Fashola Says He Won’t Pay Electricity Bill Over Poor Services

Nigeria’s minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has declared that as a consumer, he would seriously resist payment for electricity bill where the service is not supplied.

Nigerians have been groaning as a result of very poor power supply and high electricity tariff. Many have said they cannot continue to pay for darkness.

Most affected among the consumers are those who do not have the prepaid metres.

The Punch reports that while speaking on Monday, February 13, 2017 at the 12th monthly power sector and stakeholders’ meeting in Ibadan, Oyo state hosted by Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, Fashola confirmed that the country was witnessing a worsened power output.

He reportedly said power generation in the country had gone worse in recent weeks just after the government announced in December 2016 that it was producing 4,000 megawatts.

Fashola reportedly said gas assets and pipelines which had been sabotaged, actually decommissioned power plants and their ability to provide up to 3,000 megawatts of power.

“The 3,500MW to 3,800MW that we have been able to keep on the grid over the last few months will be assisted greatly if we can have the gas pipelines back and add 3,000MW to it.

“That means we will be able to deliver well over 6,000MW if the gas pipelines are safe,” he said adding that this had created debt and liquidity problems as well as shortfall in power expectation, and in revenue recovery by power distribution firms.

“Consumers are more resistant to payment when they don’t have electricity, and I will be, too, and you will be too.

“We see that they (consumers) pay more when the power is more stable. Of course, there are issues also at the retail end – metering, estimated bills.”

“You will see that government has begun to act. The vice president, representing the president, is going round those Niger Delta communities, engaging them more openly, more robustly.

“The idea is to bring them to the table to stop the vandalism while the issues that agitate them can be treated and resolved.

“I believe that if we are successful as we expect to be, we should be able to, sometimes, this year recover all the 3,000MW that has been lost to gas pipeline outages,” he said.

Source: IWIN