Electricity Users In Bamenda Decry Exorbitant Bills Despite Months Of Unstable Electricity.
By Raymond Dingana
Electricity subscribers in Bamenda and its environs
say, they have been paying exorbitant electricity bills despite going without
stable electricity for months. Many have questioned the reasons for such heavy
electricity bill saying they never expected such taking into consideration the
fact that, since the 20th day
of May 2019, electricity supply in Bamenda and its environs has had nothing
good to write home about.
Mr. Roland is a residence of Nkwen in Bamenda III Sub
Division of the North West Region of Cameroon. He told DrayInfos that he expected to
see a drop in the electricity bills but that has not been the case: “I actually thought the electricity bills were going to
witness a drop because we have gone without stable electricity for months now.
I was shocked when my July bill came 36000FCFA. MY bills have always been
within 6000 and 8000FCFA but it came 36000FCFA”.
Linda is another electricity user
in Bamenda, hear her: “I live in a big compound, our electricity bills
have never gone pass 20.000FCFA, but what we just received as our electricity
bill is 70.000FCFA.When the electricity problem started, many of us stopped
using our fridges and many others because they were not useful again because of
the unstable nature of electricity, yet our bill came the way it came”.
Asked if they had reported the
matter to the Eneo office in the region, Derrick, who has also been hit hard by
the heavy electricity bill says he went there and was asked to take a snap shot
of his metal and bring: “The Eneo office at Cow Street asked me to snap
my metal and bring, when that was done, they ask me to just be paying and that,
they were going to be adjusting the issue on the other bills but that did not
happen. The next month I realized I owed more than 100 units of electricity I
couldn’t even say where it was coming from”.
Many have also complained that,
they hardly see those who go around reading meters before bills are issued but
bills are issued even though meters are not read. DrayInfos went to the Eneo office for an
official statement on this but the only person available was one of the workers
who opted for anonymity. He says: “We don’t go out to read meters because
we have been attacked on several occasions by armed men. Some have been
abducted and huge sums paid for them to regain their freedom. Because of all
these, we are compelled to estimate some of the bills and give the people”.
While many are decrying the exorbitant electricity bills
issued them by the electricity company, they have also been appreciative of the
repair works carried out by the National Electricity Transmission Corporation
[SONATREL] on the Pylon that carries the 90KV main feeder supply line from
Douala to Bamenda through Bafoussam. It was damaged at the Mbatu neighborhood
in Bamenda on May 20th, 2019 and was the main problem behind the
irregular electricity supply in the North West Region.
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