Residents of Graceland Estate, in Obaile in the Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State, on Monday, protested against what they termed “crazy bill by the officials of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC)
The residents who stormed the Akure office of the BEDC as early as 8 am also frowned over the nonchalant attitude of the BEDC, towards improving their services, despite efforts of the landlords and landladies of the estate.
The protesters, armed with placards, with various inscriptions such as “We say no to crazy bills: We don’t want estimated Billings; BEDC, Give us Pre-Paid Meters; BEDC is Cheating Us, We Are Ready to Pay for What We Consume, among others, blocked the main entrance of the BEDC, preventing the workers from gaining entry into the premises.
It, however, took the intervention of soldiers on duty at the BEDC office to allow some staff to go about their duties.
Speaking with journalists, the chairman of the Graceland Estate, Mr Popoola Martins, said they have paid for the pre-paid metres but the electricity firm refused to provide metres for them, saying the BEDC is only interested in collecting electricity bills without maintaining facilities or providing new infrastructure.
He said “We are here to tell the BEDC that their illegality must stop. We are responsible for buying poles, cables, conductors and even transformers. Their only input is to collect money.
“We are being given a bill of N70,000 to N110,000 monthly per house. That is outrageous. The transformer we procured is yet to be installed. We are here for the world to call the BEDC to order.”
The protesters, therefore, submitted to the electricity company a four-point letter, which the organisation must meet.
The residents requested that the company should stop the issuance of crazy/estimated billings; supply functional prepaid meters to all houses, immediate installation of the new transformer donated by the state government and removal of the estate from Band E to Band A customers.
The spokesman for the BEDC, Akure branch, Mr Micheal Barnabas, explained that the protesters were not given pre-paid metres because they were on Band E.
Barnabas said pre-paid metres would be made available to customers in Band E after customers on band A to C have been given metres, saying customers without metres are billed based on the feeder and tariff band they are linked with.
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