Mkpoikana Udoma
23 June 2018, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt — The issue of estimated billing, epileptic power supply, illegal disconnection and complete power outage in Port Harcourt and its environs is now a source of concern to Civil Society Organizations in Rivers State.
These were top of the agenda at the town hall meeting between the Civil Society Organizations and the management of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, PHED.
A Human Rights Activist and former leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, Mr. Ledum Mitee advised consumers to understand the billing system so as to take legal action where their rights are breached.
Mitee who is also a lawyer regretted that Nigerians are passive with their rights.
“Rights are guaranteed to consumers under the law, but rights on their own do not make an impact, rights only have a life when citizens struggle for those rights.
“Citizens in this part of the world have been very passive if all of us speak out our voice becomes very thunderous. People must get up and struggle for their rights and that is what will guarantee those rights.
“People can go out to complain, people can march in groups to protest their rights, people can also go to court when they feel their rights have been trampled,” Mitee urged.
Also speaking, the Chairman of CSO in the state, Mr. Enefa Georgewill, called on the distribution company to comply with legal rules covering power supply and their services to consumers.
According to him, “PHED should follow the regulations as stipulated by law. Their staff who do not represent the aspiration of the company should be punished.
“PHED should have a mechanism to know what ought to be done and make punishment where necessary. They should use more modern ways of administering and monitoring their staff’s activities. They should do a staff audit and rejig on their staff activities.”
For his part, the Manager, Customer Services, PHED Dr. Godwin Orovwiroro, who assured customers of quality service delivery, said the company has put in place mechanism to check energy theft, estimated billing and other sundry issues affecting her customers.
“On our part, we have engaged some quality assurance team that goes round to look at our meters and see how they are performing.
“We also have our team of engineers looking at the lines, we have decided to segment our lines to commercial lines and critical lines for the purpose of quality service delivery.”
