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By Bitrus Osagie
The Jos Electricity Distribution Plc (JED), has appealed to residents of Gombe State to protect power installations from suspected vandals.
Mr Abdu Mohammed, the Managing Director, JED, made the call while speaking at a Customer Forum, on Thursday in Gombe.
He said the call was imperative in view of the negative impact of vandalism to both the company and customers.
Represented by Mr Saad Abubakar, the Manager, Gombe Regional Office, Mohammed said the call was in the interest of customers and residents to ensure that power installations were well protected.
According to the Mohammed, JEDC could only render services if those installations are intact, adding that “this is why we are saying help us to serve you”.
He said the protection of such equipment from suspected vandals remained a shared responsibility, hence the engagement with residents and stakeholders to ensure that installations are protected to render services.
“We are very particular about the need to grow businesses by providing the energy requirement for young Nigerians to contribute to national development.
“This is why the call to protect our installations is always consistent because any act of vandalism would also affect small and micro businesses that depend on our services for their energy needs.
“So, we seek all stakeholders support to fight against vandalism in any forms and other acts that are inimical to our collective progress,” he said.
Mohammed further urged residents not to tamper with metres installed in their houses and not to engage in energy theft.
He enjoined customers to settle their outstanding debts as JED continue to install free metres to more households in the state.
While assuring customers of better service delivery, Mohammed said the company was planning to establish Doma Region to further strengthen its capacity at improving customers’ satisfaction.
Also, Mr Musa Abdullahi, the Chief Security Officer, JED, stressed need for collaboration between the company and its customers in view of the negative implication of vandalism in its franchise.
He said with over 8, 000 transformers in its franchise securing them from vandalism could not be done by JED alone, hence the need for the residents to partner with them.
“Each day we experience four transformers per day that were vandalised in our franchise states and in trying to fix them we spend N1 million on the average.
“If you are using N4 million per day, you can imagine the loss in a month, so this is serious,” he said.
One of the participants, Mr Thomas Johnson, commended JEDC for the engagement towards improving service delivery.
Johnson said the meeting would help customers to present their complaints and provide suggestions towards enhancing effective service delivery.