Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola
There are strong indications that ‘whistle blowing’ policy of the federal government may be extended to the power sector to curb energy theft.
The hint came from Enugu on Tuesday when the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, made a passionate appeal to the Minister of Finance, the owners of the policy to extent the services to the power sector.
Already, the management of Ikeja Disco last week introduced the policy in its domain to track cases of power theft, but customers condemned the one way traffic of the policy, asking for where to blow whistle when they were crazily billed by the same Disco.
In his keynote address at the 16th Power sector monthly meeting, sponsored by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company in Enugu, Fashola said available statistics revealed huge energy theft by Nigerians, adding that the problem had become a big challenge for not just the power distribution companies, but consumers as well.
While arguing that if nothing is done, those who pay for energy consumption will continue to bear the overall cost, he said statistics revealed that only six million households consumed energy in the country, adding “if this is correct, it means that some people steal energy in the country, while only a few pay.
“The statistics cannot be correct and it is therefore necessary to extend whistleblowing to the power sector in order to expose those stealing our energy,” he said.
The Minister argued further that it is when all households who used energy were not captured, the ones captured were bound to pay more tariffs.
