No prepaid metres, no payment of electricity bills, they vow

By Job Osazuwa

Residents occupying about 20, 000 housing units at Festac Town in Lagos State, have drawn a battle line with Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC). They described as unacceptable the electricity billing system unleashed on them by the company.

According to the aggrieved residents, they were tired of paying for electricity they never consumed, which they claimed they had been paying for the past 20 years, long before EKEDC came on the scene.

The residents said when the private company took over the distribution of power in Nigeria few years ago, they leaped for joy, with high hopes and optimism that their days of exorbitant billing were over. But right now, they are lamenting. They say their hope had not only been shattered but that their woes had been further compounded.

On February 9, many of the residents, under the auspices of Festival Town Residents Association (FTRA), converged on E Close at 202 Road in the town. There they addressed journalists on what they termed their plight in the hands of the electricity distribution company.

The president of FTRA, Mr. Shola Fakorede, said the gathering was necessitated by the “intrigues, exploitation, deceit, falsehood and wickedness” being meted out to them by EKEDC. He said it was sad that an organisation that handles such a critical aspect of the economy could be so embedded in such acts, regretting that the government had not deemed it fit to curtail the company’s excesses.

“Festac town electricity consumers have been exploited for years. In a situation where we have blackout for weeks or months, we are still given exorbitant bills – what is known as ‘crazy bills’. How can you justify a situation whereby a block of 16 flats is billed a flat rate of N10, 500 and in some instance, N12, 000 regardless of each flat’s consumption? Some Closes (as we call it here) of many houses are given equal amount, even when we hardly have electricity supply,” he said.

Fakorede said the residents had in the past carried out different protests at EKEDC’s office at Marina and Festac to draw government’s and other stakeholders’ attention to their ordeal, noting that nothing had been done to ameliorate their pains. He told the reporter that the association had also written many letters to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), lamenting that there had been no positive response from the commission.

He stated that all the demonstrations were geared towards getting prepaid metres installed in the town. But all they have got so far had been unfulfilled promises.

Said he: “At our meeting with the EKEDC’s management at the Marina office on April 21, last year, we were promised that the prepaid metres would be installed free in a matter of days for the Festac town consumers. We went home with the good news and informed other residents and urged them to cooperate with the EKEDC for a smooth installation of the free metres.”

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The president said they waited patiently for about two months, but were shocked to read on the pages of a national newspaper on June 12, 2016 that EKEDC had installed 1, 952 prepaid metres in Festac in the first quarter and 4, 109 in the second quarter, while 9, 574 and 3, 441 would be installed in the third and fourth quarters respectively.

He frowned at the publication, and described it as a national embarrassment. It was gathered that the few people that are at the moment using prepaid metres in the area paid through their noses to acquire them.

“We want to state categorically that no free prepaid metre has been installed in Festac under the roll-out plan. We contacted the EKEDC on this said publication but no one was willing to give us any explanation.

“Our resolution is that there would be no payment of electricity bill until we have free prepaid metres. And we will not allow illegal disconnection of our electricity. Let there be light and let there be prepaid metres,” Fakorede said.

He said as law-abiding citizens, the residents, especially those having outstanding bills to settle, were ready for transparent bills reconciliation process with the EKEDC.

The vice president of the residents association, Chief Emmanuel Ukaegbu, told Daily Sun that it was illegal for EKEDC officials to disconnect the residents’ electricity over bills that were not commensurate with what they consumed.

He explained that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) had advised that every controversial bill be reconciled between the electricity distribution company and the consumers before payment, noting that the EKEDC had no right to disconnect their power. He said they would, within the ambit of the law, resist any attempt for the officials to cut off their power supply while they wait for the metres to be distributed to the community.

Another resident, Mr. Mike A., said he could not understand why the EKEDC officials were going from house to house at Festac, pretending to readjust the same metres the company had declared obsolete on several occasions in the course of their meetings.

“I think these people want to simply keep billing us for the power that it knows it does not have the capacity to supply for now. All we are saying is, give us prepaid metres and we’ll be ready to pay for whatever we consume. We are tired of paying for darkness. Power supply has become so irregular in recent times, but the bills keep increasing. I believe that is corporate cheating and stealing,” he said.

Meanwhile, in an advertorial published on June 12, 2016 in national newspapers, with the title: ‘Eko Electricity Distribution Company Meter Roll Plan’, EKEDC pledged its continuous commitment and drive towards service delivery and customer satisfaction.

On the distribution of prepaid metres, the company stated: “We have embarked on meter installation for all categories of customers throughout our operational territory. We hereby use this medium to assure customers, who are yet to be reached by our meter roll out plan that we will soon get to them, as we are committed to metering all customers within our five-year metering plan.”