Legal luminary and human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), has said that electricity subsidy is non-existent, saying that the Federal Government is rather raising funds for cash-strapped the electricity distribution companies (DisCos).
Falana stated this during an interview on Sunday Politics programme of the Channels Television .
The Senior Advocate also said that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) plans to extend electricity tariff hike beyond Band A consumers to other Nigerians categorised under other bands.
He said the recent tariff increase for Band A consumers by the Federal Government cannot be justified under the Electricity Act, 2023 and threatened to approach the courts to seek redress for Nigerians.
Falana said the Federal Government had already removed electricity subsidy in 2022, saying that the government, by the new tariff hike, is making Nigerians pay for the inefficiency and profligacy of those managing the electricity sector.
The NERC had on April 3, 2024 raised electricity tariff for customers enjoying 20 hours power supply daily while the customers in this category are said to be under the Band A classification.
The hike will see the customers paying N225 kilowatt per hour from the current N66.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu subsequently said the new electricity tariff hike would only affect only 1.5 million of the about 12 million consumers in the sector.
Falana said, “Under that law, there are certain steps to take and we are going to embark on those steps tomorrow (Monday) which is to raise serious objections with respect to the impunity that has characterised the recent increase.
“At the appropriate time if there is no response, we will have to go to court because the government had warned, the minister had warned that the increase this time around will only fetch the government or the discos N1.6trillion whereas the destination is N3trillion.
“So, the poor people that he (the minister) is talking about, the other bands, very soon, the government is going to extend the increases to them so that the N1.4trillion the minister is talking about will be recovered.
“The Federal Government is increasing tariff to assist the cash-strapped Discos majority of which have now been taken over by the banks and AMCON, and the banks and AMCON have no competence to run electricity companies.”
Falana said the government is insensitive to the plight of Nigerians who are still grappling with the economical impact of petrol subsidy removal and the collapse of the foreign exchange windows.
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