Residents of Awkuzu Street  in the Diobu area of Port Harcourt last Thursday vehemently rejected the first estimated  electricity  bills  sent to them by the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company  (PHED), after  about five months of total blackout in the area.
The Tide reports that the area had remained in darkness since 24th December, 2016 following a breakdown of their  transformer. All attempts to persuade  the DISCO to restore light by providing a new transformer for the area  proved abortive as the power firm categorically told the committee  set up to handle  the matter that if they continue to wait for it they would remain in perpetual blackout.
Based on this, the committee mobilised and began to levy all residents  about N2,000 per room,  of which each building raised about N23,000 which amounted to almost N1.5 million to put the transformer in working condition just for them to enjoy light.
Apart from the cost of repairing the transformer,  no less than N500,000 was allegedly given to officials  of the DISCO in Port Harcourt to pacify them to accept  to restore power to the area.
After the refurbished  transformer was reinstalled,  the people finally saw light in mid April, something they did  not enjoy for a full month, only for the PHED to come up with outrageous  estimated bills, which included the five months they lived in darkness.
It would be recalled that officials of the PHED have always defended themselves, saying that it is the responsibility  or  duty of private  electricity operators  to replace or repair transformers for consumers but to the people’s chagrim,  the reverse is the case with the  present  operators of PHED.
Residents of the area who spoke to The Tide lamented the subjective situation  meted out to them by the PHED and appealed to the  government of the state to  intervene as a matter  of urgency before their excesses will go out of hand,  and also before  electricity consumers would run off patience.
One of the residents and a caretaker of one of the buildings, Mr Billy Tonye told The Tide that what the Port Harcourt Distribution Company did to the people and the Awkuzu street  residents in particular  was tantamount to “Man’s inhumanity to man” as they  are being treated like slaves  and dafts in their land. He wondered why the people should be subjected to paying for the service they did not enjoy for five months, saying the PHED just  came from nowhere  to collect money from the people   without even reading the meters and forcing his yard to pay over N94,000 for the light they did not use, describing it as unjustifiable.
Another caretaker, at the street, Mr Horsfall said: “What we are experiencing in Awkuzu street is not experienced in the whole of  Nigeria.
Mr. Friday Michael, another caretaker said: “I feel disappointed by PHED. The  light are suffered to restore not up to two weeks after, they are bring  exorbitant estimated bills to us.
The Tide gathered that each building along the street was billed N204,000, N300,000, N520,000, N94,000, N150,000 and  so on repectively, under the estimated bills,  which infuriated the consumers to call the bills a bluff. We also learnt that the estimated billing is an alleged handiwork of an official of the PHED and the bill distributor in-charge of Awkuzu street.
When  contacted, PHED Corporate Affairs Officer, Mr John Onyia, said the allegation of billing for the five months without supply would be investigated.
Onyia explained that on the allegation of outrageous bill for the  month of April,  customers that have meter were billed based on reading from the meter while those without meter were billed based on reasonable estimation.

Chris Oluoh