The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company has disconnected electricity
supply to the National Headquarters of the All Progressives Congress
over its inability to settle a N1.2m debt.
The secretariat is on Blantyre Street, Wuse 11 Abuja..
It
was learnt in Abuja, on Monday, that the AEDC is seeking a balance of
N1.2m after the party paid N.5m out of the outstanding N1.7m debt
accumulated over time.
A copy of the receipt of payment of the
N.5m pasted at the entrance of the party secretariat indicated that the
payment was made on October 24, 2016 via a Zenith Bank cheque, with
deposit slip number: 316088.
The document also has PHCN receipt
number: 0024102016000 and payment reference number: ZIB/PHCN/24-10-2016
with the (original) customer name written as the Nigeria Export
Promotion Council clearly written out.
A member of staff of the
AEDC, however, confided in our correspondent that the disconnection was
actually carried out close to two weeks ago “when the management felt
the party has not shown sufficient commitment towards meeting its
obligations.”
The source said, “I understand they have made a
part payment of N500, 000 out of the debt. I cannot say if this gesture
is sufficient to enable us to restore power to the building.”
None of the party officials was willing to speak on the record about the issue because “it is too embarrassing.”
However,
a high ranking party member who spoke in confidence said, “You know the
country is in recession. We are not immune to the funding challenges
facing other sectors of the Nigerian economy.
“In fact, I think
Nigerians will now know that this is a departure from the immediate past
because we are the governing party it does not mean we can dip our
hands into the national treasury to meet our obligations.”
The
source was however silent on what happened to funds generated from the
sales of expression of interest and nomination forms for the Edo and
Ondo states governorship elections estimated to be in excess of N100m.
Attempts to get an official reaction to this development failed.
Calls
to the mobile telephone number of the party’s National Chairman, Chief
John Odigie-Oyegun, were neither picked nor returned, a text message
sent to him had yet to be replied as of the time of filing this report.
Similar
calls to the party’s National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni, indicated that
it was switched off. A response to a text message sent to him was also
being expected as of the time of filing this report.
Most of the power distribution companies have described unpaid bills and vandalism as some of their biggest challenges.