Protest: Abuja residents storm AEDC over poor power supply

Aggrieved residents of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) Housing Estate in Abuja, yesterday, stormed the premises of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) to protest poor power supply to them.
The angry residents, who thronged the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) office, located in Wuse Zone 4, Abuja, accused the company officials of arrogance and lackadaisical attitude, which they claimed threw the entire estate into darkness for weeks

Operating under the aegis of Landlords-Tenants Resident Association (LATRA) the protesters displayed placards with various inscriptions such as: “AEDC, we the residents of AMAC/ACO Housing Estate are passing through hell. Give us meter and light.”
Others read: “AEDC! There has been no light in AMAC/ACO Estate in the last one month yet you still bill us on estimated platform.”
Meanwhile, the aggrieved residents have conveyed their resolution of no metering, no payment of electricity bills to the management of the AEDC during a meeting held between the both parties at the distribution company’s office.

Addressing journalists after the meeting that lasted over one and half hours, Chairman of the Landlords-Tenants Resident Association, Mukolu Samson, said, “We have resolved there that no metering, no payment of electricity bills. If we are not metered, we should not pay.
“And we have also resolved that on no account should AEDC officials come to our estate to demand for payment of any sort, even when the electricity is restored, they should wait until they metered us. And they must compensate us for all the months that we have been in darkness.
“The AEDC representatives have also resolved that tentatively, we will be provided with new transformers, because most of our electronic gadgets have all been damaged as result of power fluctuation. This is part of our resolution.

“As we go home now, we tell our people we must not see AEDC officials in AMAC/ACO Estate unless they are coming to restore the power or install meters in various flats. That is our resolution.”
In his earlier address during the protest, Samson maintained that, “As far as we are concerned in the estate, they have done nothing to ameliorate our sufferings as regards electricity supply in AMAC/ACO Estate, Airport road Abuja.”