Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:

Ondo Consumers Decry Power Outage, Excess Charges

By Oluwaseun Akingboye, (Akure)
06 February 2016   |   3:50 am
SINCE the announcement of the upward review of electricity tariff by the Executive Director of Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Mrs. Olufunke Osibodu in the middle of last year, criticisms have continued to trail the development in Ondo, Delta, Edo and Ekiti States. The criticisms range from the poor quality service provided by the BEDC, unjust…

ONDO

SINCE the announcement of the upward review of electricity tariff by the Executive Director of Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Mrs. Olufunke Osibodu in the middle of last year, criticisms have continued to trail the development in Ondo, Delta, Edo and Ekiti States.

The criticisms range from the poor quality service provided by the BEDC, unjust charges, shortage in the supply of prepaid meters, poor customer relationship and vandalization of BEDC facilities, which the customers allege is in connivance with the BEDC officials.

The company said that the upward tariff review was done to improve on its services to the customers. It would be recalled that sometimes last year, the Ondo State House of Assembly summoned the company to explain the persistent power outage in the south senatorial district of the state and poor service delivery across the state.

The Executive Director, BEDC Commercial, Mr. Abu Ejoor admitted the arbitrary billing system and pledged to remove the chaff from the grain.

But the criticisms became more intense after series of stakeholders meetings between the BEDC and its consumers. The consumers protested that they cannot afford to continue pay for darkness, let alone an upward review of tariff.

Six months after the sensitization meetings, consumers still lament poor supply in Ondo State despite promises made by the BEDC to improve supply.

Speaking to The Guardian about the situation, Abisoye Dada, a landlord in Ajipowo area of Akure metropolis, decried the highhandedness of the BEDC. He alleged that the company has increased the tariff before the commencement of the new tariff policy.

Dada revealed that a bill of N14, 500 was charged to his two bungalow apartments, whose previous bill ranged from N1,800 to N3,500.

“They do not read meters. They do guesswork and projection. How do they arrive at the sudden increase? This is even when the new tariff plan has not been formally implemented,” he said.

The landlord, who is using an analogue metre in his house, also disclosed that he paid N7, 000 to BEDC officials to process his pre-paid meter since 2012, but at the moment, he has not taken delivery of it.

A sawmill operator, Mr Alayi Bamidele lamented that the quality of electricity supply to the State capital Akure was nothing to write home about. He noted that sometimes it was even better not to have the light than the poor voltage that was often supplied.

Bamidele, whose workplace is situated along Ondo Road, said many of the operators have to resort to the use of generators, which cost them more money daily.

A middle-aged woman, Amudipe Benedicta, who is a graduate of Industrial Chemistry, groaned that every reform in the power sector, which she noted had been supposedly driven towards positive change, has meted untold hardship on the people.

“In Akure town as a whole, when last did we have light? For about six weeks, there was no light in the capital city. The power station got burnt on the eve of Christmas and it took the company more than three weeks to fix it. As I am talking now, some areas have not gotten light.

“Even some of the areas that have light now hardly enjoy it for two hours daily; yet the distribution company come with exorbitant bill at the end of the month.

“How do they generate their bills? How can business survive thrive in this situation? She said.

Odidiomo Ayowole, the Coordinator of Ilaje Elites from the south senatorial district of the state, sneered that the “new tariff was dead on arrival” in the six council areas which has not used electricity for over 14 months.

“And as I am talking to you, there is no concrete measure on ground to solve the power problem in the south. BEDC has failed us. As you can see, the cables and poles are sprawling on the ground, everywhere; and the people here have forgotten BEDC, the only name they know now is generator and petrol,” he said.

In the same vein, the President of Movement for the Survival of the Underprivileged (MOSUP), Dappa Maharajah, flayed BEDC and the National Electricity Regulatory Commission for being insensitive to the plight of the people, saying: “how can any just organisation force the people to pay for what they have not or are not using?”

Maharajah and Odidiomo asserted that if the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) has been sincere with the reason for its establishment, the N1.9 billion chaff charges imputed for the southern district wouldn’t have surface.

They faulted the CAPMI operations and dubbed it dupe of the highest order hence no household in the south senatorial district has a pre-paid meter, despite the huge amount of money collected from the customers since the pre-privatisation and post-privatisation era.

0 Comments