Estimated billing: Senate to investigate AEDC, other distribution coys

Taiye Odewale
Abuja

Electricity distribution companies across Nigeria will be put under spotlight by the Senate today to determine the ills associated with estimate billings of electricity consumers who are being exploited by the companies.

In starting off  the process, a motion to that effect has been slated to be moved    on the floor of the Senate by Senator Dino Melaye following the acceptance of his desire to do so by the Senate at plenary yesterday.
Specifically, the probe will commence with the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) which has assumed a worrisome notoriety in the act of engaging in estimated billing of  ustomers rather than provide them with pre-paid meters as instructed by National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

Senator Melaye had on the floor of the Senate drew the attention of senators to the alleged day light robbery by the electricity providers through a point  of order .
Melaye in moving the motion told the parliament that he’s the latest victim of the dastardly act of the AEDC.
In narrating his personal experience, Melaye said AEDC officials sometime ago, removed his prepaid meter to a new one which they also came to remove three weeks after that.
He alleged that the company then placed his house on estimated Billing system through which he’s been exploited.

His personal experience in the hands of the AEDC, he said, got him wondering how ordinary struggling Nigerians who can barely feed well are being exploited again by the companies.
“If me that is a privileged Nigerian is undergoing this pain and agony over the astronomical fees, what do we say about the man in Aguileri or the young palm wine tapper in Otuoke.
“We must speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, we must discuss this issue of estimated billing by all distribution companies in Nigeria,” he said.

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