LAGOS – The Iponri Housing Estate Residents’ Association in Lagos, has decried the indiscriminate installation of smart meters in the estate by Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC).
Mr Abdul-Rasak Osho, Chairman of the association, told newsmen in Lagos that EKEDC removed the residents’ prepaid meters with high credit in them.
Osho said EKEDC ought to allow residents exhaust the credit in the meters before they were taken away.
According to him, there are a lot of residents in the estate without meters and we think EKEDC ought to concentrate on these residents pending when those with meters exhaust theirs.
Reports state that the smart meter determines the actual amount of energy consumed by household even if the consumer bypasses the prepaid meter.
It is recharged like the prepaid meter but the difference is that it cannot be bypassed by the consumer.
Osho said many consumers in the estate believed that the installation was genuine but the approach was wrong.
“We have many residents who do not have functional meters and the association feels these residents ought to be tackled.
“Some of us have just recharged our meters with substantial amount of money.
“How do we get the kilowatts back since they have been taken away?
“I want to appeal to the management of EKEDC to concentrate more on those that do not have functional meters and also find ways to return the kilowatts taken away,” he said.
The chairman urged EKEDC to concentrate more on improving electricity supply to the estate because frequent outages had crippled businesses in the estate.
But Mr Godwin Idemudia, Assistant General Manager, Public Affairs of EKEDC, assured the residents that their complaints would be looked into.
He stressed that all the kilowatts on the prepaid meters would be returned to the owners.
He said smart meters were provided free of charge to the residents.
Idemudia said that the management was following laid down procedure in the installation of smart meters.
Idemudia said that the management had also begun the installation of smart meters in Orile, Mushin, Ijora and some parts of FESTAC Town.
He urged the Iponri Estate residents to be patient.