Introduction
I own an office in a plaza with other tenants. Our Landlady, a lawyer and an RCCG pastor claimed electricity bill was increased from 50k to 150k and we must pay within 4/5 days. She cut-off everyone's electricity leaving out only her own just 4 days after giving the notice. We demanded to see the electricity bill but she won't show anyone and she has cut-off the water supply too.

Background Story
A story broke in 2019 about a singer, Timi Blaze who accused his landlady (an RCCG pastor, also a lawyer) of fraud and assault, below are links to the story.

https://www.nairaland.com/5054405/timi-blaze-accuses-tega-peace/1

http://www.thenaijafame.com.ng/2019/03/fast-rising-singer-timi-blaze-accuses.html?m=1

This is a video of the fight.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN19V4elgBs

The woman in the story happens to also be my landlady in the same plaza. I witnessed the incident on that fateful day. Timi has left the plaza. After Timi, she has had 2 tenants in that same office. She has done more since after that show of shame. Space won't allow to go into it all.

Now the Main Story
Our electricity bill has increased from 2k to 5k within 2/3 years. No matter what the bill is, it's shared equally among the tenants, whether you use it or not. The landlady, Mrs Tega Peace Odudu who is also a lawyer and an Area Pastor (of Redeemed Christian Church of God, Victory Chapel, Arida Ikotun Lagos) with an office space in the same plaza is in charge of electricity bill collection. No one aside her has seen the actual bill brought by the electricity company, but we still pay the bill as the money allocated to each tenant is not that much and the electricity supply in the area has been very good. We watch the bill grew to 5k which was what we have been paying for a while now.

In the second week of November, we got the shocker of our lives. On the morning of Friday 12th of November 2021, she sent a WhatsApp broadcast to all the tenants that she just got a bill that morning from the power company. There was an increase from 50k to 150k. She said though the new bill is outrageous, that everyone should pay on or before Tuesday the following week. She promised to go to the power company office to complain but we must pay the new bill first. Everyone complained, only few people complied in the payment. Imagine giving us just 4 days to pay a bill that was increased by 3 folds. Some people said they won't pay until they see the bill as no one has ever seen any of the past bills.

We resumed office on Monday the following week, there was no electricity supply in the building. I thought maybe there was a general power outage due to the heavy rainfall of the day before. The next day, Tuesday 16th of November 2021, just 4 days after she sent the broadcast, we saw light in a bulb outside controlled by a switch in her office. We later confirmed that our landlady switched off everyone's electricity supply but her own. She controls all the electricity supply to all offices in the plaza from her office. She also controls the water supply.

We the tenants have not had light and water supply in the plaza since on Monday 15th of November 2021 even though some paid the 15k and some of us paid 10k. Some of the people that paid 10k insisted the bill should not be more than 10k per person if the new bill is 150k as she claimed since we are 15 in the plaza. But she has been dividing every bill by 10, saying we are 10 in the plaza when we are actually 15, including her. 3 weeks plus after, we haven't had light and water, People living and working in the plaza have been going to 4 to 5 houses away to get water to use.

The matter was reported at Gowon police station but the police didn't follow up on the case because she knows some top echelon I'm the police force. She claimed no one could arrest her as the IG was her classmate. No one has seen her in the plaza since the incidence until she came last week and a female tenant confronted her. The tenant, a mother of 2 locked the gate when she learnt she was around. It resulted into a physical fight between the female tenant and her. She got her thugs like 5 to break the padlocks used to lock the gate so she could drive out. She also wounded the tenant in the fight that they had to stitch a part of her face. The matter was reported in the police station nearby but the DPO couldn't do anything. It was later confirmed she called the Area Commander who called the DPO of Gowon Police station.

The following morning after the fight, some officers from the SCID, Panti came to arrest the tenant that fought her citing threat to life. The tenant despite her injury and 2 young kids was locked up till the next day. Since the incidence, nothing has changed, she has refused to switch on the light and water and she said we would pay November bill whether we like it or not.

Please Nairalander, what can we do? A lot of my co-tenants are not ready to fight, some have moved out while many are planning to leave the plaza. Some are stuck as they just renewed their rents. I have decided not to let this slide, no matter how bad Nigeria is, no landlord or landlady should be allowed to do this to his or her tenants. This is injustice, it' shouldn't be allowed to stand. Since the police is a no-go area, there must be something we can do. I will appreciate any suggestions on how to take this up and get justice. Please mods should help push this to the front page for wider view and suggestions.

CC: lalasticlala