Ikeja Electric (IE), one of the electricity distribution companies in Nigeria, has failed to comply with a ruling by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) asking that it refund N89,712 to Olaide Olatunbosun, an overbilled Lagos resident.

Olatunbosun told EQ on October 17 that he had noticed that his prepaid meter, provided by IE, was no longer accepting electricity tokens after several recharge attempts in October 2022.

He said that as soon as he saw this, he sent a complaint to IE three days later but they could not solve the problem. He said he bought new tokens but the issue persisted.

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Three months down the line, in February 2023, Olatunbosun said IE told him the meter was faulty and would require a replacement but didn’t pick it up until July of the same year.

But this was the beginning of his troubles as they placed him on direct connection without a meter and issued him a meter retrieval document.

A screenshot of NERC’s ruling on the case.

“When they picked the meter, I made it clear to them that I did not want to be connected to the direct connection but rather they provided me with a makeshift one until they fixed the one they took away,” he told EQ.

“But they plugged me into the direct connection and didn’t bring me a bill until December of the same year.”

IE admitted in a mail nearly one month after the ruling that it had failed to comply with the order.

Olatunbosun said when they brought him the estimated billing after he had vehemently refused one, he realised that he was charged N100,000 even though his monthly consumption was N8,000.

“Between December and March when they finally returned my meter, I received estimated billings totalling N259,245 from IE. They gave me a bill of N56,822 in January, N58,098 in February and N43,575 in March,” Olatunbosun told EQ.

He further said that when he complained to IE about this, they made a credit of N55,210 to his account but it was not up to the amount he was overbilled.

The Lagos resident said he escalated the issue to the Ikeja Forum, a body set up by the NERC, to entertain appeals from customers after they are left unresolved by their distribution companies, with the complaint number: IFO/NERC/2024/05/10548.

Olatunbosun said he approached the forum and demanded that they cancel his outstanding debt, credit his account with N41,336.56 (the excess payment he had made at the time), and compensation for the pain of paying the excess billings amid scarce resources.

He told EQ that he was shocked when the matter was presented before the forum and IE made false claims that they made a credit adjustment of N105,373.38 rather than N55,210.

“Meanwhile, IE also reported that their adjustment was based on an average monthly consumption of 118.5 kilowatt-hours ( kWh) which is N7,959.65/month at N67.17/kWh for my account,” Olatunbosun explained.

“Eventually, the forum ruled that Ikeja Electric should make a further adjustment within one billing cycle (one month) and also give me evidence of the adjustment they have made so far.

“However, my enquiry to Ikeja Electric later revealed that no cumulative adjustment of N105,373.38 was ever made to my electricity account.”

Olatunbosun said when it became clear that the distribution would not comply with the rulings of NERC, he again contacted the regulatory agency in August.

However, NERC failed to intervene further in Olatunbosun’s case.

“I escalated the non-compliance to the regulator, NERC, in August 2024 but the NERC responses have been fruitless ever since and it eventually ignored my emails and reminders,” he told EQ.

“What I want is for Ikeja Electric to credit my bank account with N89,712.66, being the total excess payment made to date; Ikeja Electric should be sanctioned for “lying” and misleading the Ikeja Forum and adequate compensation should be paid to me for going through the pain of mandatory payment of the excess bills before I could recharge my prepaid meter in the midst of scarce resources.”

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EQ sent an email to Ikeja Electric, copying NERC, on October 30 but there was no response from the distribution company at press time.

NERC in their response on October 31 asked that the customer supply his meter number, after doing so, in another response on November 1, they asked that the customer send his complaints to the nearest forum office.

“We acknowledge the receipt of your complaint on the above subject. In line with the Commission’s Customer Protection Regulations 2023, all complaints on your electricity supply and other billing issues are to be sent to the Customer Complaints Unit of the nearest Business Unit of your Electricity Distribution Company. If your request is not satisfactorily addressed, you can forward your complaint to your Forum Office,” NERC said.
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