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Consumers Council Alleges Exploitation of Consumers by PHCN
- By Ikem Okuhu
- Published January 3rd, 2011
- BrandWorld
- Unrated
Consumers Protection Council has classified the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) as one of the agencies that exploit Nigeria consumers most. The council stated that it was ready to protect consumer from such exploitation from the agency.
The Director General of the council, Mrs. Ify Umenyi in Abuja at a press conference lamented the delays in flight and other ill treatments received by Nigerians at the airports.
Expressing displeasure over the unpleasant treatment given to the Nigerian consumers, she stressed that the council was ready to wade into the situation and stop both Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and PHCN from exploiting consumers.
She said it had become a tradition with the PHCN to bill consumers of electricity on what they refereed to as maintenance charges as far as such consumers were connected to the PHCN national grid.
According to the DG, a survey carried out by the council showed that there was never a time any of the PHCN’s meters being used by the consumers had ever been maintained instead, “the meter are collected and the consumers were made to pay again to obtain new ones. That is where and when they are available.
“This maintenance fee is irrespective of whether such consumers use electricity or not. And that neither the NERC nor the PHCN carries out any such routine maintenance on the consumers’ meters,” she stated.
She vowed that what the PHCN or NERC referred to as maintenance fees will be eliminated as “there is no basis for such fee since no routine maintenance is being carried by the agencies.”
She stressed that the Nigerian consumers should be treated with all sense of respect, without which services and products will not, in the first place be found in the market place.
She said discussions were on going with the NERC over the issues as survey carried out by the council revealed that all the consumers repeatedly made the same complaints over the ill treatment being melted out to them by the officials of the PHCN.
The Council boss who also expressed worries over the ill-treatment melted on consumers by the aviation operators at the airport, said, “I feel very bad also for the foreigners who regularly experience one form of problem or the other at our airport.
“Some of these challenges they experience here in Nigeria are not so in their own countries. Everything works well for everybody at their country’s airport, but here in our airport, the operators seem not to be mindful of their services to our consumers.”
She said the council was working with the consumers department of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) towards ensuring that the unpalatable treatments being melted out to the aviation sector consumers were stopped.
The Director General of the council, Mrs. Ify Umenyi in Abuja at a press conference lamented the delays in flight and other ill treatments received by Nigerians at the airports.
Expressing displeasure over the unpleasant treatment given to the Nigerian consumers, she stressed that the council was ready to wade into the situation and stop both Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and PHCN from exploiting consumers.
She said it had become a tradition with the PHCN to bill consumers of electricity on what they refereed to as maintenance charges as far as such consumers were connected to the PHCN national grid.
According to the DG, a survey carried out by the council showed that there was never a time any of the PHCN’s meters being used by the consumers had ever been maintained instead, “the meter are collected and the consumers were made to pay again to obtain new ones. That is where and when they are available.
“This maintenance fee is irrespective of whether such consumers use electricity or not. And that neither the NERC nor the PHCN carries out any such routine maintenance on the consumers’ meters,” she stated.
She vowed that what the PHCN or NERC referred to as maintenance fees will be eliminated as “there is no basis for such fee since no routine maintenance is being carried by the agencies.”
She stressed that the Nigerian consumers should be treated with all sense of respect, without which services and products will not, in the first place be found in the market place.
She said discussions were on going with the NERC over the issues as survey carried out by the council revealed that all the consumers repeatedly made the same complaints over the ill treatment being melted out to them by the officials of the PHCN.
The Council boss who also expressed worries over the ill-treatment melted on consumers by the aviation operators at the airport, said, “I feel very bad also for the foreigners who regularly experience one form of problem or the other at our airport.
“Some of these challenges they experience here in Nigeria are not so in their own countries. Everything works well for everybody at their country’s airport, but here in our airport, the operators seem not to be mindful of their services to our consumers.”
She said the council was working with the consumers department of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) towards ensuring that the unpalatable treatments being melted out to the aviation sector consumers were stopped.
