From Idu Jude, Abuja
 Communities in Karu local government area of Nasarawa state has said that anything short of metering power consumers as ordered by the Federal Government, can no longer be tolerated within their domain, while calling on the National Assembly committees on power, the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission NERC and other relevant agencies to quickly prevail on the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company AEDC on the newest 400 percent increased even as the AEDC has failed to metre them.
The communities also demand for justifiable reasons for non-uniform bands categories placed on individual families of same compound within these communities in Mararaba, a densely populated area of Karu local government in Nasarawa state.
In protest letters to the National Assembly, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory commission NERC and other relevant agencies, the communities alleged also that the AEDC has purposely refused to metre the communities to reap them off through estimated billings despite several promises by the Federal Government to metre electricity consumers without extra charges.
The letter read in part, “In lieu of the above, we the members of Assemblies of God Church Community, Alh. Audu Community, Unubi Community and Aunty Alice Road Community, Primary Health Care off Aunty Alice Road, all in Karu local government area Nasarawa state, unanimously write to your Distinguished committees on power, to please come to our rescue from incessant crazy billing from Abuja Electricity Distribution Company AEDC, with special emphasis on the recent bill for the month of August 2022, which was outrageous, uncalled for with unjustified increase of 400%
Worse still, is the total negligence in the maintenance of the transformer that serves these communities which led to blackout countless times and on continue low voltage when ever power is installed.  It may interest you that till submit of this petition, the up-riser cable and new transformer promised by AEDC during our last meeting with them has not been replaced.
On one occasion, our previous letters written to AEDC made them invite us for a town hall meeting held on 12th November, 2021 at Ladi Kwali hall, Sheraton hotels, Abuja which had in attendance the General Manager Customer Service, General Manager Operations, General Manager Marketing, Head of Customer Care, Ms Mimi and NERC representative, Mr. Abdulrahman B. Umar but till date.
 Sir, it may interest you to know that despite promises, the Communities under discuss have not heard from AEDC with regards to metering them let alone giving enough to cover other the neighboring communities.
 We are tired of paying for what we did not consume.
Other bothering issue is placing people sharing same connecting cables on different bands which places same apartment at different bands charges.
To worsen our situation sir, AEDC officials now feed fat on unsuspecting residents at regular intervals with threats of disconnecting them from power sources failure to comply with the 400per cent increase.
Speaking shortly to drive home their points, after submission of the copies, leader of Assemblies of God Community, Engineer Ayuba Momodu, told Daily Sun that the petition to approach relevant authority over the incessant crazy billings on the poor masses, has become necessary after all complaints and meetings with AEDC yeilded no result.
According to Engineer Ayuba, who referenced letters written to relevant authorities including  AEDC management dated 26th January, 2021, district 545 AEDC Abacha road Mararaba,  stated that the communities made several efforts to librate self from AEDC grips with letters dated 1st March, 2021 and 24th March, 2021 reminding the authority of the plight of the communities with regards to unjustified upward increase in estimated billings.
Engineer Ayuba, said, ” Some of our grounds of argument was that the Federal Government has mandated the Distributing companies to metre every Nigerian but here our own case is terrible. Our case is a complicated one counting from living in darkness, poor quality transformers, dead cables and fuses, as well as request for prepaid metres which we submitted back on the  17th May, 2021.
We also submitted that of 16th July, 2021specifically appealing to the AEDC to discontinue  from this ridiculous billings, while asking them to metre us as mandated by the Federal Government and another on the 30th June, 2022 for an appeal to end the keeping of the communities in perpetual darkness”.
Ayuba, however, made a strong indication that the communities are considering of disconnecting from the AEDC, if the approach to the National Assembly fails again. He said that the people are tired of paying for what they don’t consume.