A non-governmental organisation, Africa Anti-Slavery Coalition (AASLAC), has enjoined the National Assembly to invoke its power of oversight functions and organise a public hearing to address alleged extortions by electricity distributors in Lagos State.

Its convener, Tony Masha, who made the call in a statement on Monday in Lagos, accused electricity distribution companies (DisCos) of extorting residents through the prepaid metering system.

“The current practice in parts of Lagos Metropolis is for DisCos to lure unsuspecting consumers to fill forms for prepaid meters, and once that has been done, bills will begin to accumulate whether the prepaid meters were installed or not.

“Consumers are trapped through this fraudulent method into accumulating debts, running into hundreds of thousands of naira for prepaid meters that were never installed, let alone connected to the residences of those concerned,“ he said.

Mr Masha cited the case of a landlord in the Ojota area of Lagos state who had his electricity disconnected in his absence, and when he enquired, he was told that a tenant on estimated billing owed.

“In fact, in another sad instance, someone who bought a dilapidated building and rebuilt it in the Gbagada area of the state was ordered to pay about N500,000 on the excuse that the residents of the former property before he built his own owed electricity bills,” he said.

Mr Masha commended the Senate for recently recognising that the privatisation of the power sector in 2013 was a total failure and needed to be revisited.

He, however, urged the assembly to act on the complaints of the people regarding their experiences in the hands of the DisCos.

(NAN)