The Association of Ojota Community Development Areas (CDAs) on Sunday staged a peaceful protest against estimated bills and disconnections by the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC).
The protesters, including members of Ojota-West CDAs, Otatunji/Abebi CDAs and Abule-Soko CDAs, were led by the joint CDAs Chairman, Mr Adenekan Abubakar, and Secretary, Mr Jide Ogunjimi.
The protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as: “IKEDC, give us human electricity bill”, “IKEDC, Ojota Community is not your ATM”, “No to electricity disconnection in Ojota community” and “Ojota community says no to crazy electricity bills”.
Abubakar said that the protest became necessary in view of many complaints by the community members against estimated bills and disconnections by the IKEDC for failure to pay the ‘crazy’ bills.
He said the community was not enjoying regular electricity that would warrant high bills since their ‘homes are not factories’.
Abubakar, however, urged all electricity consumers in Ojota with estimated bills to pay 50 per cent of the bills.
“Over the years, crazy bills have been the order of the day in the community, but it has now gone haywire.
“Electricity bill is now higher than a house rent in Ojota. The community says no to crazy, extortive electricity bills,” Abubakar said.
The chairman said that the community was demanding that all electricity consumers in Ojota should be metered, while outstanding bills should be erased.
He claimed that the bills were fabricated.
When contacted, the Head of Public Affairs of IKEDC, Mr Felix Ofilue, said that application for an electricity meter was the responsibility of the consumer.
He said that the electricity company would be satisfied if all its customers would be metered.
“It is in the best interest of Ikeja Electric if they are metered, so they do not need to demand, they should apply through map.ikejaelectric.com.
“The Meter Asset Provider scheme is open to all unmetered customers on our network.
“Once they get the meters, estimated bills will stop,” Ofilue said
Power generation hits 4,312MW, 16 plants record increase
Electricity generation in the country rose by 979.2 megawatts on Sunday to 4,312.1MW as 16 power plants saw an increase in their output.
The number of idle plants dropped to nine as of 6am on Sunday from 11 at 6am on Saturday, when power generation stood at 3,332.9MW, according to data obtained from the Nigerian Electricity System Operator.
The plants that did not generate any megawatts of electricity as of 6am on Sunday were Afam IV & V, Sapele II, Alaoji, Olorunsogo II, Ihovbor, Gbarain, Ibom Power, AES and ASCO.
Sapele I and Omotosho II, which were idle as of 6am on Saturday, generated 36MW and 26.1MW on Sunday.
The nation generates most of its electricity from gas-fired power plants, while output from hydropower plants makes up about 30 per cent of the total generation.
Generation from Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro hydro plants, which stood at 182MW, 289MW and 412MW, respectively as of 6am on Saturday, rose to 305MW, 300MW and 450MW on Sunday.
Electricity generation from Egbin, the nation’s biggest power station, increased to 454MW as of 6am on Sunday from 304MW on Saturday.
Other plants that recorded increases in their outputs on Sunday were Delta (gas), Omotosho I, Olorunsogo I, Geregu II, Odukpani, Okpai, Azura-Edo, Afam VI, Omoku and Rivers IPP.
The amount of power generation capacity left unused fell to 3,005.9MW as of 6am on Sunday from 3,558.9MW on Saturday.
Gas constraints and low load demand by the distribution companies hampered the generation of 2,019.7MW and 986.2MW respectively on Sunday, according to NESO.
The system operator put the national peak demand forecast at 28,290MW; installed generation capacity at 12,910.40MW; available capacity at 7,652.60MW; transmission wheeling capacity at 8,100MW; and peak generation at 5,420.30MW.
