Business
Etche Community Protests Against PHED
No fewer than 126 residents of Umuebulu and Ikwerre ngwo communities in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State yesterday staged a peaceful protest at the Moscow Road office of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) over epileptic power supply and outrageous billing.
They wielded placards that read: “Billing Without Services is Corruption”, Give Us Prepaid Meter or Flat Rate Of N2,000″, “Mr. President Proscribe PHED”, “We Will Not Pay For Darkness”, and “PHED 5 Minutes On, One Week Off Not Acceptable”, amongst others.
The Tide reports that following the protest, business activities were obstructed for about three hours as both the entrance and exist gates of the company were locked and customers were turned back.
One of the protesters, Gift Uzoma said, in a month, residents only have light for few days but that at the end of the month, each one-bedroom flat is asked to pay N15,000.00 and above.
Uzoma also stated that they provided transformers, cables, ladders and bought over 200 poles yet hardly get supply.
Chairman of the group, Bright Jeremiah, who later addressed the press, said a meeting arranged by management of the company and representatives of the protesters that lasted for over two and half hours ended inconclusively as both parties could not reach an agreement.
“The meeting is inconclusive because our demands were not carefully looked into. We want our bills to be slashed to N2,000 per month, release of transformers to us and provision of prepaid meters to address the issue of outrageous bills, but the management said we should pay 50 per cent while they look into the extra”, he said.
The Manager, Corporate Communications of PHED, Mr. Jonah Iboma, confirmed that the management met with the protesting residents and looked into their complaints of exorbitant bills.
“We told them that billing is based on meter reading on our transformers. They are not estimated arbitrarily.
“The reason why they said the discussion didn’t go down well with them is because they want stay of action on the current bill, but we asked them to pay 50 per cent slash or reduction. We are surprised”, said Iboma.
Chris Oluoh
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