- The crime ring should be busted before it becomes another national epidemic
What stolen pre-paid meters are in some Lagos markets, for as high as N95, 000, should bother everyone.
It appears a triangular racket: (1) a market which demand is fuelled by households’ desperation to escape the fraudulent estimated billing by electricity distribution companies (DisCos); (2) colluding DisCos’ insiders with illicit eye for the fast buck; (3) unscrupulous police operatives who though know the market, raid for periodic bribe and not to stop the racket.
To smash this crime ring, the authorities must fashion a formula to attack and crush the three legs of the racket. Otherwise, another thriving post-estimated billing crime market would have dawned, thus leading to likely serious sabotage, even as efforts are on to fix the intractable power problem.
A good place to start is to knock off the demand pool. The demand is spurred by consumer panic, borne out of helplessness, over the widespread estimated billing fraud. The DisCos have perfected this cruel ploy of routine corporate stealing; the industry regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), has to do more to protect the customers.
The consumers thereby resort to getting a pre-prepaid meter anyhow, even if it is stolen. That the DisCos too don’t care if a meter is stolen, so long as they can use it to adequately bill for their services, does not help matters.
So, an aggressive and sustainable campaign to bolster electricity consumer rights is urgently called for. NERC should push that campaign to discourage consumer patronage of stolen meters; and further put pressure on DisCos to meter their customers. Just as well the House of Representatives has passed the criminalisation of estimated billing by DisCos. The Senate should promptly follow suit, so that the bill can be signed into law as soon as possible.
The jugular of the supply end is the colluding DisCo workers. To start with, a stolen pre-paid meter is useless, unless it is reprogrammed for the new owner. From reports, the reprogramming is well-neigh impossible, except there is an insider, who can supply the extant code, to aid the re-programming. If this technical link can be effectively blocked, the market will almost disappear — for it would amount to selling a pig in a poke.
But aside from fixing stolen meters, probing the source of these meters is imperative. Are they mostly lifted from the ones installed in customers’ homes and facilities? Or there is a racket that steals them from DisCo meter stores, which could well paint the picture of a thriving racket, well-oiled by insider corruption? Knowing which is which is vital to crippling the supply chain.
Of course, there is evidence of a network of illicit markets outside. A feature story in the New Telegragh newspaper paints a near-extensive network, in Lagos, spanning Owode Onirin market, Alaba International Market, The Arena Shopping Complex in Oshodi and the ever-bustling Oluwole market at Lagos Island Central Business District.
Though the reporter didn’t quite get the “smoking gun”, in terms of actually buying a stolen meter, the cross-referral, leading the reporter to visit these markets, suggests ample evidence of a thriving trade. That the police, according to the story, even run periodic raids to extort money from the illicit traders speaks of mutually beneficial racketeering, between law-breaker and law-enforcer.
That brings the matter to the police leg of the illicit trade. That the police allegedly raid traders for money, instead of putting a stop to the racket is all too troubling. That it is even believable is roiling, for, again, it shows how petty corruption has seeped into the system. Still, it is not the time to sit and moan. It is rather the time for the police authorities to act to stop these sharp practices.
Erecting a crime ring around the pre-paid meter, a key tool in the reforms to mainstream electricity supply and give the economy a healthy jab in the arm, should signify trouble for everyone. That is why the government, in concert with NERC and DisCos should partner to fashion a way to curb the menace.
