Okon Bassey in Uyo
Some residents in Akwa Ibom State have continued to lament what they termed the poor electricity supply in the state by the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC).
They alleged that the attitude of the PHEDC, and the staff on electricity supply to consumers could be to frustrate efforts of the state government in ensuring constant power supply across the state.
Residents including Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), particularly expressed concern over the inability of the PHEDC to provide prepaid metres to their customers which they said was an illegality and a deliberate ploy to exploit residents with outrageous bills.
They fumed that power supply has remained epileptic with many consumers and communities being forced to pay exorbitant bills for power not supplied.
A civil society group in the state, the Foundation for Civic Education, Human Rights and Development Advancement (FoCERaDA) recently tasked the electricity distribution companies on the need to ensure that all her customers are metred in order to guarantee justice and fairness in the billing and pricing of electricity.
In an interview with journalists in Uyo, a human rights lawyer, activist and FoCERaDA Executive Director, Clifford Thomas, frowned upon the alleged continued display of impunity, arrogance and insensitivity by PHEDC staff in carrying out their duties.
He opined that the Disco was deliberately refusing to supply metres to customers in order to continue fleecing them through crazy estimated and bulk bills.
Thomas maintained that the company was taking undue advantage of the ignorant of the people to force high bills down their throats and blamed helpless members of the public for not wanting to pursue their rights.
“PHEDC has been stealing from the people, because they know the people don’t know their rights, and very unfortunately the people themselves don’t want to fight for their rights, I don’t know, either they are docile or they are afraid of seeking justice for the unfair treatment they are getting from PHEDC.
“I can’t also tell if they are enjoying the suffering. How can someone who has been paying a bill of N6,500 before, and suddenly PHEDC brought a bill of N45,000 and you agree to pay, yet you are complaining, yet, you don’t want to fight against such deliberate act of stealing by PHEDC in the name of estimated bills.
“We have received several complaints and in the next two weeks, we are going to convene a stakeholders’ forum to address the issues. We are sending letters to the police, the SSS, and many other groups, and the management of PHEDC will be invited, the public should come out and air their grievances,” he said.
Also, a civil society organisation, COMPPART Foundation for Justice and Peace Building has decided to wade into the issue following series of unending complaints from the residents.
The state executive director and human rights activist, Mr. Saviour Akpan disclosed that the organisation was launching a campaign against the anomaly in the system.
But in its response, the PHEDC said it has increased efforts to address challenges faced by its customers regarding unavailability of prepaid metres, epileptic power and overbilling, while describing the allegations of deliberate metre bypass by its staff to exploit customers as unfounded.
A statement by its acting Manager, Corporate Communications, Chioma Aninwe, said the company has also taken part in the National Mass Metering Program, to make prepaid metres available to customers.
On epileptic power, Aninwe said, “in our usual style of keeping customers informed, we have communicated to customers via our various channels electronic, print and social media to inform them of the current challenges being experienced but in electronic language, PHEDC has been placed on system loading.
“Our systems operation unit is thereby constrained to proactively manage the available load to create a balance in the interim.
“Furthermore, the Nigeria electricity supply industry is a full value chain emanating from generation to distribution. Some of the challenges being faced are constraints from the transmission end which are not limited to infrastructural issues.
“Power supply will improve and stabilise as soon as these challenges are rectified,” she said.
On complaints of overbilling she explained that bills are generated based on NERC approved tariff, availability of power supply as well as load assessment adding that many customers who are ignorant of the categorisation of billing and the attendant tariff would assume that they are being overbilled.
