Business
Residents Storm PHCN Premises Over Inflated Bills
The residents of East Niger community, near Onitsha, on Tuesday stormed the PHCN Ogbaru Business Unit premises over high electricity tariff.
This is coming barely a week after residents of Odekpe community in Ogbaru Council Area of Anambra stormed the same office over similar charges.
The East Niger residents held a peaceful demonstration on the Onitsha-Atani Road with placards bearing some inscriptions.
They read: “we don’t want fixed billing anymore, it is suicidal’’, “we have been paying for services we did not enjoy’’ and “Nnaji, please save us from PHCN extortion’’.
Addressing newsmen, Chief Ernest Ojimba, the President-General of East Niger Community Development Union, said the protest was to register their grievances against the manner the PHCN officials were allegedly extorting their community.
Ojimba alleged that PHCN had been fleecing the residents through estimated billing and lamented that a resident was billed as much as N7,000 per month.
“If they come to read the meters, as had been the procedure in the past, we will be sure that we are paying the commensurate amount of money to the services rendered.
“But the practice of staying in the comfort of their offices and randomly send out bills is criminal and we will no longer tolerate it.’’
Ojimba threatened that the residents would only pay N1,000 per month to designated banks until PHCN came up with a payment plan that would reflect the actual consumption figure.
The community leader also decried the illegal activities of some PHCN staff who engaged in indiscriminate disconnection in the area.
“We are not getting value for the money we pay monthly’’.
“We have petitioned the Enugu Zonal Office of PHCN and other relevant authorities about our plight, not just about the exorbitant bills but equally the issue of epileptic power supply.’’
Efforts to reach Mr Chijioke Uzoeto, the Manager, Ogbaru PHCN Business District, were abortive as policemen and the company’s security-men denied newsmen access to his office, while his phone rang endlessly.
The Tide reports that the demonstration resulted to vehicular gridlock for hours until policemen arrived and took control of the situation.
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