Plans to discard prepaid meters unsettles South-East: Tension is building up in the South-East over alleged plan by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company to discard prepaid metering and reintroduce estimated billing.
On Monday scores of protesters took to the streets of Omagba in Onitsha condemning the act. They vowed to resist the development with the last drop of their blood.
They called on the Federal Government to intervene and save them from the stranglehold of a certain moneybag who they accused of ripping off the people of the area through the EEDC.
One of the protesters who gave his name simply as Anayochukwu told our correspondent, “I went to their office to see what was going on. I discovered that they had created a desk with a worker who is attending to customers, trying to convince them to go into direct connection (estimated). They didn’t allow me to recharge my prepaid meter.
“The gullible and impatient ones are falling to their antics. I engaged the worker to find out when, if I fill the form for direct connection, the new meter will be supplied to me. The man said he had no idea.
“True to our fear, it could take months or years. That’s why we decided to protest.”
Journalists of South East Extraction under the aegis of Izunwanne had also in a similar protest warned the EEDC to desist from reintroducing estimated billing by decommissioning active prepaid meters to customers.