Electricity consumers in Akwa Ibom State have accused the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) of extortion and negligence of duties.
A consumer and resident of Anwa Nsa Street, Uyo, Mr. Idongesit Ekpenyong, said the idea behind the estimated billing system was the company’s calculated plan to gain at the expense of the public as any appropriate billing system would have revealed the true state of services rendered.
Ekpenyong alleged that after one year of total blackout owing to faulty transformer, the company, after installing a new one, sent bills covering the one-year period of blackout.
“Imagine a situation where you had no light in your area, not even a flash for one full year, and after one year they brought in bills covering the entire period of total blackout. Some flats were receiving bills of N150, 000 and single rooms N50-70,000 for the period,” he said.
Another consumer and resident of Esuene Street, Mr. Isaiah Udofia, said PHEDC had defied every sense of responsibility and duty to members of Akwa Ibom public.
He said the company supplied powers to most streets in Uyo just within 48 hours to distribution of bills as a bait to lure the people to pay bills.
The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly had, in response to the public outcry, criticised the power distribution company. This followed a notice of motion brought before the House by the member representing Ibesikpo Asutan State Constituency, Mr. Aniekan Uko, during its plenary, with the motion titled, ‘The unwholesome and alleged fraudulent charges on electricity consumers in Akwa Ibom State by PHEDC.’
The team leader, Public Communications, John Onyi, said consumers were charged according to the amount of energy they are supplied.
