From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Kaduna Electric (operator of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company KAEDCO) has disconnected ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) of Sokoto and Zamfara states over N2.5 billion accumulated debts.
The management of the company said on Saturday that it was forced to disconnect the power supply to all MDAs and other facilities belonging to the two Northwest states after they were issued “demand” as well as “final disconnection notices” by the Company three weeks ago.
“Disconnection is a last resort for us and Kaduna Electric is pained to embark on this course of action”, the Head, Corporate Communication of the Company, Abdulazeez Abdullahi said in a statement on Saturday.
According to him, Sokoto State Government is owing outstanding electricity bills of N1,496,313,156 while Zamfara is owing N1,040,506,730 as of December 2022.
He lamented that the development was not only hindering the operations of the Company but was also making it extremely difficult for the Company to discharge its obligations to the electricity market as well as make the needed investment to improve service delivery.
“It is rather sad to note that Zamfara State Government has not made any payment for its electricity bills for the past 12 months while its Sokoto State Government has defaulted in the last four months”; notwithstanding their accumulated outstanding bills before these periods.
“The Kaduna Electric decided to issue the Demand and Final Disconnection Notices to the two State Governments when the repeated discussions, reminders, and promises by senior officials of the two States were never fulfilled.
“We are obligated to make 100% remittance for the cost of energy consumed in our franchise as well as transmission services and failure always attracts a severe penalty. This is an obligation we are struggling to meet every month to no avail due to poor, non or irregular payment of bills by our customers”, he said.
“We confirm our readiness to restore power supply to the facilities of our customers upon appropriate actions on the settlement of outstanding debts and firm commitments on the payment of current electricity bills going forward”, he added.