Fraudulent Dealings: A’Ibom Customers Move Against PHEDC … Call For Prepaid Metres
By UbongAbasi Ise
Electricity consumers in Akwa
Ibom State have drawn battle line with Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution
Company, PHEDC, saying they would no longer pay for the power they have not
consumed.
At an Electricity Consumers
Consultative Meeting held over weekend in Uyo, consumers took their turn to bemoan
how they suffer in the hands of the power distributors lamenting that they are
made to pay exorbitant, estimated bills that are incommensurable with the electricity
provided to them.
Narrating his ordeal, Mr.
Solomon John, a resident at Aka Etinan in Uyo, said he inherited the
outstanding debt of electricity bill totaling N33,000 at a three-bedroom flat
he is currently occupying. He had to clear the debt to give way for a new
billing regime but the situation became worse when PHEDC kept increasing the electricity
bill steadily from N6,000 to N12,000 within few months, even without power
supply.
Again, Solomon said after
paying N50,000 for prepaid meter in December last year in response to PHEDC
promo, with information that the prepaid meter would be issued out within two
weeks, and having been assured that he would no longer be paying estimated bills,
Solomon said the PHEDC refused to issue out to him the meter he paid for, while
still slamming estimated bills for January and February this year on him, which
stood at about N20,000.
Mr. Martin Udo, who stays at
Esit Eket, said for about a year now, they are more or less in a state of power
blackout but the PHED would be sending them estimated bills. According to him, the
company would make them see light for three days, after which they would disconnect
for another length of time.
Mr. Udobong Morrison, a
customer and a staff of University of Uyo, said he has realized that his
monthly electricity bill is higher than his house rent if divided up per month,
pointing out how PHEDC would slam about N18,000 on a building occupied by two
tenants.
Mr. Kufre Bassey, who is
residing at Ibiam Street in Uyo, decried how residential houses in his area are
being charged the same as commercial buildings.
Mr. John Ekong from Uyo, said instead
of PHED to be reading his electromechanical metre, they would be opting out for
estimated billing system which always leaves him to desperately pay for what he
has not consumed.
Also speaking at the meeting,
Comrade Peter Ekong, a former staff with the PHCN, while reminding the forum
that before the privatization on November 1, 2013, all electricity consumers
were to be metred within 18 months, stressed how majority of consumers are
still being charged with estimated bill asserting that it is a blatant
violation of consumers’ rights. Adding to this, Barr. Godwin Idobo, a consumer
at the forum, said if the agreement with the Federal Government was to meter
all consumers before the takeover, and the rule strictly adhered to, then
everybody would have been metered by now.
Barr. Clifford Thomas, who
chaired the meeting, revealed that PHED is charging about N9,000 for 24 hours of
electricity they cumulatively supply for one month drawing comparison with
Enugu Electricity Distribution Company whose highest bill for its customers is
pegged at N3,000 per month while at the same time, is supplying electricity for
about 16 hours per day.
Thomas referred to the
provisions of Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 which mandates the
Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, to ensure an efficiently
managed electricity supply industry that meets the yearnings of Nigerians for
stable, adequate and safe electricity supply.
As read by Thomas, “all new
electricity connections must be done strictly based on metering before
connection, and no new customer should be connected by a distribution company
without a meter first being installed at the premises.”
Further speaking in line with
the NERC guidelines, Barr. Clifford Thomas disclosed that it is the customers’
right to be notified in writing ahead of disconnection of electricity service
by the DisCos while encouraging all customers to lodge complaints in writing to
PHEDC with the copies sent to NERC.
The human right lawyer noted
that it is not the responsibility of electricity customers or community to buy,
replace or repair electricity transformers, poles and related equipments used
in the supply of electricity other than the power distributor.
However, the electricity
consumers at the meeting, had agreed to press for prepaid meter billing regime
while seeking the total abandonment of inaccurate estimated billing system that
leave them pay for the electricity that has not been supplied to them by PHEDC.
Source: The Sensor Newspaper
Source: The Sensor Newspaper
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