By: Felix Ikpotor
Chairman of the Rivers State Road Maintenance Agency, Timothy Nsirim has accused the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) of allegedly extorting huge some of monies from him.
Nsirim, a former chairman of Obio/Akpor local government area of the state while speaking with journalists, fingered one Mr Raymond of the Rumuola branch of PHED of leading the team to continually extort him while his area remains in perpetual darkness.
He called on the state and national assembly to investigate the activities of the company.
“As I’m talking with you, this week I paid one hundred and fifty one thousand to PHED. The one they call Raymond, I can identify him anywhere I go, he’s the one who collected the monies and will always tell me, Oga don’t worry, we are going to give you prepaid metres for all the houses in your area,” he said.
The former council boss also alleged threat to his life by the PHED officials.
“Even this afternoon, they brought a retired army man to frighten me”.
He added: “Since on the 6th, PHED manager of Rumuola and his team came and remove my light, next minute they said I’m owing three million naira, the next minute they said I’m owing thirty nine million naira,” he lamented.
However, when contacted for comments, the Corporate Communications Manager of PHED, Livingstone Koko said the company does not permit staffers to collect cash from customers but assured that the company will investigate the claims raised by the former council boss.
