Ugochukwu Orakwue, a Kogi State resident, dragged Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) before a Lokoja High Court demanding N50 million in general damages over alleged wrong billing.
The aggrieved claimant, in a lawsuit filed before Justice Nicodemus Auwalu of High Court II, said AEDC deliberately refused to read his Postpaid Metre for billing him, but, imposed outrageous estimated bills on him.
He pleaded with the court to issue an order restraining the firm from further issuing him electricity bills based on estimation and to issue a declaration that its act of issuing him electricity bills based on estimation contravenes the Regulations of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), thus, illegal, null and void.
The plaintiff among other demands also prayed the court to declare that all the electricity bills issued to him by the electricity firm based on estimation starting from the bill of October 19, 2015, being exercise or action founded on illegality is null and that he is entitled to be refunded the sum of N25,000 and Three Thousand Naria (N3,000) reconnection fee coercively collected from him by the defendant on July 28, 2023, before the reconnection of his electricity supply illegally.
Orakwue also prayed for an order compelling the defendant to refund to him the sum of N28,000 the amount coercively collected from him by the defendant on July 28, 2023, before the reconnection of his electricity supply.
He prayed for the payment of the Sum of N30 million to him as Exemplary/ Punitive Damages for the defendant’s punishable conduct.
The claimant also prayed for the sum of N20 million being General Damages ‘for the wrongs the ‘defendant caused the claimant.
However, when the case came up for hearing on Tuesday, the AEDC Counsel, Mr G.D. Dubai, told the court that the defendant was in discussion with the claimant to settle out of court, a decision Orakwue did not oppose.
The case was adjourned to February 22 for the report of settlement or continuation of the hearing depending on the result of their demanded parley.
