Residents of Sharada Malam in Kano metropolis on Tuesday allegedly attacked a disconnection and revenue collection team of Kano Electricity Distribution Plc. (KEDCO).
The KEDCO spokesman, Mohammed Kandi, said in a statement that the duo of Ali Mohammed and Abdulkadir Adamu Waziri, who sustained the various degree of injuries from the alleged beating they received, were innocent staff carrying out their lawful duties.
Kandi also quoted the Sharada Customer Service Point (CSP) supervisor, Mohammed Ismaila Isah, as saying “my team was assaulted by some overzealous customers who declined to settle their accumulated electricity bills and also resisted disconnection of power supply to their residences.”
Isah, who led the operation to the area, stated that the female staff in the team were also molested, booed and threaten not to return to the area or face stiffer harassment.
According to him, “we deliver about 20 hours of electricity to Sharada community but we get strong resistance from especially the residential customers each time we carry out the operation to retrieve the accumulated debts from this area.”
“Those customers have no respect for women because they attempted to strip our female staff necked yesterday, but the intervention of some good Samaritans we were rescued,” he said.
Meanwhile, the KEDCO’s spokesman in the statement said the perpetrators of such heinous act will not go unpunished, adding that, “we will not be intimidated by any individual, group or organization just as we wouldn’t be discouraged to carry out lawful duties simply because some customers have resorted to cheap bullying our staff.”
He said: “We have already reported the case to the appropriate law enforcement agency for necessary action. Justice is that we seek in this matter and by the grace of Allah justice we will get in the end.”
He advised the staff not to relent in their effort to discharging their duties in accordance with the organisational policy, processes and procedures.
