Tariff Increment Tussle: “Let’s Settle Out Of Court” Power Minister, Adebayo Adelabu Begs All Electricity Consumers Protection Forum

The Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, has appealed to the incorporated trustees of All Electricity Consumers Protection Forum to settle out of Court its case against Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, over the recent increase in tariff of Band A.

The Minister made the appeal while speaking at the Business Day conference held in Lagos on Friday.

The conference titled ; “Powering Nigeria” where the minister made submission on various issues bedeviling the sector as well as government efforts at tackling it, made passes at the recent increase in tariff justifying it by saying “first thing first” the increase in tariff of Band A customers, according to him became necessary to sustain the sector from collapse among other references over the issues affecting the sector .

The conference however has the presence of the National coordinator, All Electricity Consumers Protection Forum, Adeola Samuel ilori, who tackled the minister over his various submissions on the issue of metering gap figure to Discos liability at providing meter and other line materials like transformer which the sector still gives the consumers the burden to bear as against the regulatory stand and extant law provisions.

The group cordinator further said he will not dwell on the issue of tariff increase as it has become a legal tussle between his group and NERC in which the minister remain supervisory head over in the court of law which may be seen as subjudice.

The minister, Mr. Adelabu in his response to the submission said , he is appealing to the plaintiff in the case to ‘please let’s settle out of Court so as not to jeopardize the current move at sustaining the success made through the introduction of the Band A increase’.

He said that going through the process and court upturning the increase will affect the sector and may lead to the collapse of Discos as the government can no longer subsidize the tariff.

In his response,the National coordinator, Samuel ilori said the minister should let the court decide the outcome of their case based on the position of law as similar one happened in 2016 but for the intervention of the group and others, especially Mr Adebiyi Toluwani who instituted the case at the Federal High Court, ikoyi, the NERC would had gone away with it and by now only God knows how much a kilowatts would be without the corresponding power supply due to meager generation of megawatts.

It will be recalled that after April 3rd announcement of increase in Band A tariff to 225 naira per kilowatt by Nigerian Electricity Regulatory commission, NERC, the All Electricity Consumers Protection Forum wrote to the body and declared its displeasure to the increment, threatening to go to court to seek redress if not reversed within 72 hours.

The group made good its threat through the incorporated trustees which sued the NERC at federal high court, Ibadan and the case was first mentioned in May ,2024 before Justice Agomah of court 1 and was adjourned to July 1, 2024 for further hearing.