Niger Assembly Asks State Governor to Pullout of AEDC

Laleye Dipo in Minna

Barely one week after Niger State Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Umaru Bago, announced that his administration has domesticated the Electricity Act and established an Electricity Regulatory Commission, the State House of Assembly has unanimously decided that the State should pull out of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC)

The House in the unanimous resolution yesterday, also passed a vote of no confidence in the AEDC, the distribution company presently supplying electricity to the state.

The action of the lawmakers followed their inability to reach a common ground on how to improve electricity supply to the state during a meeting with the Chief Operating Officer of AEDC Mr. Chijioke Okwuokenye when he appeared before the House at plenary.

The lawmakers had told the AEDC Official that the poor electricity supply to the state was unacceptable especially when the state sits 60 per cent of electricity generating organisations, adding that         “you cannot be at the river bank and wash your hands with sputum.”

The lawmakers wanted to extract a commitment from the Chief Operating Officer that the AEDC would guarantee a minimum of 18 hours supply of electricity to the state which he could not guarantee.

Responding to the submissions of the lawmakers, the Chief Operating Officer said AEDC was prepared to supply 24 hours of electricity to the state so long as the consumers were ready to pay for it.

According to him, “we buy this electricity and we have to pay to be able to buy next time.”

He argued further that consumers in the State were owning AEDC N3 billion describing the debt as huge.

The Speaker, Alhaji Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, who did not preside at yesterday’s plenary told the management of the distribution company that since the consumers in the state could not meet up with their contractual agreement in the area of payment as the reason for the present poor power supply, the State was ready to pull out of the AEDC controlled States.

Sarkindaji, said as the representatives of the people, the 27 state Constituencies have unanimously resolved to mandate the governor to pull the State out of the AEDC and join another Disco, stressing “this is the wish of our people that we are representing.”

“We want to try another Disco and to compare it with the poor services AEDC has offered to the state in recent times.”