Leadership (Abuja)
Osa Okhomina
31 October 2009
Yenagoa — Authorities of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) yesterday explained its collaborative effort with the state government to embark on collection of electricity tariffs from consumers in Bayelsa State, describing it as a right step in the right direction.
The PHCN said the era of arbitrary bills has gone in the state, because they now have enough digital and analogue metres to take care of customers need, while describing their partnership with the state government as a positive and result-driven one that is expected to commence from November 1.
Speaking yesterday during an interactive session with newsmen in Yenagoa,the Business Manager of PHCN (Yenagoa District), Mr. Godwin Orovwiroro, said the authority is ready to honour the rights of the customers on any petition against any form of perceived extortion or arbitrariness in the services of the company to the National Electricity Commission.
He said, "This is a new market where there will be no problem of estimation of bills or the usual controversy over non supply of metres after payment," .
Mr.Orovwiroro denied the claim by some politicians in the state that they were out,in connivance with the state government,to take advantage of the people's ignorance by introducing rates that could not be found in any part of the country,"The rates that we will charge as tariff comes from NEC and they are the same as in other parts of the country," .
He said the PHCN would explore the option of payment by installments to assist customers to acquire the new digital prepaid or analogue metres. He added that staff of the organisation would be civil in their approach to customers who might be reluctant to pay their bills.
Orovwiroro also said PHCN would appeal to the sense of reason of customers who turn violent during the ongoing enumeration exercise of target electricity consumers in the state."We are going to use persuasion for at least the next six months. Penalties for behaviour that is not in tandem with our mode of operations will not be applied," .
He stressed that once the confidence level of the customer was restored, there would be no resistance or violence," If people see that you are rendering a good service, they will pay".
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