Residents of Seaside
Road, Umuebele II and Express sections of Oyigbo, in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State have protested over the high charges in power supply as against low power consumption in the areas.
The protesters who carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘power must go’, no light no bill, give us our correct bills among others, stormed the Power Holding Offices in the area, yesterday morning, demanding that their charges be made equal with their consumption.
Some of the protesters who spoke to The tide lamented that the arbitrary tariff has become unbearable, maintaining that should the charge take the same shape, by next monthly, they would be left with the option of an intense riot.
According to a resident Ikedi Godstime, “Infact, high charge is an understatement. Imagine that I will leave my house in the morning with all my electrical gadgets put off and to come back at night yet I am served a bill of over N10,000. No. this must stop”.
Augustina Gabrel, a boutique owner and   resident of Seaside Road also said a situation where you are paying for light that you did not consume is terrible PHED will only give us light when they see that the month is ending and after the payment of the bill, you don’t see light again.
Also speaking, a trader along the PH-Aba Expressway lamented the situation saying, “it is unfortunate  how the Nigerian system works. For us here, our light is being rationed. They give us light maybe one or two weeks and it will be the turn of the others. Yet, the bills keep coming as if you used the light all through the month. This has to stop otherwise, it will result to something serious between us and them.
When contacted, the Business Service Manager Oyigbo North Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) Mr Emake Anamemena, confirmed the protest stating however that the situation was due largely  to estimated bill charges rather than from actual meter reading.
While nothing that the residents of the areas were mostly commercial residents with petty shops, Anamenena explained that there was a general increase in commercial tarrif from about N18 to N32 per Kilowatt hour adding that this was the situation that the consumers never understood.
He said “the people came agitating against high charges in this month of February. The problem is because a lot of them do not have metres and without that we can’t get the actual bill for their consumption. Anamemena, therefore, urged the protesters to shun the habits of short-cuts and purchase their individual metres as well as follow due process in the registration for proper computation saying “this is one  way of ensuring that this problem could be tackled.

Lady Godknows Ogbulu