Dopemu Residents Kick Against ‘Crazy Bills’

SOME Dopemu residents yesterday stormed the Ikeja Electric (IE) office in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos to protest against what they called ‘’crazy bills’’.

The protest began around 9am on major streets in Dopemu before moving to  the IE office around 11am.  It was spearheaded by members of the Dopemu Community Development Association (DCDA)

The protesters  sang solidarity songs and carried placards with inscriptions, such as : “Say no to crazy billings and demand for prepaid meters”, “Give us prepaid meters now”, “We demand for regular supply of electricity in our community” and “No more estimated billings”.

Their spokesman, Oluwasegunfunmi David, said the community was demanding a time frame for the supply and installation of pre-paid meters and the stoppage of arbitrary prolonged electricity outage without notice.

He said: “We are requesting that IE kindly put back our line on the former line that has been supplying Dopemu area. The dismal state of electricity supply in our community is unbearable. Last December, for five days consecutively and in spite of fuel scarcity, there was no electricity supply in Dopemu, which houses the biggest aluminum establishment in West Africa. The whole of Dopemu has been a ghost town; this is capable of causing unrest among the youths, which can result to crime. We expect IE, a private establishment, to be proactive in solving the problems of its consumers and not compound them. Electricity supply was much better in the days of PHCN.

“We are tired of  estimated bills; we are tired of abusing our intelligence in the community. We want to be treated the way other communities are being treated, like, Akowonjo, Alimosho and Egbeda, we want to be given prepaid meters.

“If there are no prepaid meters, please don’t come to our community for anything.

“We do not want violence and that is why we have come to tell you this in peace.  We want prepaid meter to be installed in every building. We will appreciate if this is taken with all seriousness; we are not here to fight or insult anybody. You are here to do business and we are being ripped off of our hard earn money.  We pay exorbitantly without being properly taken care of. We want electricity supplied adequately on our prepaid meters.”

IE Head of External and Media Relations Ayeni Akinola met with the community’s representatives.

Briefing his people after the meeting,  David said; “At the meeting, Akinola and another official told us that there are no pre-paid meters now. They said the Federal Government is planning to roll out pre-paid meters this year, but they did not give us th time the meters would come. They begged us but we insisted that we want pre-paid meters.

“But we said no to all these and that until they give us pre-paid meters, we must not see them in our community. If they don’t give us pre-paid meters, they should not give us light, they should hold their power to themselves and we must not see them in our community. They must not bring bills and they must not come to cut our light. This is the only thing that can cause fight’’.