevbare said the company can no longer bear the shock/bleeding occasioned by these diverse forms of sabotage as she went ahead to enlighten customers on the types of infractions.
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She explained that unauthorised access is a situation where members of the public receive electricity supply without any valid authorisation while meter tampering happens when end users deliberately break the meter seal or meddle with the components in the meter to compromise its functionality.
Ilevbare added that meter bypass, which is the most frequent infraction, is the purposeful diversion of load from the meter to prevent it from accurately reading/recording electricity consumption thereby shortchanging the company.
She revealed that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) recently introduced Order No: NERC/2024/148 with huge fines/penalties to tackle this menace and combat electricity theft and illegal connections.
She provided an extract of the fines/penalties for public awareness as N100, 000 fine for single-phase meter first offenders and N150, 000 for subsequent offenders.
Ilevbare added that the fine for first offenders on Three-Phase Meter is N200, 000 and N300, 000 for subsequent offenders, while for non metered customers, it is N100, 000 and N150, 000 for first offenders and subsequent offenders respectively.
According to her, there are other administrative/sundry charges applicable to these infractions.
She also stated that the management of the company is collaborating with the law enforcement agencies to prosecute serial offenders in line with extant laws.
She advised members of the public, especially those residing in the Woji axis of Port Harcourt, to desist from every form of energy theft and report any suspected case through the 24/7 call centre line on 070022557433 or social media handles.
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