Four persons, including a retired Naval Admiral, have been dragged before Karu Chief Magistrate Court, Abuja, for tampering with the electricity supply, illegal disconnection of residents from electricity and “impersonating” Abuja Electricity Distribution Plc Staff at Royal Anchor Estate.

The Plaintiff, Abolarinwa Olatunbosun in the suit accused the defendants for conspiring to disconnect and actually disconnected power supply to his house thereby depriving him of power supply which is against the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory  Commission (NERC) Regulations that stated clearly that customers are not to pay any DISCOS for transformers, cables, poles etc.

The suit marked CR124/24 has Rear Admiral Tanko Yakubu Pani (rtd), Abraham Osazuah, and Henry Ortese, all officials of the estate, as defendants.

The alleged offence committed on October 9, 2024, is contrary to Section 96 (1) of the Penal Code Act.

The suspects reportedly disconnected residents for not paying for transformers and feeder pillars using Attahiru Musa (Security Guard) and Henry Ortese, an electrician, to illegally disconnect residents for as long as four years until they would have paid.

The defendants pleaded not guilty when the charge was read to them.

Magistrate P. B. Balogun, however, admitted them to bail and adjourned the case till March 24 for a hearing.

The defendants had earlier filed a bail application and submitted that they have not been brought or charged before any Court till the complaint before the present Court.

They added that the offences in the counts of the complaint are bailable offences and submitted that they are willing to stand trial and defend themselves before the court.

Meanwhile, the plaintiff had equally informed the court that the defendants have been evading service.

According to him, “I was informed by the Bailiff of this Court who called me by phone on the 14th of January, 2025, in the afternoon that an attempt was made to serve a Summons on the 1st and 2nd Defendants.

“The Bailiff also informed me that he had called the 3rd and 4th Defendants and informed them of the existence of the court summons.

“I was informed by my Counsel, Mr. Folarin Aluko, on the 23rd January, 2025 at around 3:00 pm in the afternoon by phone call, that the case came up for hearing and the 1st and 2nd Defendants refused to appear in Court even though they had been served with the summons of this Court.

” I was also informed by my Counsel, in the course of the call, that a 2nd opportunity would be extended to the Defendants to appear when the case was adjourned to 17th February 2025.

“On the 17th of February, 2025, when the matter came up in Court, the Defendants once again refused to attend Court, and my lawyer applied to the court for issuance of a Bench warrant on the 1st and 2nd Defendant as provided by the law, which was granted. The Defendants were aware since January, 2025 of the subsistence of this case.

“That he had read the Affidavit in Support of the Application and noticed that the Defendants have not given any cogent reasons as to why they refused to obey the Summons of this Court.

“The 3rd and 4th Defendant evaded service until the Summons was executed on the 1st and 2nd Defendants.