Protest rocks Umuahia as electricity bills increase from N10,000 to N60,000

About 1,000 aggrieved residents of Umuahia on Tuesday stormed the office of the Enugu Electricity Power Distribution Company (EEDC) located on Bende Road to protest against outrageous electricity bills issued to them by the company.

They also marched to the Abia State Government House in Umuahia to appeal to Governor Alex Otti to intervene on the “crazy bills” issue.

The protesters, who said they came from different parts of the Abia State capital, complained that the bills for energy consumed in September 2025 were more than 400% higher than what they were charged the previous month.

According to them, each flat was billed between N40,000 and N60,000 or more, including areas where power was not supplied—an astronomical increase from the N10,000–N12,000 they paid last month.

Chanting songs of lamentation and holding placards, the Umuahia power consumers accused EEDC of attempting to stifle them out of existence and vowed not to pay the new bills.

“Last month, I got a N12,000 bill, but this month they gave me N45,000. Where will a petty trader like me get the money to pay such bills?” said Mr. Kelechi Anamekwe, a resident of Enugu Road, Umuahia.

The protest disrupted activities at EEDC, as workers went underground on seeing the large crowd pouring into their premises.

From the EEDC office on Bende Road, the peaceful protesters marched to the Abia State Government House in Umuahia, where they were addressed by a senior government official.