The Managing Director of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), Fortunato Leynes has lamented frequent vandalisation of the company's equipment.

According to Leynes, the development had resulted in huge financial losses to the company.

Leynes, who spoke in Abeokuta on Tuesday identified frequent vandalisation of power installations, transformers and equipment as some of the factors worsening the power situation and appealed to community leaders to form special task force to tackle the menace.

The energy boss who spoke at a public forum organized by the company to discuss how best to address their grievances recalled how irate youth burnt down transformer in Ibadan.

He said. "Irate youths burnt our transformers during the national fuel hike protests in 2012 and this cost the company over N150 million to rehabilitate".

Participants at the meeting which was attended by traditional rulers, community leaders, security agencies and a cross section of the society agreed that since the advent of IBEDC there had been improved services, adding that there was still room for improvement.

At the meeting, outrageous bills, uneven power shedding and inadequate prepaid meters dominated consumers' complaints.

The IBEDC is one of the Distribution Companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and is in charge of services in the South West States of Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Kogi and part of Kwara.

Leynes also decried consumers' behaviour which, he said had contributed to the power problem, explaining that some consumers engaged in illegal connection and tampering or diversion of wires.

His words "The Company is not unaware of the menace of tampering with our meters, diversion of wires from the meters and running of same through the ceilings, all effective bypassing their electric meters".

According to him, "These acts are offences and are punishable by law. We also know that there are several rampant direct connections, by consumers who are enjoying electricity without paying a single kobo".

"We appealed to all our customers to embrace our stop-gap metering programmes like Credited Advanced Payment for Meeting Implementation (CAPMI), a scheme that enables customers make advanced payments for meters. The cost of the meter and its accessories shall be paid back with interest for a period of not more than36 months via rebates in the energy credit purchased by the customers", he affirmed.

On vandalisation, the energy boss stated "Everyday newspapers publish the negative stories about people vandalizing our installations and equipment. Our transformer cables and feeder pillars, oil and other line materials suffer untold thefts and damages. The aftermath of these vandalisations are blackouts which throw your communities and neighbourhoods into darkness, which also affects IBEDC in terms of huge losses in revenue.

A customer in his contribution queried the rationale behind the N650 monthly "Service Charge".

In response Lenyes explained that the charge had been approved by Nigeria Electricity Commission for all Distribution Companies to service their equipment.