Electricity: Nigerians will continue to suffer bills estimate if… – Monarch
The Ovie of Agbon kingdom, His Royal Majesty, Mike Omeru Ukori 1 JP, has called on the Federal Government to prevail on Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, to install prepaid meters, adding that unless this was done Nigerians would continue to suffer from estimated bills.
The Ovie also alleged that even in places where BEDC have installed prepaid meters, they seem not to read the meters, alleging that they impose the amount they want to collect on consumers without recourse to what the meter read.
Omeru, who stated this in an interview, wondered why it was only in Nigeria that such anomaly thrives, noting that Nigeria was the only country where people pay for electricity bills without enjoying the services.
He said, “If you look at it critically, at the end of every month, they distribute exorbitant bills to consumers. If you look at the figures they are giving you, there is no correlation with the services you have enjoyed.
And you begin to wonder when you enjoyed such electricity services to be paying huge amounts of money as bills. “In the Western World, you pay as you go.
Every service you enjoy is paid for through your meters and when the airtime is out, your light goes off; that is how it should be and not the other way round as we experiencing in Nigeria”.
He said as a matter of urgency, it was time the federal government cancelled all exorbitant bills until BEDC distributed prepaid meters to consumers across the country, adding that there was need for government to take such steps in order to save the masses from exorbitant bills which he noted was a source of great concern to Nigerians.
“Nigeria is the only country you pay for electricity bill without enjoying the services. In fact, the amount they bring to us as bills on monthly basis, due to the unreasonable figures; it is tantamount to fraud and we cannot continue to suffer such injustice without saying anything. Government should work in this trajectory to ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians, “he explained.
