Nairametrics
  • Home
  • Exclusives
    • Financial Analysis
    • Corporate Stories
    • Interviews
    • Investigations
    • Metrics
  • Markets
    • Cryptos
    • Commodities
    • Equities
      • Dividends
      • Stock Market
    • Fixed Income
    • Market Views
    • Securities
  • Industries
    • Company News
    • Consumer Goods
    • Content Partners
    • Corporate deals
    • Corporate Press Releases
    • Energy
    • Entertainment
    • Financial Services
    • Hospitality & Travel
    • Manufacturing
    • Real Estate and Construction
    • Tech News
  • Economy
    • Get Data
    • Macro-Economic News
    • Research Analysis
  • Business News
  • Financial Literacy
    • Career tips
    • Personal Finance
  • Lifestyle
    • Billionaire Watch
    • Profiles
  • Opinions
    • Blurb
    • Op-Eds
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Exclusives
    • Financial Analysis
    • Corporate Stories
    • Interviews
    • Investigations
    • Metrics
  • Markets
    • Cryptos
    • Commodities
    • Equities
      • Dividends
      • Stock Market
    • Fixed Income
    • Market Views
    • Securities
  • Industries
    • Company News
    • Consumer Goods
    • Content Partners
    • Corporate deals
    • Corporate Press Releases
    • Energy
    • Entertainment
    • Financial Services
    • Hospitality & Travel
    • Manufacturing
    • Real Estate and Construction
    • Tech News
  • Economy
    • Get Data
    • Macro-Economic News
    • Research Analysis
  • Business News
  • Financial Literacy
    • Career tips
    • Personal Finance
  • Lifestyle
    • Billionaire Watch
    • Profiles
  • Opinions
    • Blurb
    • Op-Eds
No Result
View All Result
Nairametrics
No Result
View All Result
Home Business News Legal & Judiciary

Court orders Abuja Disco to pay a customer N10million for “illegal disconnection” of prepaid meter

Justina Mboho by Justina Mboho
November 17, 2021
in Legal & Judiciary, Legislature & Judiciary, Spotlight
Court orders Abuja Disco to pay a customer N10million for “illegal disconnection” of prepaid meter
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linkedin

An Abuja High Court has ordered the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company Plc. (AEDC) to pay a customer, Ifeyinwa Ikeatuegwu the sum of N10 million for unlawful disconnection of her prepaid metre.

Justice K.N Ogbonnaya made this ruling in Abuja on Friday, December 11, 2020, following a suit filed against AEDC by Ikechukwu Ikogwe, the plaintiff’s counsel on her behalf.

In her ruling, Justice Ogbonnaya ordered the defendant (AEDC) to pay the plaintiff the sum of N10 million as exemplary and punitive damage for illegally disconnecting her electricity without due notice. She also ordered AEDC to pay the plaintiff the sum of one thousand naira daily until the day AEDC reconnects her electricity supply.

RelatedPosts

Court jails sitting senator, Peter Nwaoboshi, for 7 years over money laundering charges

Why court awarded Nigerian musician N20 million in damages against MTN, others

Read: Abacha loot monitoring: Court dismisses suit by consultants challenging their disqualification

Backstory

On May 7, 2020, two AEDC officials visited the plaintiff’s residence to inspect her prepaid metre. After touching the prepaid metre, they accused her of tampering with the metre and slammed a N200 thousand fine on her and requested her presence in their office.

Three days later, the AEDC officials returned to her residence and disconnected her electricity supply without any issuance of a notice of disconnection as stipulated by the law governing connection and disconnection of electricity supply in Nigeria.

On June 16, 2020, the plaintiff (Ifeyinwa) instituted the suit against the defendant (AEDC) marked FCT/CV/1849/20 seeking among others, an order of the court compelling AEDC to pay the sum of N150 million as exemplary and punitive damages for its lawlessness and the said unlawful disconnection.

Read: Ponzi scheme: Court threatens to sanction banks that don’t comply with court order on the Ajetunmobi’s firm

What happened in court

Plaintiff’s counsel, Ikechukwu Ikogwe submitted that the action of the defendant on May 7, 2020, was unlawful, null and void and of no effect having regard to Reg.10 (1) (2) (b) of NERC customer service standard of performance for Distribution companies (DisCos).

He went further to submit that by Regulation 10 (2) NERC’s customer service standard performance for Distribution companies 2007, the defendants and its officials are not legally enabled or empowered to read, check, touch and fiddle claimants pre-paid metre as they did on May 7, 2020, at her property.

Counsel to AEDC, J.O Okete filed a motion of preliminary objection dated December 3, 2020, seeking an order of the court to strike out the suit for lack of competence and jurisdiction.

However, the presiding judge after listening to arguments from both counsels dismissed the motion of preliminary objection by AEDC and delivered its judgement against AEDC.

Read: Court Case; Aggrieved Employee vs Tecno and 3 Others

AEDC is yet to comply with the court order which resulted in the plaintiff’s counsel filing a garnishee proceeding before the court on January 8, 2021, seeking the enforcement of the judgement dated December 11, 2020.

While Ikeatuegwu is the judgement creditor in the garnishee proceeding, AEDC is the judgment debtor.

The banks were invited by the court to show cause, why an order should not be made upon them for the payment of the judgement creditor and two banks came forth and disclosed that AEDC had more than enough money to satisfy the judgement debt.

While the garnishee proceeding was ongoing, AEDC’s counsel filed another motion asking the court to set aside the garnishee proceeding.

The court then directed two commercial banks to set aside the judgement money from AEDC’s money domiciled in those two banks pending the hearing of the two applications filed by AEDC.

Judgement of the court

The judgement read in part, “The defendant is to pay the plaintiff ten million naira (N10,000,000,00) as exemplary and punitive damage for illegally disconnecting her light without due notice and in violation of the extant provisions of the Act and regulations.”

“The defendant is also to pay the plaintiff one thousand naira per day from the 11th of May, 2020 until they reconnect electricity supply to her premises.”

The judge held that AEDC can only do inspection and disconnection where necessary following due procedure of law as provided and laid down in the Act and subsidiary legislation.

Today November 12, is slated for hearing of the two applications at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Kubwa.

What you should know

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission is an independent regulatory body with authority for the regulation of the electric power industry in Nigeria.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s customer service standards of performance for distribution companies 2007, exempt prepaid metres from routine checks.

Tampering with an electricity metre is a criminal offence.

The law governing connection and disconnection of electricity supply is the Nigerian electricity regulatory Commission’s connection and disconnection procedures for electricity services 2007.

The law stipulates that before disconnecting a customer, you have to issue a notice for at least 10 days. And whenever a distribution company disconnects electricity supply to a customer’s premises they shall leave a written notice of disconnection advising the customer the following:

  • The date and time of disconnection
  • The reason for disconnection
  • The action to be taken by the customer to have the electricity supply reconnected; and
  • The contact address and telephone number of the distribution company.
  • By Regulation 10 sub-regulation (2) NERC’s customers’ service standard of performance for Distribution Companies 2007, AEDC and its officials are not legally enabled or empowered to check, touch, Reed, and fiddle prepayment metres of customers.
  • Regulation 10 (1) states that: “ Every Distribution company SHALL obtain through its authorised representative an actual reading of all metres in all supply address within its areas of supply every month but not later than once in every three months.
  • However Regulation 10 (2) (b)  states that “The provision of sub-regulation 1 of this shall be inapplicable where the customer has a prepayment metre.”

Related

Tags: Abuja Electricity Distribution Company PlcAEDCIfeyinwa Ikeatuegwu

Comments 1

  1. SirPhat says:
    November 14, 2021 at 2:50 pm

    This locus classicus Judgment shall open a floodgate of litigation against the draconian attitude of all these DisCos Staff who feel they can take advantage of the vulnerable Nigerian who is ignorant of the extant enabling laws!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Mega Millions
Hot forex
Cornerstone
Polaris Bank
Access Bank
Bankers Committee
First bank


FCMB
Ikeja Electrics




    Business News | Stock Market | Money Market | Cryptos | Financial Literacy | SME |

    Recent News

    • PremiumTrust Bank has opened a new branch in Effurun, Delta State
    • Look no Further Than GreenWaveX
    • FUGAZ investors gain N25 billion combined during the week

    Follow us on social media:

    Recent News

    PremiumTrust Bank has opened a new branch in Effurun, Delta State

    PremiumTrust Bank has opened a new branch in Effurun, Delta State

    July 2, 2022
    Look no Further Than GreenWaveX

    Look no Further Than GreenWaveX

    July 2, 2022
    • ABOUT US
    • CONTACT US
    • PRODUCTS
    • ANDROID APP
    • iOS APP
    • DISCLAIMER
    • CAREERS
    • PRIVACY POLICY

    © 2022 Nairametrics

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • Exclusives
      • Financial Analysis
      • Corporate Stories
      • Interviews
      • Investigations
      • Metrics
    • Markets
      • Cryptos
      • Commodities
      • Equities
        • Dividends
        • Stock Market
      • Fixed Income
      • Market Views
      • Securities
    • Industries
      • Company News
      • Consumer Goods
      • Content Partners
      • Corporate deals
      • Corporate Press Releases
      • Energy
      • Entertainment
      • Financial Services
      • Hospitality & Travel
      • Manufacturing
      • Real Estate and Construction
      • Tech News
    • Economy
      • Get Data
      • Macro-Economic News
      • Research Analysis
    • Business News
    • Financial Literacy
      • Career tips
      • Personal Finance
    • Lifestyle
      • Billionaire Watch
      • Profiles
    • Opinions
      • Blurb
      • Op-Eds

    © 2022 Nairametrics

    Social Media Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com