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Following the initial report by BlackBox Nigeria exposing alleged leadership embezzlement at Ibeshe Estate that led to a staggering N74 million debt to Ikeja Electric, new information has emerged that adds context to the financial crisis.
Estate Chairman Rasheed Akindiya, in a bid to clear the air, has shared a comprehensive 1,004-page bank statement and other documents with BlackBox Nigeria, detailing payments made to Ikeja Electric and outlining the sequence of events that culminated in the current debt situation.
According to the documents, the debt escalation began in August 2024 when Ikeja Electric placed the estate on estimated billing. The utility provider cited suspicions that the estate’s Maximum Demand (MD) meter was under-recording consumption, prompting a switch to estimated billing that drastically increased electricity costs.
In response, Akindiya and the estate management sought intervention from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). On December 16, 2024, NERC ruled in the estate’s favor, ordering Ikeja Electric to reconcile the estimated billing with actual consumption and to recertify the MD meter through the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA). The NEMSA report, dated January 20, 2025, has since been issued, but reconciliation is still pending.
Akindiya also attributed the inflated debt to unmetered flats within the estate, where some residents refused to upgrade to the new Standard Transfer Specification (STS) token meters, resulting in unauthorized direct connections that further exacerbated electricity consumption.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Ministry of Housing held a meet with residents at today to address the power crisis and other concerns. Akindiya, while presenting the financial records, insisted that the allegations of embezzlement are unfounded and that the debt is primarily a consequence of unresolved billing discrepancies and the ongoing reconciliation process with Ikeja Electric.
While providing update from the meeting said, he said a guide on effort made so far to rectify the electricity situation,
“The consensus at the meeting was to put a permanent solution in place . And the residents should be awake to the reality of rising energy costs in the country,” he told BBN via chat.
