By Alemma Aliu

BENIN CITY—NOT less than 10 civil society groups from Edo, Delta, Ekiti and Ondo states under the aegis of BEDC Franchise States Peoples Alliance yesterday called  for the sack of the entire board of the BEDC Electricity Plc for alleged gross inefficiencies in service delivery to consumers.

Electricity generation Stations

Coordinator of the group and Chairman, Edo Civil Society Organisations, EDOSCO, Comrade Omobude Agho, made the call while briefing newsmen in Benin City.

He said the call for their sack became necessary as the citizens in the states where the company operates could no longer bear its bloated bills  and blackouts.

However, the spokesman of the company,  Tayo Adekunle said the demands of the group were uncalled for as the operations of the company were guided by law.

Omobude said; “We can no longer take all that Funke Osibodu led management has been offering, we are tired and fed up with their operations in our states. So, we are demanding a sack of the entire board”

The coordinator of the group also alleged that the company deliberately refused to take enough power that would serve its areas of operations but preferred to give the available energy to the highest bidders in the covered regions.

The group accused BEDC of being a stumbling block to state government proposed plan to make power available to citizens.

“For instance, the Azura Power Plant which is party  by Edo State government can generate 450MW of electricity alongside other two GENCOS in the state that can generate about 500MW combined.”

But Tayo Adekunle told Vanguard yesterday that “their request is uncalled for, this is a country governed by laws and principles, it is not a banana republic, the country respects the sanctity of contract entered into by the investors and operators including BEDC during the privatization. The BPE which midwifed the privatization exercise still say that the contract subsists and that some of the issues that are being bandied as our shortcomings are not issues.