Victoria Ojugbana, Lagos
Worried by the continued issuance of “crazy bills” by the Ikeja Electric Distribution Company, residents of Agbado-Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area on Wednesday threatened to sue the electricity company, and the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, over fictitious bills accounted for customers without request.
The residents comprising of 11 Community Development Associations, also accused Ikeja Electric of deliberate rejection of the reading of functional readable meters and refusal to install prepaid meters, describing the action as flagrant flouting of extant operating Laws, and Regulations in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
The residents lamented that following alleged irregularities on the part of the company, over five million residents were subjected to untold hardship in communities such as Oke-Abiye, Ajasa, Agbelekale; Ifelagba; Pacesetter; Aniya; Tiwalade, Itesiwaju, Fafunwa, God’s Chosen and Ariwajoye Community Development Association within the network of the AIT, Ipaja, Abule Taylor Aboru, among others.
Addressing journalists on behalf of the residents and other Community Development Associations, the Chairman of Ajasa, CDA, Akinola Adebowale, said that the entire residents would approach the Federal High Court to seek an interlocutory injunction to restrain the Ikeja Electric from further issuance of “crazy bills” without installation of prepaid meters.
He said that residents also noted that will seek redress in the court to refund collected through crazy bills from unmetered and prepaid meters from 2010 till date.
According to him, over six years after the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) ruled that estimated bills should be stopped in the affected communities, Ikeja Electric failed to comply and allow the DISCO to continuously extort them and infringe on their right as electricity consumers.
He said:“ It is in the light of the foregoing that we the electricity consumers under the umbrella of 11Nos. Community Development Association (CDA) are beseeching the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, for redress against the extortions of Ikeja Electric and thus requesting through the Law Firm of Barrister Olushegun Raji that the court should enjoin Ikeja Electric to cancel the crazy bills balance of estimated/coded customers with effect from the year 2010; install functional prepaid meters to all electricity consumers within the electricity distribution networks our communities.”
“Refund the money for the procurement of prepaid meter through the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) Regulation 2018 to customers within the electricity distribution network of our communities; Refund all accrued cost at issuing paper bills to individual electricity consumers within the electricity distribution network of our communities with effect from August 2019 till date”.
The residents explained that they were joining the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Attorney-General of the federation and Minister of Justice, as well as the Lagos State Commissioner for Justice for not protecting the citizens against extortion.
