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Adewale Sanyaolu with agency reports
The 11 electricity distribution companies in the country say they have returned their licences to the federal government twice but the offer was turned down on the two different occasions.
Executive Director of Research and Advocacy of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED),Mr.Sunday Oduntan staed this in an interview on ARISE TV yesterday.
The outburst of Oduntan is coming on the heels of the call by the Federal Government that DisCos should either show they have enough capacity to distribute electricity or step aside for other investors.
“We believe that as long as the government or regulator do the right thing that is consistent with the wordings and tenets of the agreement signed with the private investors, they are free to take any action as long as the rule of law is observed,” he said.
“As far as we are concerned, we have taken our licences to them, before two times, one during the tenure of Jonathan. We said thank you for selling to us, take we are no more interested. It is called force majeure in law. Give us our money back. They said no; we are not taking it from you. They gave it back to us that we should keep on running it.
“During Buhari’s time, we said we are no more interested. They said no. For us to have filed force majeure tells you we are not a desperate set of people. All their concern is to be able to recover their costs. What we all want is electricity.”
There have been calls from various quarters for the federal government to review the privatisation process that held in 2013 resulting in the unbundling of the power sector.
The Federal Government had last week declared that DisCos have failed in distributing power across the country.
It declared it would no longer subside the DisCos noting that despite doling out about N1.7 trillion to the companies in three years, they were only able to distribute 3000mw out of about 10,000mw generated.
Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, said this at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday.
Mamman who briefed alongside his colleagues from ministries of Information and Culture, Water Resources, Industry, Trade and Investment explained that while the DisCos were collecting the 3000mw, they were only paying for 1,000mw.
He said the DisCos must show that they have capacity to distribute power or surrender for more competent companies to be engaged.
