BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
No fewer than 100 residents of Osun State have been arrested in the last seven months for energy theft and by-passing of meters among other offences.
The arrest was made during several joint operations between officials of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company in the state and operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Osun State Command.
Parading those nabbed in the most recent raid conducted by the business firm and security agency on Monday at the NSCDC headquarters in Onibueja area of Osogbo, the state Commandant of the NSCDC, Agboola Sunday, expressed displeasure that residents continued to engage in economic sabotage through stealing of electricity.
According to the civil defence boss, those arrested and paraded were Jaye Abayomi, male, 22 years old; Jay Paul, male, aged 37; Abidemi Enoch, male, 33; Jackson Imukoro, 35, Adeleke Fatimah, female, 39; Azeez Mutiu, male, 40 and Michael Sunday, male, 45.
He said the suspects were arrested on October 13, 2023 at Awosuru area, Jaleyemi, Omigade, Ogo-Oluwa areas of Osogbo during a joint operation of NSCDC and IBEDC.
Sunday disclosed that the suspected saboteurs committed offences bordering on conspiracy, energy theft, and tampering with electrical fittings.
“While making their confessional statements, they all admitted the offence. The offence is known as economic sabotage, one of the factors mitigating against development of this nation.
“The command is dismayed, despite several arrests made to deter the public from embarking on this illegal act, some have bluntly refused to desist from this act. Well, NSCDC too would not rest on its oars until we see positive change in Osun State,” Sunday stated.
In her remarks after the parade, the Senior Communication Officer, IBEDC Osun region, Kikelomo Owoeye, disclosed that from April, this year till date, over 100 suspects have been arrested in connection with electricity theft and other related offences in the state.
“Over 100 suspects have been arrested and paraded so far in the Osun region specifically on energy theft. This theft has to do with meter by-passing, meter tampering and illegal connections. So, anyone that is found wanting will be prosecuted; which means we will have to apprehend them through the law enforcement agents and ensure that they are charged to court because it is a criminal offence.
“Presently, we have very few of them in court right now, very few numbers and we are still processing some to go to court and there are some we are yet to get conviction on. We have not gotten any conviction so far this year because we are still in court with some of the customers,” she said.
Explaining the alternative measures the firm has been adopting to discourage customers from stealing electricity, Owoeye stated that, “For first offenders, we have a platform whereby they are being fined and they are expected not to go back to it and if we find out that they are going back to that same act, then we hand them over to the law enforcement agency because it is a kind of sabotage and it is affecting the business and also affecting the community and affecting the other customers too by-passing or stealing energy.”
She added, “Energy is for the whole people on our database and if we have people connecting illegally, it will affect those who are genuine customers and for the electricity that we are buying. We don’t have enough revenue to actually pay our market operators. So, we want to appeal to our customers to desist from stealing our energy because if they keep on doing that, we will not remain in business and it will affect the society at large and it is also an economic sabotage and a criminal offence.”
