Some residents of Omagba Layout, Onitsha, staged a peaceful demonstration yesterday, Monday, January 3, 2020, at the premises of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), Onitsha District, located in the GRA of the commercial hub of Anambra State.

The protest was to express their concern over the standalone meter decommissioning exercise recently embarked upon by the EEDC.

The protesters who were led by the leadership of the Omagba Landlord Association, Emma Ejekwone and Jonathan Ifeme, were received by the EEDC Network Manager, Onitsha District, Mr. Stanley Ani, in company of other management staff of the district.

Mr. Ani took time to explain the reasons behind the exercise which is aimed at making customer experience better and assured them that the management of EEDC has put in place a process to ensure that the transition is smooth and that customers were not subjected to any kind of stress.

He assured them that EEDC has undertaken to swap the meters for the affected customers without any down payment from them, while giving them up to 24 months to pay back the cost of the meters under the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approved MAP scheme.

The protesters who also expressed concern about being subjected to estimated billing were assured that if for any reason there is delay in immediately getting their meters, they will be billed using the monthly average of their last three months energy usage.

He went on to inform then that EEDC embarked on integration of its billing system and as a result could no longer provide support for customers using the standalone meters due to the incompatibility in the technology, coupled with increasing difficulty in providing support for the card reader system used in vending these meters.

In addition, the affected customers are very few and can be found in only Anambra, Enugu and Imo states out of the five states within EEDC’s franchise area.

With a better understanding of the standalone meter swap exercise embarked on by EEDC, the protesters left, while the leaders promised to enlighten their members who totally misunderstood the whole exercise.

EEDC used the opportunity to encourage other affected customers to be rest assured that the initiative is in good faith and designed with the customer in mind.