About 2,000 residents of Jos, Plateau State, took to the streets, today, to protest what they called “indiscriminate hike” in tariff charges and estimated billing by Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JED).

According to Ceoafrica, the residents besiege JED office along Ahmadu Bello Way, in the state capital, in the morning, holding placards bearing varying inscriptions.

They claimed there was injustice and deliberate attempt to exploit the disadvantaged members of the society.

It was gathered that many people that turned out for the protest lamented how they had been exploited through estimated billing.

A widow from Jenta Adamu, a suburb in Jos North local government area of the state, identified as Hanatu Luka, said she was billed to pay N13, 000 in January for the two room apartment she occupies.

Another customer who lives in Dadin-Kowa, in Jos, said he spend about N15,000 in a months to service a pre-paid metre recently installed for him, saying it would have been better for him to use the estimated billing.

Chairman of Coalition of Plateau Residents For Peace and Development, Barr. Sam Tokz, and Secretary, Comrade Friday Bako, who led the protest, compelled JED to adjust their tariff for residential customers from N29.81 to N15, N18, and N19.93 as charged by their counterparts in Lagos, Abuja, and Kaduna State, respectively.

The letter submitted after the protest reads, “All customers under estimated billing methodology must be supplied with meters after due consultations and such estimation must stop. JED Plc should meter those without meters”.

Senior Manager Planning and Networking of JED, Engr. Mansur Nakande, said the management would look into the issues and convene a stakeholders meeting with a view to address the gray areas.

He noted that JED Plc was committed towards providing efficient and desirous services to customers and would not open a widow of exploitation on the parts of customers.