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Niger State House of Assembly has threatened to shut down the three hydro electric dams in the state unless Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) ensures 24 hours power Supply in the State.
This came up after a meeting between the Niger state House of Assembly committee on power, civil society organizations, labour and youth groups and the representatives of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) on improved power supply, ended in deadlock.
The meeting which took place Thursday 8th October at the Assembly Complex in Minna, Niger State was at the instance of AEDC and was meant to ignite the planned mass action against AEDC after the 21 days ultimatum issued to it by the state house of assembly and its partners elapsed.
The Honourable Malik Madaki Bosso led panel insisted on 20 hours electricity supply or nothing.
He reiterated that the unique privilege of the state in hosting electricity generating plants; confer rights on its citizens to enjoy at least 20 hours power supply. He said anything less than that was insulting and therefore unacceptable to the people.
He said if at the expiration of the ultimatum nothing has changed, the people will take their destiny into their hands.
In a remark, the Chairman of the Niger State Branch, Youth Council of Nigeria, Comrade Bello Sharif said mobilization of youths in all the 25 local government areas of the state has commenced in earnest, saying that if the effort fails, AEDC would be held responsible.
Also, the conveners of the right groups, comrade Mohammed Etsu and comrade Abdullahi Jabi said while other electricity distribution companies were competing for the hours of electricity they supply to their customers, the AEDC was only giving excuses for its failure.
According to them ” the only way to end our agitations is complete metering of houses and 20 hours of electricity supply, anything short of that would not be accepted.”
Earlier, the Chief Operating Officer of AEDC, Engr. Sa’idu Gorobe, said the best the company could offer was 12 hours of electricity supply.
He said the company has enough energy to distribute but the problem, was that people refuse to pay for their electricity bills.
Engr. Gorobe said the company had been incurring losses in its sales of energy especially in Minna, adding that with the poor state of distribution of infrastructure and shortfall in revenue, the hands of AEDC as a profit making venture were tight.
He disclosed that for the state to enjoy 20 hours uninterrupted power supply, the electricity consumers must be able to pay N1.6b monthly to sustain the services.
He further disclosed that the company was loosing N816 million monthly when it was providing longer hours of electricity but could no longer continue to lose such amount of money.
Engr. Gorobe stated that the state government has entered into partnership to provide five thousand meters to residents in the state, while the AEDC will complement the effort with additional three thousand.
