Receiver/Manager affirms control of IBEDC, counters NERC, BPE

The Receiver/Manager’s Nominee of Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Company (IEDM), yesterday said it is the legal and beneficial owner of 60 per cent (controlling and managing) shareholding interests in Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC).

It advised the public to ignore a statement by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), purporting to take over control and management of IBEDC.

It said the purported takeover was announced “in spite of a subsisting Order of Court in Suit No. FHC/L/AMC/92/2021, granted on September 8, 2021 and varied on the December 3, 2021 respectively.”

It made the claims in a statement by Mr. ‘Kunle Ogunba, ESQ., SAN.

The Federal Government through NERC and BPE on Tuesday announced the restructuring of five electricity distribution companies, also known as DISCOs, in the country.

NERC and BPE listed the affected companies as Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO), IBEDC, Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Kaduna Electric, and Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED).

But the Receiver/Manager’s Nominee said in a statement signed by Ogunba that IBEDC was unlawfully included in the announcement, adding that the government’s publication was “ill-conceived”.

It said: “The appointment of a Receiver/Manager; Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and its Nominee; ‘Kunle Ogunba Esq., SAN have been duly registered at the archives of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Abuja.

“The esteemed members of the public are hereby enjoined to ignore the publication as the BPE and NERC both in their individual and collective capacities have no power(s) under any subsisting enactment to take the steps ‘they’ have taken as indeed there is no legislation tagged Business continuity framework’ anywhere codified in the Nigerian Laws.

“The steps as it touches and concerns IBEDC is an affront against due process amounting to contempt of court in the peculiar circumstance, especially in view of the Receiver/Manager’s veritable lien against Integrated Energy Distribution And Marketing Company (IEDM’s) shareholding interests in IBEDC which have been registered and sanctioned by duly constituted court of law and the concerned authorities aforesaid.

“The general public is hereby informed that the current management of IBEDC remains intact as the Receiver/Manager and its appointed Nominee shall resist any illegal imposition that runs athwart of the spirit and intendments of the recently concluded privatisation exercise in the power sector by the Federal Government and create unnecessary tension and avoidable confusion within the fragile Nigerian Energy Distribution sector.”