Electricity: Ojota community protests ‘crazy’ bills, disconnections

By MOSES OMOROGIEVA

The Association of Ojota Community Development Areas (CDAs) on Sunday staged a peaceful protest against estimated bills and disconnections by the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the protesters, including members of Ojota-West CDAs, Otatunji/Abebi CDAs and Abule-Soko CDAs, were led by the joint CDAs Chairman, Mr Adenekan Abubakar, and Secretary, Mr Jide Ogunjimi.

The protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as: “IKEDC, give us human electricity bill”, “IKEDC, Ojota Community is not your ATM”, “No to electricity disconnection in Ojota community” and “Ojota community says no to crazy electricity bills”.

Abubakar said that the protest became necessary in view of many complaints by the community members against estimated bills and disconnections by the IKEDC for failure to pay the ‘crazy’ bills.

He said the community was not enjoying regular electricity that would warrant high bills since their ‘homes are not factories’.

Abubakar, however, urged all electricity consumers in Ojota with estimated bills to pay 50 per cent of the bills.

“Over the years, crazy bills have been the order of the day in the community, but it has now gone haywire.

“Electricity bill is now higher than a house rent in Ojota. The community says no to crazy, extortive electricity bills,” Abubakar said.

The chairman said that the community was demanding that all electricity consumers   in Ojota should be metered, while outstanding bills should be erased.

He claimed that the bills were fabricated.

When contacted, the Head of Public Affairs of IKEDC, Mr Felix Ofilue, said that application for an electricity meter was the responsibility of the consumer.

He said that the electricity company would be satisfied if all its customers would be metered.

“It is in the best interest of Ikeja Electric if they are metered, so they do not need to demand, they should apply through map.ikejaelectric.com.

“The Meter Asset Provider scheme is open to all unmetered customers on our network.

“Once they get the meters, estimated bills will stop,” Ofilue told NAN. (NAN)