Residents of Eyiowuawi, Obajimi, Martins and Animashaun communities in Itire-Ikate, in the Surulere Local Government Area of Lagos State, have slammed the Eko Electricity Distribution Company over the continuous increment in their electricity bills despite poor power supply.

They lamented that their attempts to get prepaid meters had been frustrated, and called for the intervention of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the Ijeshatedo Coalition Committee, the Secretary of the group, Yomi Orena, said the electricity company had not been operating in line with the directives of the NERC.

Orena said, “We have been having problems with EKEDC since they took over from PHCN. They have refused to follow the guidelines of the NERC. They have never read our analogue electricity meters. They continue to give us estimated billing. A house on Martins Street was charged N91,000 about four months ago.

“We had a meeting with their business district manager, who refused to come for inventory and said they would not back down on estimated billing. They also refuse to read the meter on the transformer to get our exact power consumption; they just give us bills without calculation.

“We have been asking them for prepaid meters for six years, but they refused to supply them. The few houses that received prepaid meters paid N7,000 for installation. We want them to follow the due process stipulated by the NERC.”

A resident, Smith Amuda, told PUNCH Metro that EKEDC had been cheating people in the area for a long time.

“They told us to be paying N5,000, which we complied with. Even with the N5,000, they don’t give us power. Yinka, the EKEDC marketer, later increased the bill to N7,000. Despite all the payments, power is never constant,” he added.

The Public Relations Officer of EKEDC, Mr Godwin Idemudia, told PUNCH Metro that the communities might have failed to apply for meters, adding that estimated billing and meter supply were two different issues.

He said, “Have they applied for meters? Let them go online to register for prepaid meters, which are free. It is a different thing to apply for a prepaid meter and not get one and to be given estimated bills. It’s not possible that only a few houses in the area will be given meters. The website will give you a number and a vendor will be allocated.”