A customer of the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, Associate Professor Tunde Akanni, has written a petition to the vice chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission over the utility company’s alleged failure to replace his obsolete prepaid meter.

In the petition titled, ‘SOS On Massive Extortion of Customers by Ikeja Electric Distribution Company,’ Akanni sought the urgent intervention of the FCCPC.

According to him, the IKEDC recently deactivated his Unistar meter despite an order by the FCCPC that the meter should not be deactivated by any DisCo.

“As the sole supplier of electricity in Ikeja, where I live in government quarters, IKEDC recently began to deactivate the Unistar prepaid meters serving residents of LASG quarters at 47, Sobo Arobiodu Street, Ikeja GRA. The deactivation continued after the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, warned IKEDC against activities on the Unistar meters.

“What they do is await the exhaustion of the running credits on meters, allow customers to recharge their cards, but ensure they are not able to reload. Once this happens and you report back with your complaints, they would tell you that your meter is bad and due for replacement and that they have new meters in abundance. They would convince you to allow the retrieval of the Unistar meter,” he explained.

The don alleged customers were compelled to get reconnected and moved into estimated billing that pushed monthly energy costs from N50,000 to N270,000. This was even as he was asked to pay N120,000 for a new meter.

He stated, “Once the customer begins to feel that his hope is merely hanging, the customers would be compelled to make desperate requests for reconnection, and they would deceitfully reconnect you, but that would make customers pay through their nose. In the past, customers like me whose monthly consumption hardly exceeded N50,000 following the banding regime had been summarily billed as much as N270,000. Fellow residents of government quarters have had to complain to me about their helplessness and their dramatic bankruptcy on account of this arbitrary billing.

“In my own case specifically, my meter was retrieved on December 27, 2024, after recharging with N25,000 but failing to reload following their treacherous deactivation. Against my stated position that I was aware of the FCCPC directive to them, they insisted that I should immediately apply online for a new meter, reiterating that they had new meters in abundance but that I would have to pay N120,000. For fear of wasting all the foods stocked up in the house and to also avoid being slapped with any humongous arbitrary bill, I went to their office to follow up. The response from their customer care operatives at the Ikeja office was that their portal was down, implying that all processes of new meter application had been stalled and therefore arbitrary billing would continue for as long as the portal was down.

“I, therefore, seek your immediate intervention from the shenanigan of IKEDC to stall their onslaught against lawful customers. If they have the effrontery to subject LASG employees living in government quarters to this embarrassing situation, one can imagine what helpless private citizens are being subjected to by IKEDC.”

Officials of the IKEDC were contacted for their reactions to the allegations raised by the customer.

However, they have yet to reply to messages sent to them by our correspondent.

An official, who did not want to be mentioned, said the Unistar meters have always been an issue, saying that was why the company planned to phase out the meters in November before it was stopped by the FCCPC.

Meanwhile, our correspondent recalled that some meters were phased out following their inability to be updated as of November 2024.

The PUNCH reports that about three million customers might be forced into the estimated billing system as the users would no longer be able to buy energy credits.

But the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission ordered that obsolete meters be replaced at no cost to customers and no one should be forced into estimated billing.