Ughelli women shut East-West Road over estimated billings by BEDC

UGHELL—TRAVELLERS on the Ughelli axis of East-West Road were, yesterday, stranded for over four hours as hundreds of protesting women from Ughelli and surrounding communities shut the road over what they described as the continuous estimated billings by Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC. 

Vehicular movement and commercial activities on the road were completely paralysed till about 11a.m., when the protest ended with the women promising to return to the road if the matter is not addressed.

The protest is coming less than 24 hours after residents of the area urged the Federal Government to revoke the operational license of BEDC over the alleged high estimated billings.

The women, who carried placard with inscriptions such as “BEDC/NEPA restore our transformer,” “BEDC asking us for N5,000,” among others, stormed the streets of Ughelli as early as 6a.m., and ended their protest at the BEDC office on the East-West Road, where they barricaded the road.

 ‘They claimed transformers we bought’

 Speaking on behalf of the protesters, one of the women, Patricia Ajagba, said while some electricity consumers were made to pay monthly estimated bills despite prolonged blackout, others were forced to tax themselves with at least N5,000 for the repair of faulty electricity transformers.

She said: “We even purchased some of these transformers only for BEDC officials to force us to sign an undertaking that the transformers was provided for us by them as a requirement for them installing and powering it on.”

 Efforts to speak with the BEDC Branch Manager, who was simply identified as Bethel, were fruitless as he directed all inquiries to the company’s head office in Benin, Edo State.

Source  vanguard news