Residents of Chika and
Aleyita located along the Airport Road, Abuja, took to the streets to protest what they described as exploitation by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC).
The residents, who came out in large numbers, said they were out to register their frustrations and grievances over poor power supply in the communities and the charging of outrageous bills by AEDC.
One of the protesters, Mr Obinna Nwasoro, said the residents decided to stage the peaceful protest to express their dissatisfaction with the company.
Nwasoro said that AEDC had subjected the residents to untold hardship due to poor supply of electricity and indiscriminate increment of bills.
He said that Chika community in particular, had been on load shedding for more than two years due to the lack of transformer, adding that the billing did not reflect the situation.
Nwasoro said that in the last two months, power supply in the area had been “five days off, three days on”, adding that individual houses were being billed between N10, 000 and N15, 000 monthly.
“How do you expect a minimum wage earner who earns about N20, 000 a month to pay electricity bill of N15, 000 a month? It is inhuman.
“Now, they do five days off’ and three days on and they expect us to pay.
“Last month, there was no light, yet they issued us bill of between N10, 000 and N15, 000 and so on.
“We have been tolerating, but this time we can no longer endure and allow them to oppress us; this is why we are on this protest,’’ he said.
Another resident, Mr Joseph Mayaki, said that many of the residents were in pain because they are engaged in menial jobs that require electricity, yet they spent money to power their generators.
Mayaki said that most of them were currently out of job since they could not afford to operate with generators, adding that the AEDC also gave them outrageous bills for electricity not supplied.
He said that the bills have been on the steady increase since late 2015, adding that those paying between N2, 000 and N3, 000 in 2015 were now paying between N10, 000 and N20, 000.
The traditional ruler of Aleyita, Chief Ibrahim Gajatna, while addressing the protesters, commended them for their peaceful conduct during the protest.
Gajatna urged them to continue to be law-abiding while expressing their grievances, adding that he was also pained by the poor power supply and the exorbitant high bills.