Mpape Residents Storm AEDC Office Over Four Months Darkness, Demand N3.7m Refund
By Sunday Etuka
Angry residents of Mpape Community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Tuesday stormed Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) office in the area, barricading the facility and demanding the immediate restoration of electricity supply that has been cut off for nearly four months.
The protesters, drawn from the Katampe 2 area of Mpape under the Maitama 2 district, also demanded a refund of approximately N3.7 million they say they spent from their own pockets to repair a faulty transformer, a cost they insisted should have been borne by the power company.
Speaking on behalf of the community Chairman, Mr. Emeka Okoro, community representative, Mr. Roland Amagada, told TheFact Daily that residents had endured the outage for about four months, and had hoped that paying for the transformer repairs would speedily restore the power supply to the community.
Instead, he said, AEDC officials returned the repaired transformer but claimed additional components, including a thunder arrestor, feeder cables, and copper wires were still needed before the transformer could be energised.
“It was even a staff from this AEDC Mpape branch that came and removed all the materials from there,” Amagada alleged. “Now by the time they bring the transformer back, they say they need new parts. They claimed to have made a requisition to the head office, but for the past two weeks nothing has been done.”
He informed that the community members had bought the original transformer themselves at the cost of N3.5 million, and had also covered the N3.7 million repair bill when it broke down, raising the community’s total expenditure to over N7million on infrastructure that legally belongs to the AEDC.
The residents described the prolonged blackout as having devastating consequences on livelihoods and security. “When there is no light, the boys are hungry, and they keep disturbing us every night,” one resident said. Most of us come out at night to keep watch and secure our families. Some have been injured.”
The protest drew the attention of Chief Princewill Okerie, Executive Director of the Electricity Consumer Protection Advocacy Centre, who happened to be passing through the area and stopped to address both residents and the media.
Chief Okerie described the situation as not only a service failure but a potential legal violation, citing multiple provisions of the Electricity Act 2023 and the Nigerian Constitution.
He noted that under the Consumer Protection Regulations, distribution companies are required to repair faults involving their own infrastructure, such as transformers, within stipulated timeframes, and that allowing such a fault to persist for three to four months was a clear breach of those standards.
Okerie warned residents not to sign any “third-party investment agreement” that AEDC might present to them before energising the transformer. He explained that such agreements, if signed without proper terms, would legally transfer ownership of the community-funded infrastructure to the distribution company without any guarantee of reimbursement.
“The criminality in it is that the DisCo will keep quiet and the people will be begging them to energise, while they will tell them to sign a document donating the infrastructure,” he said. “That way, they won’t have to refund the money.”
He argued that residents are entitled to recover their investment through energy credits and that energising the transformer without a proper negotiated agreement in place amounts to fraud under section 217 of the Electricity Act 2023, which deals with false declarations.
Okerie also invoked Section 34 of the Nigerian Constitution, which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment, and the United Nations Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, arguing that prolonged denial of electricity constitutes violation of residents’ fundamental rights and living standards.
He further cautioned residents to document their meter readings before power is restored, warning that AEDC may attempt to impose inflated “outstanding bills” once supply resumes.
“The moment this transformer is installed, they will bring bills and claim outstanding debts,” he said. “You must reconcile what was reading before the transformer went off so they don’t impose arbitrary bills afterwards.”
When contacted, the AEDC Spokesperson, and Head, Corporate Communications, Omede Odekina said, the DisCo is aware of the issue and that efforts are being made to resolve it.
“Yes, we’re aware. We are engaging and the issue will be resolved amicably. We are committed to listening and resolving customer complaints,” he said.
