Abuja Electricity Distribution (AEDC) has decried increasing incidents of vandalization of electrical assets and installations across its franchise area.
Donald Etim, the chief marketing officer of AEDC, said about 185 meters of XLPE underground cable was recently carted away at the central business area, FCT, valued at over N5 million.
AEDC’s franchise area covers the Federal Capital Territory, Niger, Kogi and Nasarawa States.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Etim said “these incidents have impeded the company’s ability to deliver stable and reliable power supply to its esteemed customers.
“The surge in cases of vandalism within our franchise area has become quite worrisome, especially so because these vandals lately; increasingly utilise unfathomable methods to perpetrate their criminal acts.
“This technique upgrade to their evil trade has emboldened the thieves to attack more of urban assets and installations of late, thereby affecting higher customer densities.”
He stated that following its sincere desire to ensure improved power supply, the company’s management last year activated some technical and commercial projects as well as procure and install various electrical equipment worth millions of naira.
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“Unfortunately, many of these installations are currently being vandalised across the network, causing very painful power supply disruptions, untold hardship and losses to its customers, and huge financial and reputation losses to the company.
“AEDC will never relent on its efforts to ensure it provides adequate uninterrupted power supply hence the company’s continued investments in network upgrades, refurbishment of faulty transformers, procurement of new transformers as well as the construction of new feeders and lines to relieve existing ones.
Etim further noted that the company in effort to boost its metering drive has commenced taking meters out to customer cluster locations and getting them metered within 24 hours.
“There are at least 27 such locations currently operational within our franchise today, excluding our formal offices. We have launched multiple payment channels, including USSD short codes, that allow our customers vend power at zero commission.
“We have also launched a verify-staff platform that enables customers, for their safety, to quickly verify AEDC visitors to their premises by simply inputting the said staff’s ID card number into a link connected directly to our website.
“Detailed information on how these innovations work can be found on our AEDC website, kindly visit www.abujaelectricity.com for these and other goodies.
“Also, as part of efforts to curb the menace of vandalism on its network, the Management of AEDC has strengthened its collaboration with security agencies such as Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Community leaders, and even recently set up a Civilian JTF component,” he added.
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