By Oriri Peter

The Managing Director, Jos Electricity Distribution Plc, Engr Abdu Bello Mohammed has commended the Executive Governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya for supporting the company in terms of prompt payment for energy consumed by the state government.

In a statement issued by Dr. Friday Adakole Elijah, head, Corporate Communications the Managing Director called on Customers in Gombe State to help by timeously paying for their consumed energy to extricate the company from its current state of financial quagmire.

Engr Mohammed made the call last Thursday in Gombe at the Customers Consultative Forum organized by the company to educate and sensitize the customers on the current happening in the energy sector.

Represented by the Regional Manager, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, the Managing Director who decried customers’ refusal to pay for their consumed energy said that the behaviour was colossally impinging on the company’s quest to solidify its networks to the desired level even though several billions of naira had been expended by the company in this direction.

“As at the moment, customers are indebted to the company to the tune of over one hundred and twenty billion naira (N120B) Company-wide. If you do not pay, how do we get money to invest in our networks?”, he asked.

He said when there were natural disasters in the Gombe and Bauchi axis of the company’s operations where some installations were affected, “we moved in expeditiously and fixed them. Regularly, our distribution transformers are being vandalised and we are fixing them. We are expected to pay to the market where we obtain this energy on credit. If you don’t pay, how do we pay for this energy that we give to you? I don’t think that any one of us can go to the filling station, take fuel and not pay for it”.

Also Speaking, the Chief Security Officer, Alhaji Musa Abdullahi called on communities and security agencies in the state to help safeguard electricity installations in the state.

He said even though the company had exhibited a tremendous commitment to the protection of its facilities, the menace of vandals and energy thefts has become torn in the company’s flesh.

To stem this tide, Alhaji Abdullahi called for concerted and collaborative efforts by members of the public and the various security agencies operating in the state saying, “When there is a case of vandalism in any community, the socioeconomic life of such community will be in quandary while the safety of the people in the affected areas will be in jeopardy”.

In his presentation, the Head, Customers Complainants and Relationship Management, Lucky Akpobi admonished customers not to shy away from coming forth with their complaints when the need arises saying that as a service provider they were ready to serve the company 24/7.

In his words, ” You can channel your complaints to any of our offices or our social media handle and you will be attended to “.

Also, in his exhibition, the Coordinator, Meters Asset Providers (MAP), Engr Nasir Abubakar called on customers to take advantage of the scheme saying the only sure way to measure consumed energy by the customers “is to be metered”.

He assured customers that once they were able to provide evidence of payments for the MAP meters, they would be metered within ten working days.

He told customers not to shy away from the metering scheme because of their outstanding debt disclosing that the company had developed a flexible payment method.

According to him, “When you acquire a meter, your debt will be migrated to the meter and you will be asked to go into an agreement with the company on how much you can afford to pay per month. You can spread the payments to 12 months or more as the case may be. Nobody is going to force you to pay all in one swoop”.

In their various contributions, the representative of the District Head of Bolari, Alhaji Sa’ad Idris Bolari, Professor M. S. Saidu of the Federal University, Kashare, Hajia Fatima Galadima – Hammadu Kafi among others thanked the management of Jos Electricity Distribution Plc for the enlightenment programme.