By Desmond Ejibas
Port Harcourt – The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED), says its has suffered N25 million revenue loss from energy theft by suspected top officials of De Choice Shopping Maĺl, Uyo, Akwa Ibom.
The Head of Corporate Communications, (PHED), Mr John Anonyai, made the disclosure in a statement which was made available to the New Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
Anonyai however said the Police Command in Akwa Ibom had arrested the officials, after a PHED team uncovered the meter by-pass, which calculations showed resulted in N25 million revenue loss to the company.
He said that the key officials of the shopping mall had subsequently been arraigned at the Magistrates’ Court in Uyo on a two-count charge.
He said that prior to the discovery, different PHED teams who visited to check the integrity of the mall’s meter on separate occasions, were denied entry into the facility.
“Our team made the discovery with the assistance of law enforcement agents after thorough investigation on the shopping mall’s meter installation and validity.
“In the course of checking the meter, we discovered that the customer bypassed their installed meter and connected the bulk of their energy load directly to the electric pole.
“This illegal connection resulted in the non-capturing of the entire energy consumption by the installed meter,” he said.
The head of corporate corporate communications further said that the PHED technical team also found a separate change-over switch installed by the customer to make it difficult to detect the fraud.
“So, besides the central change-over panel, our team found another change-over panel where bulk of their energy was diverted from their meter.
“To further lay credence to the discovery, our team switched off the central change-over panel and found out that only a section of the mall had no electricity supply.
“In the course of doing this, we discovered that the other section was still powered with the energy not recorded by the meter at the premises,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of PHED, Dr Henry Ajagbawa, has decried the hundreds of millions naira revenue losses recorded by the company to energy theft, meter bypass and vandalism on monthly basis.
According to the spokesman, Ajagbawa said the losses adversely affected PHED’s operations and expansion drive of the company, and warned perpetrators of their arrest and prosecution in court.
NAN reports that PHED distributes electricity to users in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers states. (NAN)
