December 21, (THEWILL) – Electricity consumers in Benue state have cried out over what they described as astronomical monthly bills, given by the Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC).
Some respondents in Makurdi, alleged that in the last few months, JEDC have raised the bills beyond what an average Nigerian could pay, and have urged regulatory agencies to step into the matter with the aim of controlling the system for the benefit of the two parties.
Mr Iorhemen recounted that the bill he used to get suddenly jumped to over N25,000 for the month of November 2022, while there was no additional equipment added to the house.
On his part, a resident of Abu Shuluwa Road, Joseph Tarr, stated that “at the beginning of the year, I was paying N4,000 monthly, by June, the bill was increased to about N9,000; some were billed N14,000. We complained and we were told by officials that the charges came from the head office in Jos. They promised to address the issue, but instead, the bills I have been receiving in the last four months, have been around N28,000, some were charged as high as N32,000. How do they expect anyone to pay that kind of bill?
“And if you ask for pre-paid meters, which we learnt should be given free to consumers, they insist that you must pay to get it. It is a terrible situation because we are now at the mercy of the distribution company as if no organisation is monitoring their activities.”
A resident of High Level area, Mr Sonter Teryila, alleged that JEDC in the last three months, have been charging him almost N30,000 monthly. “When the bills come, we usually complain and they will promise to address it, but the following month they bring you something higher than the former.
“This is a clear case of exploitation. We noticed that these crazy bills started coming after JEDC offices were sealed up by the Benue Internal Revenue Service over the backlog of unpaid taxes. There is no justification for this. Except they are now telling us that electricity is not for the poor.”
Contacted, the Regional Manager of JEDC, Makurdi office, Engr. Joseph Kwaghgba, said several factors are responsible for the high billing, which he listed to include the slight increase in the tariff, huge increment in power availability and consumption in Makurdi.
“They were consuming just about 13 megawatts in Makurdi in the time past, but now the consumption has risen to almost 22,000 megawatts. What that means is that, the more the usage the more the charges.
“There is tremendous improvement in power supply and JEDC is providing almost 18 to 20 hours power supply and sometimes 24 hours.”
Engr Kwaghgba stated that the more a customer enjoys supply, the higher the bill; pointing out that the solution to the situation is for most consumers to migrate to prepaid billing, so that they can manage their consumption and the issue of over billing will be laid to rest.
