Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Kogi State Council has reported the outrageous billing system of the Abuja Electricity and Distribution Company (AEDC) to the governor of Kogi State Yahaya Bello.
The union lamented that the AEDC’s ‘crazy’ monthly bills to its customers in the state, especially in Lokoja, the state capital was not commensurate with its services.
The council in a statement by its chairman, Adeiza Momoh-Jimoh and secretary, Sheidu Ademu Haruna noted that this attitude started between August and September, 2022 when there was a noticeable slight improvement on the electricity supply within Lokoja metropolis which AEDC hurriedly latched on to increase the monthly bills from the usual N3,000- N4,000 per building to N6,000- N8,000.
It said by October, AEDC in its usual attitude without putting into considerations the biting economic situation in the country and the ability of customers to pay again increased the bill to N11,700.
The union said its billing for an average family to pay N15,000 electricity bill in a country where the minimum wage is N30,000 is unacceptable.
It said, “Responding to the cry and barrage of complaints from members of the public and in fulfilling our social responsibility mandate of being the mirror and watchdog of the society, members of the union decided to seek for enquiry with the organization as to why rash increase of the bill are being orchestrated without a corresponding service.
“To our utter dismay, no official of the AEDC in the state was willing to furnish us with information over this abysmal increase, rather the monthly bills keep on increasing astronomically such that the January monthly bills rose to N14,700 while the latest February bill has also been jerked up to N15, 300.
“This is in spite of the fact that the electricity supply has dropped drastically between eight to ten hours a day to a miserable three to four hours a day and in most cases some areas in the state capital experience total outage for days or weeks without any explanation from the distribution company while the bills keep on running.”
The union also observed that the AEDC flagrantly refused to make available the pre-paid metres to members of the public even when payments had been made but rather takes delight in giving out a blanket monthly outrageous bills to its customers without even reading the metres.
“In the light of the above, the union is calling on the Kogi State House of Assembly and particularly Governor Yahaya Bello to immediately wade into this matter and call the management of AEDC to order as this heartless monthly increment may result to breakdown of law and order as the saying goes that a dog that is pushed to the wall has no alternative than to bark and bite.
“The current hardship of fuel scarcity, water scarcity, incessant electricity outage and the cash crunch being experienced by residents of the state should not be further compounded by AEDC propensity of making more money to the detriment of the customers without recourse for wearing a human face,” NUJ said.
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