Minister of power, Adebayo Adelabu, says the country will be thrown into darkness if the federal government does not hike electricity tariff.

Recall that the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), on April 3, approved an increase in electricity tariff for customers under the Band A classification.

The commission said customers under the classification, who receive 20 hours of electricity supply daily, will now pay N225 per kilowatt (kW), starting from April 3, up from N66.

Appearing before the senate committee on power on Monday, Adelabu said although citizens are bearing the brunt of the increase, it would “catapult us to the next level”.

“The entire sector will be grounded if we don’t increase the tariff,” the minister said.

“With what we have now in the next three months, the entire country will be in darkness if we don’t increase tariff.

“The increment will catapult us to the next level. We are also Nigerians, we are also feeling the impact.”

Adelabu said if distribution companies (DisCos) do not provide 20 hours of power for seven consecutive days, the customer should be billed on the old tariff.

“We made it a conditional tariff, we made it a service reflective tariff, that the only condition that can make a discriminate company charge the new tariff of N225 per kilowatt hour is they must ensure they supply a minimum of 20 hours to that consumer everyday,” he said.

“If they cannot sustain this within a period of seven days, such consumers must be granted the old tax.

“Any consumer that can get supply for 20 hours, they can pay N225 per kilo as against the N66 in the old regime. And we also put in some monetary and tracking framework to ensure that these posts are compelled to comply with this tariff order.

“And this was displayed in the first day or the first week of this new regime, when it was discovered that a particular DisCo was not supplying for up to 20 hours and was charging the customers. A penalty of N200 million was slammed on this DisCo.”

The minister added that the fine has served as a deterrent to DisCos.

Members of the senate and house of representatives are set to resume plenary in renovated chambers.

The legislators will resume plenary on Tuesday (today) after a break spanning more than five weeks.

The parliamentarians had begun their Easter and Eid el-Fitr vacations on March 20.

They were supposed to meet again on April 16, but the meeting was rescheduled.

On Monday, the house of representatives’ leadership, led by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and his predecessor Femi Gbajabiamila, examined the green chamber.

The renovation of the chamber began in April 2022.

Since then, the legislators have been using a temporary chamber in one of the committee rooms.

In 2019, the national assembly budgeted over N30 billion for the renovation of the complex, but the amount had sparked criticisms.

The sum was later reviewed to N9 billion.

See photos of the renovated green chamber below;

Nigerians have been reassured by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) that the current fuel shortage and lines will end by Wednesday, April 31.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr. Olufemi Soneye, Chief Communications Officer of NNPCL, on Tuesday in Lagos.

Soneye claims that the company can currently supply more than 1.5 billion litres of products, enough to last for at least 30 days.

“Unfortunately, we experienced a three-day disruption in distribution due to logistical issues, which has since been resolved.

“However, as you know, overcoming such disruptions typically requires double the amount of time to return to normal operations,” he said.

He said, “Some folks are taking advantage of this situation to maximize profits.

“Thankfully, product scarcity has been minimal lately, but these folks might be exploiting the situation for unwarranted gain.

“The lines will be cleared out between today and tomorrow,” Soneye assured.

Similarly, Mr Hammed Fashola, the National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (lPMAN), expressed hope that the queues in Lagos and Ogun would ease off this week, relying on the words of the NNPCL.

Fashola, however, stated that the queues in Abuja might tarry a bit due to the distance to Lagos.

“The information available to us from the NNPCL was that there was a logistics problem, and when that happens, it will disrupt the supply chain.

“That might be a delay in the movement of ships from the mother vessel to the daughter vessel before it gets to the depot tanks.

“Before we can correct that, surely it will take some days. I think by Tuesday or Wednesday, there will be more products available for lifting by marketers.

“It might take time before it can ease off in Abuja, considering the distance to Lagos and the bad roads; Lagos might be calm this new week,” Fashola assured.

It was gathered that stranded motorists and commuters have expressed concern over frequent fuel scarcity in Lagos metropolis.

This has resulted in a few commercial vehicles, which led to a hike in fares.

The situation within Lagos metropolis showed that only a few filling stations were selling, with long queues in most parts.

This was also the same situation within Abule-Egba and environs: Abbatoir Road in Agege, Akowonjo Road, Bariga, Fola-Agoro, and the popular Lasu-Igando Road.

The few filling stations that dispensed petrol had long queues of vehicles stretching some meters.

Across the metropolis on Monday, petrol queues were seen at filling stations like Mobil, NIPCO, TotalEnergies, Forte Oil, and ConOil along Ikorodu Road.

North West at Maryland, Gbagada, NIPCO along Ijede road, Ikorodu, and TotalEnergies at the NNPC bus stop in Ejigbo stretched to about 500 metres from the pumps.

Credit: NAN