Onitsha Residents Protest Poor Electricity Supply

www.odogwublog.com reports that angry residents of Awada, a high density area of Onitsha, Anambra
State on Tuesday, June 16, 2015, took to the streets to protest consistent poor public power supply in the area by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC).
The residents marched through the Enugu-Onitsha expressway, waving placards some of which read: "EEDC give us prepaid meters"; "Old PHCN is better than EEDC"; "EEDC officials are taking us for granted".
The protesters stormed the offices of EEDC at Awada, GRA and Ogidi, the headquarters of Idemili North Local Government Area, where they handed their petitions to the officers on duty.
In the petition, the protesters said that though they received the privatization of the power sector and the handover of electricity supply to EEDC, they expectation had been met with worsening electricity supply, as well as sharp and underhand practices by staff of EEDC.
According to them, some of the ills that had befallen them since EEDC took over electricity supply include non-reading of electricity meters, consistent outrageous estimated electricity bills which is not based on electricity consumption, frequent power surge and outages and sometimes total blackout that sometimes lasts for many weeks and removal of transformer fuses and deploying same to preferred customers.
The protest letter read: "It is worthy to note that despite promises to install pre-paid meters in houses in our area, all the buildings in the area most regrettably, still operate under the analogue system because of the corruption of the staff of EEDC who use the analogue system to exploit us.
"The epileptic supply of electricity has disrupted social and economic lives in this area, thereby making living unbearable.
"The current situation is therefore unacceptable to us and we can no longer tolerate it, which is why we want EEDC to address our complaints without further delay, failing which we will do everything within the ambit of the law to protect our interest."
An official of EEDC, Mr. Fred Ugwu, who addressed the protesters, said that the company was not denying the consumers steady electricity supply deliberately, assuring that they were prepared to serve the consumers faithfully.
He also commended them for the peaceful nature of the protest, informing them that their complaints would be tabled before the management of the company.

Photo: Awka protest