Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) office in Akure, Ondo State capital was on Monday sealed off by residents over what they described as ‘crazy bills’.
The residents from the Obaile area of the town also decried the alleged nonchalant attitude of BEDC in regards to improving their services, despite the efforts of the landlords of the area.
The placard-carrying protesters locked the gate of the company and refused to allow workers, including the Business Manager, Mr Andrew, to enter its premises.
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It took the intervention of soldiers on duty at the BEDC office to allow some staff to go about their duties.
Some of the protest placards read “We Say No To Crazy Bills”, “We Don’t Want Estimated Billings, “BEDC, Give us Pre-Paid Meters”, “BEDC is Cheating Us”, “We Are Ready To Pay For What We Consume”, among others.
Speaking with reporters, the leader of the protesters, Mr Popoola Martins, said they have paid for pre-paid metres but the electricity company refused to provide metres for them.
Popoola accused the BEDC of only being interested in collecting electricity bills without maintaining facilities or providing new infrastructure.
According to him, ‘we are here to tell the BEDC that their illegality must stop. We are responsible for buying poles, cables, conductors and even transformers. Their only input is to collect money.
‘We are being given a bill of N70,000 to N110,000 monthly per house. That is outrageous. The transformer we procured is yet to be installed. We are here for the world to call the BEDC to order,’ he complained.