Emmanuel Robert, a resident of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has accused the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) of allocating ‘an imaginary 2012 outstanding bill’ worth N65,882 to his prepaid metre.

Robert, who is a car dealer, told FIJ that he recently observed that the power distribution company was deducting certain amounts from his account, whenever he recharged his metre, to cover for an ‘imaginary 2012 outstanding bill’ he knew nothing about.

The car dealer stated that he first noticed the anomaly in March, when he would only get half the value for any amount he loaded on his prepaid metre.

He also said upon investigating the issue, he realised that the PHEDC had assigned an outstanding bill of N65,882 to his meter.

“As we speak, they have so far deducted N15,000 from my account whenever I load units on my metre,” Robert told FIJ.

“I got a vague email from the PHEDC that I owed some debts. I was surprised because I use a prepaid metre. So, how could I have been owing?

“Before I moved into the apartment, I confirmed that there was no debt. There has never been an issue with me like that. I have lived there for five years. So, I wondered what could be going on.”

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Robert said he went to the PHEDC’s office in Ordinance, Port Harcourt, after he had the same problem for three recharges.

He said the staff member who attended to him checked her computer and said there was a debt on his meter.

“She said the PHEDC did a system audit in January 2022 and said they saw some debt as far back as 2012. She said they did not register the debts on the system in 2012, but now wanted to allocate them to the metres concerned,” he said.

“This was like what some of my friends in the neighbourhood said. In the PHEDC office, the lady said they assigned a debt from 2012 to my metre. I asked why they resurrected a debt that was not in existence and assigned it to my meter. I told them it was a criminal act according to NERC.”

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Robert said he had written several emails to the company, but they never replied to him. He said he also tried getting them to rectify the issue, but he would only get automated responses.

“Please, I have dealt with distribution companies in Lagos and Port Harcourt, as well as NERC, and I know for a fact that before any company installs a prepaid metre, they transfer all debt from the post-paid to the prepaid metre,” he said.

“According to the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005, there is no justification for the debt of N65,882 to be added to my meter.

“I would appreciate it if this could be immediately reversed and communicated to me.”

FIJ made several phone calls to PHEDC, but they were not answered. They had also not responded to a text message sent to them at press time.