The Ohafia Rural Electrification Committee, in conjunction with the Ohafia Electricity Consumers Protection Association, on Friday staged a peaceful protest against poor power supply in the ancient town of Abia.
 
The chairman of the association, Mr Ukpai Ndukwe, said that the community has not enjoyed light for more than four hours on any given day, and was usually at the end of the month.
 
``They will do this for only a few days during which they will distribute new bills, disconnect those who could not pay and then take their cables away,’’ he said.
 
Ndukwe also said that the community was always made to contribute money to fix faulty installations belonging to EEDC.
 
A protest letter from the community, jointly signed by Ndukwe, the chairman of the committee, Mr Uma Uma, as well as the secretaries of the two groups, Messrs Ojo Ojo and James Ukpabi, was presented to the electricity company.
 
The letter stated that it was fraudulent to bill and collect money from consumers for services not rendered.
 
It further decried the billing of consumers on estimated bills, saying that the method was unacceptable to them.
 
``Fixed charges and estimated bills by the company, usually above the approved tariffs, are not acceptable to Ohafia people,’’ the letter said.
 
The letter, titled ‘’Peaceful protest against fraudulent exploitation of Ohafia electricity consumers by EEDC,’’ was handed over to the electricity distribution company’s management in Ohafia.
 
Receiving the letter and the protesters, the Operations Manager of the company, Mr Chris Ike, thanked the people for presenting their protest in ‘’a peaceful and orderly manner’’.
 
Also speaking, the Service Engineer in charge of Asagha and Akanu Districts in Ohafia, Mr Chukwudi Ejim, blamed the problem of poor power supply in the area on the rains.
 
Ejim said that Ohafia’s electricity was drawn from Itu in Cross River and regretted that the overflooding of the Itu River due to the rains, was hampering fault tracing.
 
He said that the problem had already been communicated to the company’s headquarters, adding that measures were being taken to tackle the issue