Kaduna DISCO threatens to disconnect govt. offices in Zamfara

The Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company covering Zamfara, says it will continue to disconnect government offices that have refused to settle outstanding bills.

This was disclosed by the company’s Business Development Residential Officer, Mr Aminu Yakubu, in an interview with our reporter in Gusau on Thursday.

He said the state government had reneged on its promise to settle an outstanding bill of N400 million it owed since September 2016.

He said the company held a meeting in September 2016, with the state governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, and agreed to set up a committee to verify the claim and work out payment modalities.

”The committee of the state government was set up and the Chief of Staff was made the chairman, while I was the chairman of my company’s committee.

”We went round the 14 local government areas of the state where it was discovered that government agencies owed the company up to N400 million,” he said.

He said that in November 2016, the company wrote the state government a reminder on the debt and its intention to disconnect them; and the government promised to pay a certain amount of money monthly, but failed to pay up.

”In January 2017, I wrote them again on our intention to disconnect them and they still failed to pay, so we disconnected them.

”After five days of disconnection, we started receiving calls from the state Governor, and some other officials and the state Assembly summoned us for a meeting.

”Many issues were raised due to the disconnection, among which is the issue of security raised by the security agencies, and the state government decided to write a promissory note to pay the bills which we both signed and the light was restored; but till now, nothing has been paid,” he said.

Mr Yakubu said that the company had been patient and was now set to disconnect all the state offices since the government reneged on its agreement reached with the company.