In a dramatic turn of events, there was a power outage as the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, spoke at the National Assembly on Monday.
Adelabu was fielding questions from senators at the investigative hearing on “the need to halt the increase in the price of electricity” organised by the Senate Committee on Power.
Power was, thereafter, restored in less than five minutes.
Reacting to the power interruption, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Eyinnaya Abaribe, said: “You see what just happened. This is what we all experience.
“We the Senators experience it too and I am sure even the President does experience it at the Villa, just that he cannot speak out like we are.”
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Recall that the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission had on April 3, 2024 approved an increase of 340 percent in electricity tariff for customers under the Band A classification.
The NERC’s Vice Chairman, Musliu Oseni, said Band A customers will begin to pay N225 kilowatt per hour from the current N66.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Power called on Band A customers to cease payment of new electricity tariff if they do not enjoy supply up to 20 hours daily.
Adelabu also disclosed that the Federal Government would pay the sum of N2.9 trillion to subsidise electricity this year if the tariff was not reviewed.
He addressed the Senate Committee on Power on the need to halt the proposed increase in electricity tariff by eleven successor electricity distribution companies amid the biting economic situation in Nigeria.
According to him, the government had introduced a new policy to save the drowning sector, assuring Nigerians that the pains were temporary, as the government was concerned and had introduced the new policy to rescue the sector.
The clarification comes as electricity consumer’s struggle with the recent increase in tariffs by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.
However, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, raised the question of how customers were migrated from the previous customer classes of Residential (R1, R2, R3), Commercial (C1, C2) and Demand (D1, D2) to different bands.
Abaribe requested to know if the band classification was under the provisions of the law.
Also, He raised more questions on how the parameters differentiate between regions and areas, citing a portion of the Act that highlighted the need for non-discriminatory distribution.