Osun: Consumers Lament Tariff Increment, Call IBEDC A Killer In Disguise

Gabriel Mobayonle

Occupants of the new Orisumbare Shopping complex in Osogbo in their numbers on Thursday alleged Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, of fraudulently inflating its electricity bills.

The occupants of the government’s owned complex blocked the entrance of the IBEDC headquarters in Osun, alleged the electricity company for illegally altering its tariff twice without informing the management of the market.

The IBEDC, according to the occupants, alleged that some months ago the tariff was changed from 42 to 58 without notifying them and consequently, altered from 58 to 61 on their transformer.

 

Speaking with the chairman of the electricity committee of new Orisumbare, Oni Folorunsho, lamented, “what happened was the transformer we were using seems to have been tampered with in which we cannot really say what happened.

“But the only thing I can see is that some months ago, the tariff was changed from 42 to 58 without our notice, likewise from 58 to 61. I had to call one of the marketers to complain to him, so the following month when the bill came it was changed back to 58.

“And now suddenly changed it to 61 again, and that was why we went to their office to complain. There is a fraudulent act there, and I suspect the technical engineers that normally come to the transformer, they've done something there, in which we don't know, and that's what resulted in the estimated billing,” he further alleged.

In his own lamentation, the Chairman of the complex, Alhaji Ibrahim Khali, however, asked that IBEDC to find a lasting solution to the transformer.

“We went to the IBEDC office last year, and two years ago, so the same thing is just repeating itself, so we are tired of them, IBEDC is a killer in disguise. So we don't want to do anything with them again until the matter is resolved.

“We have written series of letters to them, we are no more writing anything, the ones that have been written before, nothing was done on them. So they said we should write another one today, we are not writing anything again. They should come back to us and let us know what they have decided,” he said.

One of the occupants of the complex, who owns a chamber in the complex, Barrister Dawood Ajetunmobi called the IBEDC to follow the position of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) which stated that every customer should have a prepaid metre.

Contacting the Regional Communication Officer, Osun Region, Miss Kikelomo Owoeye said there was a complaint by the Market Executives and some other members of New Orisumbare Ultra Modern Market who had come to lodge a complaint at the Ibadan Electricity  Distribution Company, Osogbo Business Hub office.

Meanwhile, the Business Hub Manager and the Technical Engineer attended to the Customers explaining the details of the tariff rate and classification. 

However, the directive for change of tariff is from Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and there is no fraudulent manipulation on the account of the market which is on MD1 at present tariff rate of N61.33 on Band A with minimum supply of 20hrs per day.