Residents of Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, have protested against outrageous estimated bills being allegedly charged them by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC).
The residents, who lamented that they barely got power supply from the AEDC but were made to cough out huge sums as bills, stated that the company, in June last year, migrated them to tariff BAND A from tariff BAND D making their monthly bills increase by almost 100 per cent without commensurate power supply.
Daily Trust reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had in February 2022 inaugurated among others, the Akurba 330KVA substation.
Addressing journalists in Lafia, Mr Rayyanu Bala, who spoke on behalf of Lafia electricity consumers, lamented that despite huge funding by both the federal and Nasarawa State governments for the construction and inauguration of Akurba 330KVA substation, they were not getting quality service at a fair price from AEDC.
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Bala, who argued that consumers on tariff BAND A are supposed to enjoy at least 20 hours of electricity, said they had recorded more days without electricity.
He urged the federal and state governments to intervene and compel AEDC to give consumers 20 hours supply or revert consumers to BAND D and also refund the tariff imposed on them since June last year owing to the migration.
The chairman, Borehole Association in Lafia, Mr Nasiru Usman, described the AEDC as “an agent of imperialism,” adding that the outrageously estimated bills issued to consumers were not commensurate with power supply.
Efforts to get the AEDC’s Manager, Corporate Communication, Mr Rotimi Omisore, to react proved abortive as several calls to his mobile line were not answered.
He was also yet to reply a text message sent to him on the matter as of the time of filing this report.