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Aba Power, Nigeria’s newest electricity distribution company (DisCo), has described as false, reports claiming that an Abia State High Court voided the new electricity tariff set by the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for its customers or for any of the other 11 DisCos in the country.
The company’s Communication and Brand Manager, Edise Ekong, said in a statement on Thursday that the report is untrue and completely misleading. Ekong then stated that the court directed the promoters of a group of protesters to appear before it as individual electricity consumers.
“A group called the Aba Electricity Consumers Forum went to the Abia State High Court in protest against the new NERC order, but the judge ruled that the group is unregistered and, therefore, unknown to the law. It has no legal standing. So, for anyone to claim that Justice Enyinnaya Ikpeazu of the Isiala Ngwa High Court in Abia State has directed Aba Power to revert to the old tariff is incorrect,” he said.
NERC ordered a new tariff for Aba Power, effective January 1, 2025, on December 30, nine months after it had approved a new tariff for the other DisCos. The Aba Power senior manager urged customers to continue paying this new rate which covers nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State, which took effect one year after the rest of the country began paying the new electricity tariff.
“The Federal Government has already announced that there will be a significant increase in tariff anytime from now, perhaps this month. This is a major step by the Federal Government in its desire to end subsidies to both generation and distribution companies,” he stated.
Ekong also claimed that Aba Power is the only DisCo that has not benefited from any subsidy, adding that the generation arm of the Geometric Power Integrated Power Group has also not benefited from the government’s financial support.
