More than 1,000 residents of Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa State, protested on Monday against the exorbitant electricity bills issued by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC). The demonstrators, visibly angry, staged a peaceful protest that lasted an hour. They complained that, despite receiving only minimal power supply from AEDC, they were forced to pay huge sums each month.
After the protest, the protesters’ spokesperson, Rayyanu Bala, told journalists that even though the federal and Nasarawa State governments invested heavily in the newly inaugurated Akurba 330 kVA substation in Lafia Local Government Area, residents continued to experience blackouts. “Since President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the Akurba 330 kVA substation in February 2022, we have suffered total blackouts in Lafia and surrounding areas,” he said.
Bala explained that in June of the previous year AEDC moved consumers from tariff Band D to the higher‑cost Band A, causing monthly bills to jump by almost 100 percent without a corresponding increase in electricity supply. “Any consumer on Band A should receive at least 20 hours of electricity per day, but that is not happening in Nasarawa State,” he noted. “The exploitation by AEDC is jeopardising us because we record more days without electricity than days with electricity.”
He urged the government at all levels to address the “bitter experiences” and “unbecoming attitude” of the AEDC Lafia office, calling for urgent intervention. As of the time of this report, attempts by our correspondent to contact AEDC’s Manager of Corporate Communications, Rotimi Omisore, were unsuccessful; phone calls to his mobile line did not connect.
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