Blackout: Onitsha residents issue 21-day ultimatum to EEDC

Some residents of Onitsha, Anambra State on Thursday issued a 21-day ultimatum to the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company to install pre-paid meters in their area.
The aggrieved residents, under the aegis of Onitsha South Elites Forum, are protesting alleged failure of EEDC to install prepaid meters in the area.
They collaborated with a human rights organisation, Campaign for Democracy, in the protest.
The residents are also protesting perennial power outage and “crazy” billing.
The protesters, numbering over 1,500, stormed the EEDC offices at Fegge, GRA and Ogbaru, carrying placards with various inscriptions and copies of their petition signed by their Coordinator, Noel Udeoji.
Addressing newsmen after the protest, Udeoji said the protesters had suffered poor treatment from the EEDC.
He said that power blackout had crippled economic activities in the commercial city.
The coordinator said that the protesters would not tolerate suspension of Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation for estimated billings system by the EEDC.
Udeoji said: “Why suspend the National Electricity Regulation Commission-approved estimated billing methodology and have, in its place, an illegal, exploitative and acrimonious billing system?”
According to him, the EEDC has 21 days from the date of receipt of the petition to inform residents when pre-paid meters will be procured and installed for electricity consumers in the area.
Also speaking, the CD National Publicity Secretary, Dede Uzor, said the protest was to express displeasure over continued blackout in Onitsha in particular and the South-East in general .
According to him, EEDC distributes estimated bills of between N7,000 and N11,000 monthly to each consumer without supplying electricity.
Uzor said: “It is believed that they milk residents of billions of naira without commensurate power supply.
“It is ridiculous, and we cannot continue to accept it.
“We demand a stop to the estimated billing.
“They should resolve this issue of pre-paid meters within 21- days, failure of which we will mobilise against them.”