…Not True, Customers Will Always Exaggerate -AEDC
Residents of Abacha Road and its environs, in Mararaba, Karu Local Government of Nasarawa State, on Thursday lamented the high handedness allegedly being meted to them by Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) accusing the company of trading electricity to the highest bidders to the detriment of their community.
Some of them highlighted the high point of their grievances when they carried placards to demonstrate their frustrations in front of the Abacha Road office of the AEDC Thursday morning, chanting solidarity songs, and demanding the end of the alleged injustice.
One of the protesters, Mr. Bada Elias, a resident, who claimed to have lived in the area since 1996, said:The protesters displayed placards with inscriptions like “Enough is enough, “#EndDarkness, “AEDC Stop the injustice, ” We cannot pay for darkness” among others.
“This protest is about the bad light situation we have in the estate. It is very very bad. We will be buying petrol every day and night to power our generators. The AEDC technicians also told we should not rely on them for electricity. And some of the neighboring communities here have light almost all the time. We don’t know what we have done.
“Anytime the transformer is bad they will call us, we will repair. Once we do it, in the night they will not give light, and hoodlums we come and vandalize the transformer. The manager asked us to engage security which we did, but during darkness when light is not available these hoodlums will come and chase our security away and vandalize the transformer. We come to them, we will still pay money to repair it. It is ongoing. It is unacceptable. I think there is a racketeering ring within the system. They sell their light to the highest bidders”.
But, Oyebode Fadipe, the ADEC spokesman swiftly denied the allegations accusing the protesters of exaggerating the situation.
He admitted that some customers in Mararaba area came were their office to raise concern about their power supply.
“We had extensive conversation with them and reached agreements to increase power supply from 6-8hrs and that the community to come up with the list of unmettered customers for metering to address the issue of estimated billing.
Other agreements reached are that “the community/association to work with AEDC to remove customers who are feeding from additional sources as this is a source of danger to the network, community and workers.
“Principal officers of mararaba area office to be added to in their WhatsApp group to improve communication.
He added that AEDC also have limitation from the TCN side, adding that the area is ought to be fed from a 2 x 60MVA transmission station but what we have is a 1 x 60MVA, which is a source of limitation from the source.
Earlier, another resident who participated in the protest, Rev. Austin Agogwu, lamented that some days the residents of the area go without light, adding that the protest is a cry for help from relevant authorities.
“We are basically demonstrating because of the light situation in Abacha Road. The light situation here is terrible. We have an average available light of two hours daily.
“So in a month, you are looking at like 50 hours when there are places in this environment where they have light up to 600 hours to 700 hours. But here it is as bad as 30 minutes, some days we go without light at all. So we thought that we should cry out so that the appropriate authority will come to our aid
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