The Chief Executive Officer of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, Kingsley Achife, on Monday said the residential consumers in Ogun State owed the company over N67bn.
Achife urged members of the public never to cover staff of the company indulging in unwholesome practices as about 10 of such erring staff had been sacked in the last five months.
He disclosed this at a community engagement held at the IBEDC headoffice, Leme, Abeokuta, for its customers within Abeokuta metropolis and Sagamu.
Achife, who was represented by the Lead Media Relations Officer, IBEDC, Ibadan, Mrs Busolami Tunwase, said consumers should to pay their debts to avoid disconnection.
He said the company called for the engagement with the customers to seek better working relationships, and to particularly appeal to them to help in paying their debts which was now becoming a source of concern to the company.
Achife said “We have called this meeting to seek better working relationships with our customers but this we cannot do if they are not paying for the services being rendered.
“As we speak customers in Ogun State are owing us over N67bn, this is very huge and we all know that no business can survive with suffocating debt like this. So we are appealing to them to pay up before we begin to disconnect them.
“Another issue is that of theft of the energy whereby the customers are short-changing the company. They are either not paying for what they use or not paying completely for the energy consumed.”
SOURCE: PUNCHNG