Residents decry new hike in electricity tariff

Some residents of Lokoja, the Kogi capital, have decried the new electricity tariff introduced in February, saying its imposition would only add to their burden.

The residents, some of who are civil servants who are yet to receive their four months salaries made the statement on Saturday in Lokoja in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Alhaji Ocholi Aku, who lives in Adankolo area in Lokoja, said that some consumers who did not have pre-paid metres were compelled to pay electricity bill amounting to N7, 000 each month.

``How will such consumers be able to cope with the new tariff? As I am speaking I cannot boast of electricity for four hours in a day yet my bill is constant.

``I support other Nigerians who are calling on the electricity distribution companies to install pre-paid meters so that arbitrary billings will be a thing of the past.

``We want the government to take appropriate measures to enable consumers get value for their money,’’ Aku told NAN.

In his remark, Mr Williams Aliwo, a legal practitioner in the state, said that any hike in electricity tariff without corresponding increase in the income of workers is additional financial burden on the people.

Yekini Jimoh, who resides in Felele area, said that installation of pre-paid meters would check epileptic power supply.

He described arbitrary billing which does not take into account epileptic power supply as `criminal.’

The former governor of the state Capt. Idris Wada had condemned estimated billing of electricity consumers in an address he read at the inauguration of 160 transformers.

The governor bought the transformers for distribution to 300 communities in the state under his accelerated rural electrification scheme.