Saheed Balogun, a customer of Ikeja Electric Distribution Company (IKEDC), has decried the “unjustifiable charges” on his family house since February.

According to Saheed Balogun, the family house at Itele, Ogun State, is not even connected to any power source, yet over the last three months, he has received bills totalling almost N23,000 in all.

“This is fraud. The house was completed in September  2020 for use of yearly festivals and other important family meetings,” he said.

“I applied for the prepaid meter in November and even paid N67,000 for a prepaid meter but I haven’t got it yet.”

Saheed assumed the marketer was responsible for the error in the billing but “he kept telling me they would work on it but there has been no improvement up till date”.

“When they eventually bring the meter and we load power on it, they will accumulate the pending charges unless I speak out now.”

In a bid to eliminate estimated billing and increase the local meter value chain, the Federal Government began the distribution of six million free pre-paid electricity metres across the country back in October. Despite this, some corrupt staff of distribution companies take advantage of the high demand for meters to extort Nigerians.

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About this menace of extortion, Saheed said: “I believe the Community Development Association is in working in cahoots with the marketer to extort us, but we don’t care about that because acquiring prepaid meters is hot cake.”

Oluwaseyi Olubasiri, the marketer in charger of Saheed’s house district in Ogun State, did not answer calls or reply a text message sent to his phone. 

“If I don’t get my prepaid meter, I will make a demand to collect my money back because I even paid extra N10,000, making a total of N77,000, just to fast-track the process,” Saheed said.