Electricity: Saraki seeks sanctions against defaulting DISCOS

SENATE President, Dr Bukola Saraki, on Thursday, advocated sanctions against electricity distribution companies (DISCOS) which fail to live up to the terms of agreements they reached with the Federal Government before commencing operations.

He made the call when the chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr Sam Amadi, led other members of the commission on a courtesy visit to the Senate President in Abuja.

Saraki informed that the National Assembly was eager to see Nigerians enjoy stable power supply and at the cheapest cost possible, adding that the Senate would ensure that all acts of impunity by DISCOS were eradicated.

According to him, “more importantly, from our own point of view is that how do we ensure that majority of the owners of the DISCOS keep to some of the agreements or the commitments they made at the time of purchase. Some of them by the time they were buying these assets have committed to certain investments that were going to be done. The question is, are they on schedule and what is the time frame you set for most of these investments to be in place?

“We are both on the same side, which is to ensure that the consumers get value for their money. You are those that work directly with them and it is important you bring to our attention what is necessary to ensure that at the end of the day the consumers, the Nigerian people get the best benefit. The aim at the end of the day is to ensure that every Nigerian get the power and they get it at the cheapest possible cost and those who are responsible for running these units keep to the agreement.

“What we don’t want to see is the impunity, where people believe that they can make commitments, but not necessarily be held to those commitments and at the end of the day, it is our own people that suffer. Definitely we are going to stamp that out and we are not going to accept that and it is your responsibility to bring that to our notice so that we can be able to address that,” he said.

Chairman of NERC, Dr Sam Amadi, said the commission was doing all it could to eliminate fixed electricity charges, adding that one of the factors militating against increased power supply was the weak infrastructure in the country.