Crazy Bills: Experts Blast NERC For Aiding EEDC
BY RAPHAEL ONYEKACHUKWU, ENUGU – Professionals and stakeholders at the three-day public hearing on the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) crisis with their consumers in Enugu state has blasted the leadership of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), for conspiring with the electricity firm to extort and exploit consumers through crazy billings.
Speaking on behalf of the groups, one Dr. Godwin Agbo, said if the NERC was alive to its responsibility by applying her extant laws on the electricity distribution company in the South-east zone, the level of criminality the company committed against the people of the zone would not have been so glaring.
The groups said despite the fact that, Eastern Distribution Company (EDC) won the biding process to distribute electricity to the south-east, EEDC which didn’t win the biding process was awarded the license. ‘Our leaders were arm-twisted because of the cabals who want to rip the zone off.’
Agbo said many businesses had been liquidated by the company with their excessive billings, lamenting that worst still is the ‘more you complain, the more you are being rewarded with increased tariff’.
Earlier in his address, EEDC Crisis Committee Chairman, Mr Don Uzogbado, said tenants do not complain about landlords’ house rent, rather it is EEDC’s estimated billings.
“In fact we are not going back on this matter, but we want your support so that we will fight this common cause together to ensure that EEDC stop extorting our people.’
The Chairman, Nkanu West, Afam Okereke said he demanded for pre-paid metres only to realize that when he re-charged N20,000 it finished in nine days with their new smart metre.
He urged the residents to go for the old pre-paid metres, instead of the new ones, as the new ones read more than what they are consuming.
