The Management of Jos Electricity Distribution Plc, JED, says its attention has been drawn to what it described as a putrified, mischievous, and jaundiced publication by an online medium portraying the company in negativity.
A signed statement by the Company’s
Head, Corporate Communication, Dr Friday Adakole Elijah, ordinarily, the Management would have ignored this anachronistic, vexatious, and defamatory news story but to strengthen the records, it has elected to respond accordingly.
Read the full statement below:
The attention of the Management of Jos Electricity Distribution Plc has been drawn to a putrified, mischievous, and jaundiced publication by an online media Wikki Times portraying the company in negativity.
Ordinarily, the Management would have ignored this anachronistic, vexatious, and defamatory news story but to strengthen the records, management elected to respond accordingly.
If the reporter was prudent enough, he or she would have known that most of the allegations levelled against the electricity outfit were not only spurious but groundless.
For instance, in the said publication, it was ingloriously stated that Jos Electricity Distribution Plc refused to extend electricity supply to Anguwar Sarakuna in Bauchi when they needed expansion.
If the truth must be told, was there a valid request from the appropriate authority to the management of JED Plc? The answer is no. Even if the answer is in the affirmative, as a business concern, the company is duty-bound to first carry out a comprehensive feasibility study to ascertain the viability of the area after which it will embark on aggressive sensitization of the locals in the area on payment and the need to protect electricity installations within the locality in line with the provision of section 7(i – j) of Regulations for Investments in Electricity Networks in Nigeria.
We can say with emphasis that, we have no record of request for extension of service to the said community. In our electrification plan, priority is on viability and recovery of investment as a going concern. We have however in the past supported less business attractive communities for electrification through the intervention of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and State Governments.
The media in its desperate attempts to denigrate and cast aspersions on the corporate integrity and reputation of the company embarked on a deliberate fantasy or tales by moonlight when it asserted that some community members were tasked to pay for poles and transformers ranging from #15, 000 to #50, 000. If monies were paid to the staff of the company, their names and designations ought to have been mentioned in the report to ascertain its veracity. For the information of the Reporter, the present management of the company does not take the issue of staff sharp practices lightly.
While contending that it was the responsibility of the company to provide electricity materials to deserving locations, it is not the responsibility of the company to provide service poles for the connection of premises to the intending customers. This is the position of section 12(2) of the Customer Protection Regulations 2023 articulated by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.
For further vigour, it is important to place section 16(1 a – d) on record. It states as follows;
“A customer that requires to be connected to electricity supply at a premises that has an existing supply shall-
a. File as an application in his name in the format specified by the Distribution Company
b. Accept the Distribution Company’s terms and conditions for the supply of electricity
c. Make arrangements for connection of the premises to electricity supply in compliance with these regulations
d. Provide the distribution Company with acceptable identification and information necessary for the supply of electricity to the premises”.
From the above-mentioned facts, it could be deduced that the report in all ramifications was not only banal, jejune and pedestrian but an infigment of the imagination of the fictionist of the news report with the sole aim of subjecting the company to negative aspersion, disdain, contempt, odium, and opprobrium for no justifiable reason.
We call on the management of the online media to endeavour to adhere strictly to the tenets of journalism anchored on truth and objectivity by keeping to the dictate of the accuracy checklist. It is a golden principle in journalism practice that whenever you are in doubt, you should leave it out. Why masquerading ignorance as knowledge?
The management of Wikki Times is therefore requested to immediately retract the report and apologise for their journalistic misdemeanour against Jos Electricity Distribution Plc to avoid litigation.
We therefore urge members of the public not to place any probative value on the news report as it is bereft of substance.
– Dr Friday Adakole Elijah
Head, Corporate Communication.
