Reverse the illegal electricity rate increase, SERAP informs Buhari

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The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) chairman, Prof. James Momoh, and the Minister of Power, Goddy Jedy-Agba, were urged on Saturday to “urgently reverse the unlawful, unreasonable, and unjust increase in electricity tariff in the country, which reportedly occurred in December 2022” by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

A further request from SERAP was made to Buhari to “guarantee the investigation of the spending of public funds as ‘investments and bailouts’ by successive administrations to electricity distribution firms (DisCos) and generating companies (GenCos) since 2005.”

Additionally, it requests that the President see to it that incidents of corruption and poor management are prosecuted.

This was revealed by SERAP in a letter over the weekend that was signed by Kolawole Oluwadare, the deputy director.

The organization further stated that “proper process was not followed in the rise in electricity tariff. It is completely at odds and incompatible with the terms of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, the 1999 Nigerian Constitution [as amended], and the nation’s duties under international human rights law.

Millions of Nigerians “continue to dwell in darkness despite the spending of trillions of naira by successive administrations as investments and bailouts to energy businesses,” it continued.

Recall that in December of last year, all DisCos in Nigeria upped their electricity rates following a reported NERC permission.

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