Residents of the Bauchi metropolis have lamented the recent increase in the rate of energy consumption charged by the Jos Electricity Distribution Company.
Some of the residents who spoke to our correspondent said the electricity supply to their houses and businesses had become very unstable and unpredictable.
Electricity consumers in Bauchi metropolis argued that prepared meters had become a luxury despite the massive National Mass Metering campaign of the federal government.
To them, the electricity distribution companies are sabotaging the effort of the federal government to install electricity meters in the homes of Nigerians to pay their energy bills according to their consumption.
The federal government had instructed DISCOs to meter residential and commercial buildings in the country under its National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP).
A resident of Bauchi metropolis, Abdulmajid Lawal said JED failed to keep to its words that the metering of houses and commercial centres in the metropolis will resume the first week of September last year but nothing changes up till now.
He said most consumers of electricity in the city had continued to be charged exorbitant charges that were not in tandem with their consumption rates.
Lawal said consumers who claimed that they used the energy on demand were
in dire need of the prepaid meters.
Abubakar Muhammad, a Bauchi business owner said he carried out about 70 percent of his daily output on a diesel-consuming generator.
He said he spent the profit that naturally ought to go into his pocket to cater for the necessities of
survival purchasing diesel to maintain a stable power supply to his factory premises.
Efforts to get the Bauchi Regional Manager of JED to comment on the matter proved abortive.
