Residents of Graceland Estate, Oba-Ile in Akure North local government of Ondo State on Monday sealed off the Akure office of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC).
They alleged issuance of crazy electricity bill’s to consumers.
Besides, the residents decried alleged non -chalant attitude of the BEDC towards improving their services, despite efforts of the land owners of the estate.
The protesters with their various placards besieged the BEDC head office in Akure as early as 8:30am.
They locked the entrance gate of the company and did not allow the workers including the Business Manager, Mr Andrew, entry.
It took prompt intervention of soldiers on duty at the BEDC office to allow some staff to perform 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 .
Speaking with reporters, the Chairman of the Graceland Estate, Mr. 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 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 transformer. Their only input is to collect money.
“We are being given bill of N70,000 to N110,000 monhly 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, Mr. Micheal 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 meters.
He said customers without meters are billed based on the feeder and tariff band they are linked with.
