Fashola Empathises with Nigerians On Electricity
By Correspondent
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said he will be resistant to payment of electricity bill if there is no supply.The former Lagos governor said this at the recently held Power Sector and Stakeholders’ Meeting in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, hosted by Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IEDC.Power generation in the country took the downward trend in recent weeks after hitting the 4,000 megawatts mark in December, 2016, with many a consumer still going without prepaid meters and having over-estimated bills flushed down their throats, despite the epileptic supply.Fashola noted that sabotage of gas assets and pipelines had “decommissioned power plants and their ability to provide up to 3,000 megawatts of power”¦ The 3,500MW to 3,800MW that we have been able to keep on the grid over the last few months will be assisted greatly if we can have the gas pipelines back and add 3,000MW to it. That means we will be able to deliver well over 6,000MW if the gas pipelines are safe.”“Consumers are more resistant to payment when they don’t have electricity, and I will be, too, and you will be too.”, he said.The minister said it would be observed that they [consumers] pay more when the power is more stable, but of course, there were issues also at the retail end ”“ “”¦ metering, estimated bills”.He called on all stakeholders to play their different role in solving the problems.He added that government has begun to act, with the Vice President, representing the President, going round those Niger Delta communities, engaging them more openly, more robustly.“The idea is to bring them to the table to stop the vandalism while the issues that agitate them can be treated and resolved. I believe that if we are successful as we expect to be, we should be able to, sometimes, this year recover all the 3,000MW that has been lost to gas pipeline outages.”Â Discover more from NewsBreakers
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