Since September 20, Dare Oguntuase, a businessman based in Lagos, has watched power light up in every other home except his. When the power alarm goes off and everyone screams for joy, he only sighs and hopes Ikeja Electric (IE), the distribution company, return his prepaid meter.

Oguntuase told EQ on Monday that Ikeja Electric came to pick up the prepaid meter after they replaced his analogue meter, which was working fine, with a new one on August 8. He explained that he only used the new prepaid meter for two days before it became faulty.

He said he notified the official who came to install the meter as soon as he noticed the fault. The same official confessed to Oguntuase that the meter was faulty before installation. He said that after several weeks of back and forth, Ikeja Electric sent Oloture Sunday, one of their engineers, who came to pick it up. Since then, Oguntuase has been living without power from Ikeja Electric.

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“The new meter was brought to my house to replace my functional analogue meter. They installed it on August 8, but two days later I noticed it was not coming on,” Oguntuase told EQ.

Oguntuase’s meter retrieval form.

“I communicated this with Ikeja Electric, and this was when the installer told me that the prepaid meter was faulty. He knew before the setup but didn’t tell me.

“Two days after the setup was done, I paid N33,000 to buy energy credit but I could not load the Key Change Tokens (KCT). I wrote back to Ikeja Electric and they sent the installer.

“When he visited my home again, he still could not load it and then a few weeks later, they sent Sunday to pick it up, and he told me to endure for seven days as a replacement will be sent.

“I insisted I do not want a direct connection because I anticipated I won’t be able to cope with their estimated billing.”

The businessman said after the seven days Oloture promised for the replacement of the meter elapsed, he started to send reminders to Ikeja Electric but all they did was apologise for the delay without providing him with a replacement.

“The unfortunate part of it is that except for the apology emails I was getting from Ikeja Electric’s customer care, no one is giving me concrete details about what is going on between Ikeja Electric and Calin Meter, the manufacturer of the prepaid meter,” Oguntuase told EQ.

“I never could have imagined I could be kept in darkness for 60 days when I was told the replacement would only last seven days.

“But what is now the benefit of replacing my analogue meter that was working with a prepaid meter I couldn’t use?”

He also said that the lack of power supply to his house had pushed him out of it.

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EQ sent an email to Ikeja Electric on Monday to ask why the meter replacement was taking too long.

In their response on Tuesday, Ikeja Electric requested the customer’s postpaid account number, meter retrieval form and reachable phone number. After providing the details, they sent another response on Wednesday stating that Oguntuase’s complaint was receiving attention and “a follow-up has been initiated to expedite resolution”.

Oguntuase confirmed to EQ on Thursday afternoon that he had since paid N137,000 for a new prepaid meter as he could not continue to remain in darkness.
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