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04.02.2025 Featured Ikeja Electric Yet to Return Family’s Meter After 20 Months of ‘Troubleshooting’

Published 4th Feb, 2025

By Opeyemi Lawal

In June 2023, Ikeja Electric (IE) personnel visited Olufunmi Aderinto (a pseudonym), a businesswoman living in Lagos, to fix her family’s prepaid meter.

Aderinto, speaking with FIJ on Tuesday, said that Ikeogoli Ernest, the IE representative who picked up the prepaid meter, assured her it would be returned shortly as it was only taken for troubleshooting.

She explained that the prepaid meter was not reflecting the recharge even after it had been successfully loaded, which was why they contacted the distribution company.

READ ALSO: Ikeja Electric Delays Customer’s 7-Day Meter Repair for 2 Months

“In 2023, just a few months after using the prepaid meter, having recently moved into the apartment, our prepaid meter stopped working,” she said.

“We contacted Ikeja Electric, and they sent their representative to pick it up. In the meantime, they placed us on a direct connection.

“Ernest said that our meter was taken away for troubleshooting and would be returned shortly.”

The family’s IE meter retrieval form.

CRAZY ELECTRICAL BILLS

Aderinto said that being placed on a direct connection was the beginning of significant distress for her family. She explained that despite living in a two-room and parlour apartment, they paid as much as N40,000 for electricity every month.

“We pay as much as N40,000 monthly for an electricity supply we barely use. Most of our appliances and electronics are either not functioning or have broken down since this issue started,” she said.

“When I visited their office in Idiroko, they told me we were billed based on readings from clamping our electric wires to the pole. I think this is crazy.

Some of the crazy bills slammed on them by IE.

“They also told me that our type of connection could not pay less than the current monthly charge.

“In December, they sent us a bill of over N112,000. We wrote a letter of complaint to IE and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), but they said they were working on it.

“However, we made a payment of N40,000, which had been our usual amount for some months. Surprisingly, our electricity supply was disconnected on January 22. They claimed the amount we paid was too small.

“We paid an additional N10,000 and then N3,000 for the reconnection but we are tired of the unaffordable bills.”

READ ALSO: IKEDC Asks Customer to Pay Strange N335,981 Debt After Mismatching His Details

ACCUMULATED DEBT FROM PREVIOUS TENANT

Aderinto told FIJ that before her family moved into the apartment, the previous tenant had accumulated debt, which the distribution company had been forcing them to pay.

She said it had compounded their misery in the hands of Ikeja Electric. “We just want our meter returned, things are already difficult across the country,” Aderinto said.

NO UPDATE ON THE ISSUE SINCE FEB. 2024

When FIJ called Ikeja Electric on Tuesday, for a reaction on the delay of Aderinto’s prepaid meter and the exorbitant electricity bill, Betty, the customer care agent who answered the call, said that the meter had been undergoing repairs since February 29, 2024, as per the last update on it.

She told FIJ that a follow-up response would be issued by Friday.

“The latest update as of February 29, 2024, is that the meter is currently undergoing repairs and will be deployed as soon as the issue is resolved. It has also been escalated for immediate attention,” Betty said.

“I will follow up with a complaint because, from my end, the customer has not called in a while to provide an update. You can call back by Friday for further information.

“I can see that a visit was made on January 28, and there is an ongoing service request regarding incorrect billing charges. An order has been issued for the meter’s retrieval, and I will follow up on it. You can call back by Friday for an update.”

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Published 4th Feb, 2025

By Opeyemi Lawal

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