Communities tell PHCN, We can’t guarantee your safety, we are angry

Community development associations’ chairmen in Oshodi, Mafoluku and Shogunle in Lagos State have advised Power Holding Company of Nigeria’s workers to steer clear of the areas, saying “their safety cannot be guaranteed,”

In a statement by the CDAs on Thursday, the chairmen said residents of the communities were angry at the arbitrary billing system of the company.

The chairmen said they were aware that some workers of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, an arm of PHCN, had been disconnecting power supply to houses in some areas of the state, adding that they should not visit the communities to disconnect customers.

They said the residents’ anger was caused by indiscriminate dispatch of high bills, which they felt they did not merit.

According to the statement, the electricity supply in the communities is not commensurate with the bills issued by the Oshodi Business Unit of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company. While the bills are high, the electricity supply is low.

The chairmen said the residents had concluded that the expensive bills were an imposition of hardship on the people in the area.

The CDAs said, “We are aware Federal Government raised electricity tariff in June 2012, which prompted the new tariff schedule, but we know that coding of unread meters and wrong billing were not part of it.

 “Explanations given by some of your officials for the policy, including faulty and aged meters, non-possession of meters and meters without seal are untenable. And we always pay our maintenance charges. So if a meter was faulty, aged or without seal, should it be our responsibility to service or replace it?

“If we paid for a meter in the past and it became obsolete, why should it be our responsibility to pay for a new one to replace it? And if we paid for a meter and you were unable to supply, why should you punish us with arbitrary billing in the name of coding for non-possession of a meter? Coding is exploitative.”

The group demanded that the coding policy, which brought about the arbitrary billing, be reversed, adding that it would report the matter to Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission.

The Public Relations officer of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Comapany, Mr. Pekun Adeyanju, who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone, said PHCN would hold dialogue with the residents.

He said, “We appeal to the residents not to take the law into their own hands. We will invite the representatives of the communities for a dialogue with our company. We intend to revise the bills of customers who genuinely have cases.”

The Punch