Business community accuses Enugu Electricity Distribution Company of bloated bills

Members of the Allied Business Community, Nsukka has accused the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) of imposing over-bloated electricity bill on them.

The organisation, in a protest letter to the EEDC management, which was made available to journalists yesterday, accused the power company of deliberately perpetuating exorbitant bills by refusing to supply pre-paid metres.

The letter co-signed by the group’s president, Mr. Augustine Okagu, and secretary, Mr. Godwin Ojobo, together with other affiliate unions called on the EEDC to urgently end estimated bills in the area.

It read in parts, “We write to inform you of our frustration in the usage of power in Nsukka area of your operations. Our union has received complaints that several consumers have been permanently denied the usage of pre-paid metres by your company, a situation that is even compounded by the deteriorating power supply in the area.

“To worsen matters, these consumers continue to receive outrageously exorbitant monthly bills which bear no correlation to the quantity of electricity supplied to their shops and households. This would not have been the case if prepaid meters had been made available to ensure that consumers pay according to what they consume.

“However, our enquiries had shown that that this failure to install pre-paid meters by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) is not as a result of the scarcity of meters but rather of the failure to award contracts for their supply to the manufacturing companies and importers licensed to do so by the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
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We were delighted sometime last year, when the Managing Director of EEDC, Mr. Robert Dickerman, was reported to have said that EEDC was conducting a population study of electricity consumers in the region with which it will plan its deployment of pre-paid meters. Sadly there has been no positive action towards meeting the needs of consumers since this statement was reported in the media in April last year.”

It added: “We consider the failure to supply pre-paid meters to Nsukka people by EEDC and the continuous imposition of exorbitant estimated bills on them as an abridgement of our rights.

“We equally recall that sometime last year, we held a meeting with your management here in Nsukka, after which promises were made to rectify this anomaly. But, one year after, no progress has been made in this regard.

“All we are saying is that the EEDC should give us meters so that we can measure the energy we use monthly. We are fed up with estimated billing system, which we see as an avenue to exploit our members and indeed the good people of Nsukka. We have suffered a lot on this prepaid meter for quite a long time, we could no longer bear it. We say no to estimated billing