Kemisola Oye
THE Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA Ikeja) has given the federal government seven days ultimatum within which to reverse the recent hike in electricity tariff or face legal action.
The branch Chairman, Mr Seyi Olawunmi, made the position of the lawyers’ body known today while addressing newsmen at the Ikeja Bar Centre, beside Lagos High Court, Ikeja.
He noted that the National Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC)’’s order made in respect of electricity tariff hike was anti-people, noting that the decision is symptomatic of a government that has lost touch with the daily realities of the average citizen.
According to him: “if the government and concerned individuals fail to reverse the illegal hike in electricity tariffs within seven days, the branch will be left with no other choice than to seek appropriate remedies in the court of law.”
Mr Olawunmi recalled that in December 2023, NERC issued a new Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO 2024) which indicated a purported cost-reflective tariff chargeable by the various Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos).
He said that a large chunk of the increased tariff was however reportedly absorbed by the federal government under a subsidy arrangement.
The branch chairman said that the purported subsidy has now reportedly been removed by the federal government, leading to an over 300% increase in the electricity tariff payable by the end-user, the Nigerians under a curious band-derivative tariff charging model.
He insists: “We view this sudden astronomical increase in the end-user tariff, regardless of the technical arguments preferred in justification, as utterly exploitative and non-reflective of the current economic hardship that the masses of Nigerians are going through.”
NBA maintains that inflation and the depreciation in the value of the Naira against the dollar and other foreign currencies has affected services rendered by the DisCos, and that it is now practically impossible to remain on the old tariff. Mr Olawunmi added that electricity in Nigeria is not well-priced
The NBA therefore demand, “immediate stoppage to the illegal implementation of the 225 Naira per kWh imposed on so-called band A customers at the discretion of both the DisCos and NERC without any empirical basis.
“The classification into band A, B, C, D or E should be scrapped. It’s either the DisCos are guaranteeing 24 hours supply for all or they are not. The government and the Nigerian people cannot continue to subsidize their inefficiency in the name of band A, B, Ck, D or E”
The lawyers stressed that if the government fail to reverse the illegal hike within seven days, they will seek appropriate remedies in the court of law.
Eighteen-Eleven Media