The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has closed down the main office of Ikeja Electric Distribution Company (IKEDC) in the Alausa area of Lagos. The Commission said the company’s office was closed because it violated consumer rights.
According to FCCPC’s Director of Surveillance and Investigation, Bola Adeyinka, this action follows the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA) 2018.Adeyinka said in a statement on Thursday, “Sealing this facility is a fair enforcement action that was taken only after repeated communication and several chances for the company to fix the issue voluntarily.
He added, “The seal will stay until Ikeja Electric fully follows the instructions from both NERC and FCCPC and shows written proof that they have done so.”
IKEDC’s Head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Kingsley Okotie, responded to the situation, saying the company will keep talking with the Commission to fix the problem quickly. Okotie explained that the issue with FCCPC was due to a single case where a customer asked for multiple meters.
He said, “The non-compliance issue refers to a customer who used their property as a hotel with one maximum demand meter and later changed it to residential, asking for 20 non-maximum meters at the same address.” He noted that changing this is not simple and that the company had already tried to explain this to FCCPC. Discussing how the closure will affect the company’s operations, Okotie said that all activities take place at the headquarters and could have been affected, but the company is doing everything to keep things running smoothly.
He added, “Our main goal is to make sure power supply continues as long as we have power on our feeders.”
However, he mentioned that the company will continue working with the consumer watchdog to resolve the issue in a friendly way.Last year, in November, the FCCPC threatened to fine IKEDC and Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDP) if they ignored its order to stop replacing Unistar prepaid meters immediately.This order was because the DisCos did not follow the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (NERC) instructions.Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the FCCPC, Mr. Tunji Bello, stressed that NERC’s order requires DISCOs to focus on metering for unmetered customers under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) and to strictly follow guidelines when replacing faulty or old meters.