Published 2nd Jan, 2022

By Emmanuel Uti

A development coach resident in the Surulere area of Lagos has raised the alarm over outrageous billing and bullying by the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC).

The coach, who asked not to be named, accused the EKEDC of fabricating bills out of the blue to extort her despite proof that her household consumes small units of electricity.

She said the bills have gone from N33,000 to N215,000 in two months. The most recent billing, she said, was an attempt to extort her.

“In September, it went from N33,195.66 to N83,859.30,” she told FIJ. “We paid because the tariff had been raised and we got more power. When they brought the October bill, it went from roughly N84,000 to N215,360.32 for a household. The bill claims that our energy consumption was 3,572.45 kilowatts.”

She immediately declined to pay and notified the marketer in charge of the account. She was assured that her complaint would be looked into and the bill adjusted.

She wondered how it was possible that her rates could have increased so much in such a short period when her household consumption pattern had not changed, especially since no EKEDC official visited the premises to read their metre.

While she was still expressing her dissatisfaction about the overbilling, a “special task force” came in on Monday, October 25, 2021, and disconnected her household for non-payment of a disputed bill. The household had no light for two weeks.

“I told them it was wrong for them to cut the light as we were disputing the bill. The NERC law says we’re not supposed to pay while we reconcile our issues. They said we should pay what we paid the previous month while they reconcile, but I refused,” she said.

In September, she installed a consumption metre in her house to determine what her household consumed monthly. At the time the EKEDC sent her the bill for October, her household had not consumed a thousand kilowatts, but they billed her for 3,572.45 kilowatts.

“I sent a message to them and their head of customer service replied, saying their staff should not have handled the matter by disconnecting my light. They came, reconnected my light and said they were going to metre us. By metering us, they will take that debt and put it on the metre, so every time I buy a token, they will take a portion of that debt off,” she said.

In November, EKEDC did not bring a bill to her. She emailed to know why, but they said they were still reconciling. Later, they sent a metre installer to her house. In December, they sent a bill, but it did not reflect the adjustment they said they would make. The bill also came with a three-day disconnection notice.

“How can you threaten to disconnect when you’re in dispute resolution?” She asked. “They have been dragging it in the hope I will get frustrated. So, I told them it’s better to go off the grid than to pay them.”

“They said they would look at it quickly. The bill they brought on December 10 showed net arrears. I said I would not pay the bill until I got the clarity of what the arrears meant, but none of them responded to me.”

On December 21, they disconnected her and since then, they have refused to reconnect her light.

“They use disconnection as a bullying tactic. I was not billed for what I consumed. They cannot add other people’s bills to mine. They are even saying I am refusing to be metred. It is clear they are not transparent,” she said.

FIJ called EKEDC customer care, but the line could not be reached. A text message sent had also not been responded to at press time.

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