FOREIGNERS ALLOWED POWER SUPPLY

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) will allow foreigners to be registered users provided they have valid travel documents and identifications.

Its General Manager (Distribution) Ahmad Sazree Abd Aziz said only foreigners who enter the country legally are eligible for power supply.

"They could also apply for the electric meters to be under their names if they get permission from their respective landlords.

"However illegal immigrants cannot become our registered users as they have documentation problems," he said.

Ahmad Sazree said this during an operation to disconnect illegal tapping of power at 135 houses in Kg Pulau Penampang, Kg Delima and Kg Suang Parai along Sulaman road, Monday.

The operation also revealed SESB incurred losses of about RM4,100 per month from these illegal connections and about 50kg of wire were removed from the three urban villages. He also visited a scene where Mokhsin Sibok, in his 20s, was found dead in a monsoon drain in Kg Suang Parai on Friday. He was suspected to have died from electrocution while fixing a PVC pipe very close to the drain.

SESB enforcement personnel conducted the operation together with the Energy Commission and SESB auxiliary police.

According to him, illegal immigrants were primarily the power thieves in the squatter areas.

To prevent illegal power connection, Ahmad Sazree said the agency will continue to educate and remind the public that such action could cause the loss of lives and endanger other people.

"These power thieves would hide the illegal wire connection in places where the public including children would walk and pass through.

"Without knowing the danger, anyone can be victims of these illegal connection as the wire would not be installed properly," he said.

Ahmad Sazree said SESB recorded two tragedies this year involving two men who died from electrocution while installing illegal wire connections in Kolombong and in Lahad Datu.

On the recent case where the local man died after apparently coming into contact with illegal connection at Kg Suang Parai, he said the incident was the third such case in Sabah.

"We visited the scene where the body was found floating on the monsoon drain in the village.

I saw some PVC pipes containing the illegal wire connections inside the drain.

"Therefore we suspected the man had possibly died due to electrocution when fixing the water pipes," he said.

Ahmad Sazree said it is a challenge for the agency to keep addressing villages known for resorting to illegal power connection but that it would never give up. He said a total of 94 squatter settlements in the State have been identified as being still active in making illegal power connections.