The residents who looked angry while carrying out the peaceful protest which lasted for one hour lamented that they barely got power supply from the AEDC but were made to pay huge sums of money at the end of every month.
Addressing journalists after the protest, the spokesperson for the protesters, Rayyanu Bala, said despite the huge resources spent by the Federal and Nasarawa state governments to construct the recently inaugurated Akurba 330KVA substation located in Lafia Local Government Area, the residents were still experiencing blackouts in their homes.
He said, “Since President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the Akurba 330KVA substation in February 2022, we have been suffering from total blackout in Lafia and other surrounding areas.
“AEDC in June last year migrated us to tariff BAND A from tariff BAND D, which made monthly bills jump by almost 100 per cent without a commensurate supply of electricity in the state.
“Any consumer on tariff BAND A is supposed to enjoy electricity for 20 hours and above in a day, but that is not happening in Nasarawa State.
“The exploitation by AEDC is jeopardy for us because we record more days without electricity than the days we use to have electricity.
“So, we feel there is an urgent need to bring to the notice of the government at all levels, our bitter experiences and unbecoming attitude of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Lafia office.
“We are appealing that the government should intervene in this matter as soon as possible because the challenges we are facing with the AEDC are enormous.”
As of the time of filing this report, efforts made by our correspondent to get the AEDC’s Manager, Cooperate Communications, Rotimi Omisore, to react to the demands of the protesters, proved abortive as phone calls put across to his mobile line did not connect.
