Yemisi Izuora
The Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKEDC, has reportedly sacked all of its staff found not have taken appropriate measures that led to the electrocution of a University of Lagos, UNILAG, 300-level student.
The Disco ostensibly believed the death could have been avoided if the officers discharged their duties according to laid down rules.
Chief Executive Officer of the company, Engr. Oladele Amoda, has said the affected officers were supposed to have earlier converted the electricity line that electrocuted the student to underground cables.
He said measures have been put in place to compensate the affected family through EKEDC’s insurance company.
He explained that the snapped overhead power line that led to the death of Miss Juliana Oluchi Anekwe,was part of the obsolete network inherited from defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN.
“The incident was more painful to us because the line was already slated for conversion to underground cables as part of our network upgrade project when the incident occurred.
“If only the conversion of the overhead lines to underground cables had been carried out a little earlier, this sad incident would not have occurred,” Engr. Amoda said.
He added that the company will continue to work cooperatively with the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency, NEMSA, and Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, to ensure safety and conformity to best standards.
Meanwhile, Engr. Amoda said a total of 7, 500 maximum demand meters have been procured at the cost of N2.8 billion and another 50, 000 meters for non-maximum demand customers to tackle metering challenges within its network.
Efforts to get reaction from the firms spokes person Godwin Idemudia on the number of staff involved failed.
It will be recalled that the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) at the weekend indicted the company for the use of substandard equipment and lack of capacity to monitor its network.
The agency said the spate of electrocution in the country could be traced to such practices and warned that government will not hesitate to sanction any Disco guilty of that.
Mr Peter Ewesor, the Chairman of the Federal Government Investigative Panel on the death of Miss Juliana Oluchi Anekwe, a 300-level student of the University of Lagos disclosed this at the weekend in Lagos, accused the utility companies of using substandard materials, employing unprofessional practices, negligence and poor response to inherent problems in their networks.
He said that NEMSA would ensure that distribution companies are encouraged to uphold international best practice in installation of electricity equipment nationwide.
Ewesor, who is the Chief Electrical Inspector of the Federation and also Chief Executive Officer of NEMSA said that electricity distribution companies in the country are not far from being responsible for the recent alarming rate of electrical accidents and electrocutions nationwide.
He said that electrical accidents and electrocution have become a reoccurring incident in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
Ewesor cited the Unilag incident and the death of a 15-year-old pupil, Afusat Musa, in a mosque on Ishaga Road, Idi-Araba in Lagos as some of the incidents that prompted the agency to address the issue in order to sensitive the distribution companies.
According to him, undoubtedly, the two promising young girls lost their lives on account of electrocution from bad networks and unprofessional practices in the industry.
He identified some of the inherent problems, which regularly led to electrical accidents and electrocutions to include: allowing networks to pass dangerously over and in between buildings, structures and market places without safety clearances.
Others includes, lack of regular monitoring and evaluation of networks for routine and preventive maintenance purposes by the distribution companies, the use of substandard or adulterated materials like undersize and unstranded conductors, as well as untreated wooden poles like in the case of the incident at the University of Lagos.
Speaking on the case of the University of Lagos, Ewesor stated that the Onike 11KV feeder line that passes through the university is in a state of disrepair and also poorly maintained.
He also identified the use of substandard, adulterated, unstranded and undersized All Aluminium Conductor (AAC) numerous joints as one of the causes of the accident.
Ewesor also cited as one of the causes of Unilag incident “unstranded conductor with continuous arcing at the open joints/kinks which eventually melted, snapped and dropped directly on the late Miss Juliana Oluchi Anekwe at the instant she was at the spot.
He blamed the situation on “negligence on the part of Eko Electricity Distribution as the arcing situation had existed overtime without being attended to.”
“The protection schemes and devices in the network were in a state of disrepair and thus failed to respond appropriately for prompt isolation of the line when it snapped and fell on the victim and to the ground.
Ewesor said that in view of the increasing human traffic at the University of Lagos, his agency has directed that the overhead Onike 11KV Feeder line should no longer be used in its present status but should be re-routed underground to avoid future incidents.