The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) says it does not ask for payment before carrying out repairs of electrical faults or replacing faulty transformers.

AEDC spokesman Oyebode Fadipe, disclosed this in an interview in Abuja on Sunday.

He was reacting to reports in some quarters that the company collected money from customers before repairs were carried out on faulty transformers.

“We don’t ask customers to pay before their fault is cleared or before we release a transformer to any community.

“I won’t say we have not heard that kind of complaint.

“What we have seen most of the time is that those that they call electricity committee use all kinds of tricks to collect money. At times they call it facility fees.

“Because they know that electricity is so essential, they try to tie it around electricity. But it is an unfortunate incidence; we don’t ask customers to pay,” Mr Fadipe said.

According to him, 10 customers may ask for transformers and AEDC may not be able to attend to all of them at the same time.

“But that is not to say we ask them to go and make payments or do anything of such before we give them transformers,” he said.

Mr Fadipe said that once the electrical materials were available, AEDC would give them out to the customers.

He said that while AEDC was in business because of its customers, the company was also in business for the purpose of doing business.

(NAN)