Residents of Yola, the capital of Adamawa State, have issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Yola Electricity Distribution Company, YEDC, for provision of prepaid meters and a downward review of electricity bills.
At a town hall meeting on Wednesday at the Mahmoud Ribadu Square in Yola, the residents accused the power firm of extorting them.
They told the company to either base billing on consumption or provide “prepaid or even analogue metres”.
In their separate addresses, the chairman and secretary of the Jimeta Community Forum, Usman Ibrahim and Bashir Garba, said the people had had enough of alleged atrocities and inhuman treatment of customers by the company, “especially in areas of exorbitant billings and lack of prepaid metering”.
They said the meeting was to inform residents that the forum had written a letter of complaint to the company as directed by the people.
The forum said its investigation in other states in the country showed that YEDC was “milking its customers in Adamawa”.
“Failure to respond to our demands, we will take all necessary action available to us within the ambit of the law,” the meeting warned.
The Chairman of Yola North Local Government Council, Mahmoud Abba, who was represented at the meeting by his Vice Chairman, George Raphael, expressed delight over the unity of the residents on the issue and the non-violent approach they chose to pursue redress.
Mr. Raphael said the council was in full support of the efforts of the people to register their grievances with the service provider.
The spokesperson of the electricity firm, Kingsley Nkemneme, confirmed to the meeting that the company had received the letter of complaint and was working on it.
Mr. Nkemneme however cautioned that it was inappropriate to compare electricity consumption in Adamawa with the situation in other states.
He said consumers in the state enjoy 20 to 23 hours electricity supply a day.
He agreed that the agitation on metering was germane and assured that the company would ensure that all its customers were provided with meters.
