Residents of Graceland Estate, Oba-ile on the outskirts of Akure sealed off the Akure office of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), for what they described as “crazy” electricity bills.
The residents alsolamented the nonchalant attitude of the BEDC towards improving their services, despite efforts of the landlords and landladies of the estate.
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The card-carrying protesters, who occupied the BEDC head office in Akure, as early as 8:30am, locked the entrance gate of the company and refused to allow the workers including the Business Manager entry.
It took the intervention of soldiers on duty at the BEDC office to allow some staff go about their duties.
Some of the placards read: “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.
Speaking with journalists, the Chairman of the Graceland Estate, Popoola Martins, said they have paid for pre-paid meters but the electricity firm refused to provide meters for them.
Popoola accused the BEDC of only being interested in collecting electricity bills without maintaining facilities or providing new infrastructure.
According to him, “We are here to tell the BEDC that their illegality must stop. We are responsible for buying poles, cables, conductors and even transformer. Their only input is to collect money.
“We are being given bills 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.
They said the company must stop issuance of crazy/estimated billings; must 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.
Spokesman for the BEDC, Akure branch, Michael Barnabas, explained that the protesters were not given pre-paid meters because they were on Band E.
Barnabas said pre-paid meters would be made available to customers in Band E after customers on band A to C have been given metres.
He said customers without metres are billed based on the feeder and tariff band they are linked with.
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