By Thompson ABISOLA
Residents of Owerre-Enu community in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu state on Wednesday staged a peaceful protest over alleged high estimated electricity bills issued consumers by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC).
Some of the placards carried by protesters read, “We say no to EEDC high electricity monthly bills”, “if the company cannot allow us to pay N1,000 per building, EEDC please come and disconnect your light and leave our electricity cable”, “Local and state governments should come and rescue us from further exploitation by EEDC.”
Speaking in Nsukka on Wednesday, Mr Sunday Onah, the spokesman of protesters, said the elders of the community sent them to convey the feelings of the people to government over the continued high estimated monthly bills issued by EEDC.
“The amount is too much for us, that is why we are here to inform EEDC Nsukka District Office that we are tired of its high electricity bills.
“As rural farmers, some of us do not have televisions, refrigerators, pressing iron in our houses, but EEDC gives us monthly electricity bill of N7000, N6000 and N5000 per building.
“We are here to tell the company to withdraw its previous bills to the community and start billing us N1000 monthly per building or come and disconnect us,” he said.
Onah urged local and state governments to intervene to save them from further exploitation by the EEDC.
“Sometimes the community is without electricity for four days, one week and even longer periods occasionally, but at the end of the month EEDC will still issue very high bills,” he said.
Addressing the protesters, Mr Patrick Okolie, the Network Manager of EEDC District Office, Nsukka, said if there was any increase in monthly bill it was as result of improvement in electricity supply.
According to him, the area now enjoys light for between twelve and fifteen hours daily.
Okolie explained that residents should not expect the same bill when they were having four hours in a day and now that there was an improvement in supply of electricity.
“EEDC did not increase any electricity bill but the monthly bill given to you is what you consumed as result of improvement in electricity supply in your area.
“The community should forward us list of residents with their phone numbers, who no longer need EEDC power supply and our staff will come and disconnect them, but we can not disconnect the entire community since some are still paying their monthly electricity bills,” he said.
On the request that the company should give monthly estimated electricity bill of N1,000 per building, the manager said that he lacked the power to approve such and advised that the request should be forwarded to EEDC Enugu head office.
“I lack power to say yes or no to the request for Owerre-Enu residents to be given estimated monthly bill of N1000 per building,” Okolie said.
The network manager, however, thanked residents of Owerre-Enu for their peaceful protest and assured them that the company would continue to do its best to ensure that customers were satisfied through improvement of electricity supply.
“I commend them for their peaceful protest and promise them that EEDC will continue to do its best to ensure customers are satisfied.
“For your information, EEDC staff do not sit in office and issue monthly bill estimate, they first pick the reading of electricity transformer in an area and the figure generated is divided among customers using electricity in that area,” he said.
