ALEX OTUDOR
Pandemonium broke out at the offices of Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKEDC, located along Mba-Cardoso Street, Ajegunle area of Lagos, when hundreds of residents stormed the office demanding an end to multiple billings and tariff hike.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that some residents woke up to the sound of solidarity songs and heavy drum beats by members of the Ajegunle Peoples Movement, APM, the body that organized the protest.
APM is demanding among others that the residents reject the hike in electricity tariff, which they see as a scam, kick against multiple billing system, and the sharp increase in pre-paid meter fee.
They further ask the ‘landlord/tenants associations to form Democratic Action in Ajeromi-Ifelodun communities to resist unwarranted and unjust disconnections based on the duplication of’ Yahoo Yahoo bills’.
A member of the APM, Austin said, “The Discos and EKEDC in particular is through estimated billing system causing pains on the masses and adding to the already excruciating hardship occasioned by the harsh economic policies of the Government”.
He added that electricity supply to Ajegunle, Ifelodun and environs ‘was erratic, in short supply and very unpredictable, even with the extortive bills’.
This reporter sighted two different bills served on a building. One read N54,000 and another N111,000 on the same building within the same month.
The APM lamented the unending system collapse, which has continuously caused power outage and questioned the rationale behind the privatisation of PHCN.
The protest in Ajegunle is not the first of its kind in Lagos State. Many communities in the State have been passing through same tariff hike and estimated billings by the electricity distribution companies, which was yet to be addressed by the Government over the years.
