The Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, NIMR, is on the brink of a power shutdown as Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKEDC, issued a final disconnection notice over an accumulated electricity bill of over N89 million.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of NIMR, Professor John Obafunwa, has raised an alarm, describing the recurring electricity crisis as a direct threat to Nigeria’s public health research efforts.
Obafunwa also accused EKEDC of frustrating the institute’s operations through “outrageous estimated billing” and refusal to install a dedicated electricity meter on the premises.
Addressing journalists on Friday during the NIMR monthly briefing, he described EKEDC action as a deliberate attempt to frustrate the operations of the institute.
“For most of us, we’ve been here a couple of times, and we’re probably getting more and more familiar with what’s going on in NIMR and the relevance of NIMR to our nation.
“But I still consider this a deliberate attempt to frustrate the work we are doing here.”
Obafunwa disclosed that monthly electricity bills from EKEDC have ranged between N44 million and N52 million — despite what he described as “under 10 hours” of actual daily electricity supply.
“We are not a commercial enterprise. We’re not a university collecting school fees. We don’t have the capacity to generate income like tertiary hospitals. We’re a research institute, yet, being billed as if we’re running a manufacturing plant.”
The DG said despite repeated letters, visits, and even direct appeals to the company’s management, NIMR was denied a functioning electricity meter for years, leaving the Institute at the mercy of estimated billing. “You can’t put a meter in your backyard and be giving us figures,” he said, referring to EKEDC’s claim that NIMR’s meter is located at its Jibowu office.
Obafunwa who lamented that most of the research done by NIMR is donor- driven said the Institue houses highly sensitive biological samples, temperature-dependent reagents, and state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment — donated by foreign partners.
“Each time we shut down power, those samples are at risk. These are not things you can replace easily. We’ve had to shut down electricity in the residential quarters. Power is cut at 9 a.m. and not restored until 4 p.m. We cannot continue like this.”
He observed that in what appears to be retaliation for NIMR’s recent decision to install its monitoring meters, the April bill from EKEDC surged to N52 million.
“Once they realised we were putting in our metering system, the bill shot up, and now, they’ve issued a final disconnection notice.”
The DG said all attempts to get EKEDC to review its position and desist from sending outrageous bills have not yielded result, and out of the N89m debt, N52m was for March alone.
He said the instalmental payment of N6.7m was in respect of debt inherited while the second installment of the debt that was paid to EKEDC was never reflected in their bills to NIMR, even when they had privately acknowledged receipt of the money that was paid to them through the Central Bank.
“NIMR had written last week to EKEDC to let us discuss the bill and reconcile these outrageous bills but the latter refused. NIMR had already today paid over N34m to EKEDC, again asking that we discuss which they never responded to. To my consternation EKEDC responded with a disconnection threat.”
However, in an official memo from EKEDC dated April 24, 2025, and made available to Vanguard, the final notice demanded a payment of N62.4 million by April 28 to avoid disconnection.
“Even when we tried to engage and committed to installment payments, they’ve acted with impunity,” Obafunwa alleged.
