BEDC Receives Over 459,000 Complaints In Eleven Months

Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) Plc, says it received over 459, 000 complaints from consumers from January to November, this year.

Abel Enechaziam,Chief Head of BEDC,who disclosed this at a programme tagged Consumer Complaint Resolution Platform organised by the Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, and support from MacArthur Foundation held in Benin City,said the company has treated over 455,000 of the complaints.

Enechaziam said the company has given its workers mandate to treat every complaint as it comes without delay and that they have been doing just that.

Enechaziam urged customers to always chennel their complaints to the approriate quarter rather than depending on a friend who works in the company just as he asked complaints to always ask for the ticket number of their complaints for easy tracking than submitting them (complaints) without being able to track them.

While venting his anger at the event over what he tagged over billings, Counsel to the Hotel Proprietors of Nigeria, Edo State, Mr. Peter Askhaimo, Esq., on behalf of his clients, said he had this year written over 40 letters to the management of BEDC but with no response.

He added that he invited the Nigerian Electricity Management Service Agency, NEMSA, to carry out routine check on facilities in his clients’ premises after which BEDC was directed to supply NEMSA-sealed meters to his clients, lamenting that till now nothing has been done.

“I invited NEMSA who came in official capacity to carry out routine check on the facilities and the functioning capacity in all the premises of my clients. The outcome of that investigation was that BEDC should within a time frame supply NEMSA-sealed meters to my clients, but up till this moment, BEDC is adamant and still threatening my clients with over billing.

“The first question is, what is responsible for this over billing and high tariff of from NGN900,000 to roughly NGN4m in a month. A situation whereby hotel paid up to NGN5m monthly is unhealthy,” he lamented.