The man who incurred N1.5m PHCN ‘debt ’ –Dambazau

Jafaar, younger brother of former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, on Thursday claimed that the Power Holding Company of Nigeria hiked his bill from N22,000 to N1.5m because he “had gone abroad to make dollars”.

Testifying before the Public Hearing on Electricity Metering Inquiry Committee for North-West, Jafaar claimed the PHCN took the decision because someone had informed the organisation that he had become a wealthy man.

He said, “I am a medical doctor assigned to go to Chad, Mali and Bukina Faso to give them medical assistance as a representative of Nigeria. You know, there is this group called G77 and in the G77 you have countries that are very poor, so, the richer countries among the G77 provide assistance – be it in medicine of in medical, agriculture to those poorer countries and that was why we were sent out for the programme.”

Dambazau added, “No, I didn’t pay that bill. I wrote officially to the head office at Zone 4 and it was resolved. They established a board of inquiry into the matter. In fact, they found out that it was somebody that whispered that I had gone abroad to make dollars. So, based on that, the thing was reversed to N22,000 from the N1.5m.”

He also told the committee that Mahuta community on the outskirt of Kaduna metropolis contributed N183,000 and gave it to a member of staff of the PHCN to fix a faulty transformer only for the official to abscond with the money.

He said the development left the community without electricity for three months, adding that the problem of the PHCN was its junior staff which he noted needed orientation and re-training.

Also testifying before the committee, Mrs. Bamidele Tainimu, a resident of Zambia Crescent in the Barnawa area of the state, alleged that the PHCN billed her uncompleted family home.

She said, “In 2009, as soon as we acquired a plot of land at the Zambia Crescent in the Barnawa area of the state, we decided to apply for a meter.

“After some few months even though we are using generator, bills starting rolling in. at this point, we were yet to be given electricity in the uncompleted building but to our greatest surprise, we were given bill by PHCN. By 2010 when the pre-paid meter finally came, we were asked to pay an outstanding bill of over N50,000 for what we are yet to consume.”