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By Job Osazuwa
A Lagos resident, Mr. Kelvin Ihebie, who operates four shops at 3, Bawala Street, Pedro, in Bariga, Lagos, has lamented what he called crazy bills from the Shomolu Business Unit of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IE).
He said the electricity company wrongfully disconnected his power supply on January 26, 2021, and he has since been thrown into blackout, thereby unleashing losses on his business.
He said when he complained of the persistent increment on his bills, the company could not give him a convincing answer for its action.
“I want the government to know what Ikeja Electric is doing to make life difficult for me. As long as you don’t have a prepaid metre, you are their victim.
“The well-to-do pay any amount to have prepaid metre. But the company continues to stall the normal process of securing the metre for poor Nigerians so that it will continue to over-bill them. My case is a typical example. Even my landlord applied for prepaid metre but he could not get it after seven months.
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“The distribution company does not bill you according to what you consume, but according to where you live and who you are. For example, my family lives in a three-bedroom apartment in Ikorodu. Our bill was N10,000 every month. But at the same time in Pedro where my business is, such an apartment attracts between N25,000 and N30,000 monthly.
“If a house decides not to use their electricity, the company will disconnect the apartment and continue billing it. That is why many people continue to accept the bills, but they won’t pay.
“In June 2020, I took them to Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) after our pleas to the company fell on deaf ears. On September 24, 2020, NERC invited us to its office. I told the panel that IE has been over-billing us since 2016 and I needed a refund according to NERC’s rules.
“The chairman asked IE’s representative how they were billing us and she said they were billing us 630kwh.The chairman ordered them to adjust with 315kwh, which means they are to refund us half of what they billed us from January to March 2020, and it should be done within one billing circle, which is 30 days.
“Because of their lawlessness, on January 26, they sent their line men to tamper with my prepaid metre and disconnected my source of electricity,” he said.
A petition dated February 12, 2021, by his lawyer, Femi Banjo, for Goldust Solicitors, Lagos, read: “On January 26, the line men of the Ikeja Electric visited our client’s shop with their ladder and disconnected our client’s electricity. The said line men were approached by our client and they said they did not tamper with our client’s metre but our client has been left in darkness since then.”
