Tina Amanda
Electricity Consumers at Emma Avenue, off School Road in Elelenwo community, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area in Rivers State, have decried the debit charges on every recharge of their prepaid metre.
According to them, they are being debited without prior knowledge of what bills they are paying for or how long the deductions will last.
They complained that the area which has long suffered from the outrageous estimated bill, constant power outage, is yet to breathe an air of relief even after the installations of prepaid meters on the 1st February 2021.
They however said Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution company would have rectified all pending estimated bill issues in the area before the installation of the prepaid meters.
They said PHED took the advantage of most residents not knowing their right to extort electricity Consumers in the area with the outrageous estimated bill even when there is hardly power supply.
They lamented that most uncompleted buildings in the community are being billed without any electricity connection, which is a clear indication that the electricity consumption is not a reflection of the bills being charged.
The electricity consumers urged PHED to do the right thing by calling for a round table in order to have an understanding with the people affected, as the present economic situation is too harsh for anyone to pay what he or she did not use.
Some said it is a very sad experience to recharge their prepaid meter and what they get is an alert indicating cleared against debt instead of giving them the token of what was recharged.
They said such actions from PHED is unacceptable and cannot happen anywhere else in the world, noting that prepaid meter should have solved all problems faced by consumers.
They further said that if the issue is not sorted out, they have no choice but to sue PHED to court.
