Umudibia Nekede Women Protest Against EEDC Scandalous Billing

By Ike Chidi

To press home their demand for full and constant generation of electricity to their community, women of Umudibia Nekede, Owerri West, Imo State, on Tuesday, took to the streets of Owerri protesting poor distribution of electricity at their area by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC).

The women cautioned EEDC to stop billing them outrageously as it has stopped supplying them with full electricity since 2015, regretting that the EEDC had also refused to mount Prepaid Metres that would control their bills to curtail outrageous charge which they described as scandalous, shocking and unacceptable.

The protesters who expressed their dissatisfaction peacefully, uniformly dressed on black clothing, carried placards which have inscriptions as: “No Light, No Payment of EEDC Outrageous Bills. Umudibia Nekede Women Said Let There Be Light. EEDC Renders Harmful Services to Umudibia Community. No Light, No Business At Umudibia Nekede”.

The leader of the protesters and President-General, Umudibia Nekede Community, Lady Ijeoma Onyenobi, Said they were remonstrating against none and poor supply of light, scandalous/ outrageous charges/bills, none use of Prepaid Metres and outdated electricity facilities by EEDC.

According to Lady Ijeoma Onyenobi, ” for the past 4years, there has not been any regular supply of electricity at Umudibia Nekede community despite the huge money we pay monthly on bills. We have been agitating over the years, no one, not even the government or EEDC, cares to listen to our plea for help and our lack of electricity plight hangs in the air.

“During elections light comes fractionally, but dwindles thereafter. We were formerly with Umuoma Power Line, but now we are on Naze Power Unit whence we are having worse time as light, when it eventually comes, goes off again within three seconds, sometimes an hour. Or in 6months light would not come at all. Some areas are hooked up to Federal Power Line, some to State Power Line”, she fumed.

“The Federal Power Line is 100 percent better, at least consumers use 20% of light paid for and are not outrageously billed even though there are no Prepaid Meters.
“The EEDC in charge of Naze Power Unit shortchanges us with outrageous bills of #15000, #20000, #10000, #5000 etc.”

“We are forced to always pay for services that were no rendered to us. We are helplessly not happy with the way we are being relegated. EEDC kept on bringing outrageous bills for light it did not provide. When we complain, they say they are not aware.”

” No Prepaid Metres and how does one read the metres to know amount of light consumed. We want metres supplied to reduce the scandalous billing, just as electric facilities as Transformer, solid High Tension/ Low Tension Wire will be put in place while regular supply of full electricity should be prioritized to encourage business, productivity and hardwork”.

They threatened to stop paying any bills if EEDC did not stop billing them scandalously.

It could be recalled that over ten years communities within Imo State have not been having regular supply of public light despite huge bills they pay on electricity.

Government should call EEDC to order while doing the needful by way of strict regulation of her activities with the area as people are willing to work.