By Haruna Usman, Birnin Kebbi
An apolitical human interest group, Kebbi Development Forum ( KDF) on Tuesday paid a courtesy call on the Emir of Gwandu, Muhammadu Illayasu Bashar at his palace in Birnin Kebbi to seek the support of the royal father.
Earlier, in his speech, the Kebbi State chairman of the forum, Alhaji Usman Gwandu told the royal father that their visit to the palace was to seek the cooperation of traditional rulers in their push for improved electricity supply in the state.
” We are here your royal highness to seek royal blessings and to get the support of all traditional rulers under you as we engage Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KAEDCO) to push for improved power supply in Kebbi without shortchanging both parties”.
He stressed that the interface with critical stakeholders between power distributors and customers aimed to equip particularly the consumers with knowledge on how to follow up their rights.
In his remarks, the representative of the Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Aminullah Umar the Magajin Gari chided the Company for taking their customers for a ride by pushing their responsibility to customers.
He queried the rationale behind asking a customer to produce his paid bill or get disconnected, saying it is the Company’s responsibility to keep their records to know who paid or who did not pay.
He commended the forum for the hard task of enlightening members of the public on their rights.
In a similar development, the forum also held a high level interactive session at Kebbi State College of Nursing Sciences with selected district heads of Gwandu where they received useful inputs from the royal fathers on how best to improve power supply.
However, stakeholders at the public engagements collectively blasted Kaduna Electric for what they described as being insensitive to the plights of their customers.
The traditional rulers also called on the company to abolish bands describing it as gross injustice to numerous customers who are being punished for no just reason.
The district head of Bunza, Dr Aminu Muhammed Bunza charged them to scale up efforts to meet modern challenges saying very soon the Company will go into extinction with the emergence of solar energy because people who were denied power supply have found solution in solar.
At the end of the engagements, the forum’s chairman, Usman Gwandu admonished customers to know their rights, defend it and stand up for it.