FG PROMISES TO MEET ON ELECTRICITY TARIFFS

The Federal Government will next week hold a crucial meeting to address the demands by organised labour for the restoration of the power subsidy and the reversal of the hike in electricity tariff.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Power, Mrs Florence Eke, disclosed this to newsmen, hours after the labour unions disrupted activities at the ministry in Abuja, on Monday.

However, organised labour has threatened to continue with the protest indefinitely, stressing that it might take drastic action should the government fail to reverse the tariff hike.

Addressing protesters and the NERC management at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja earlier, the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, said Nigerians were wallowing in power poverty given the abysmal low supply of electricity.

He also faulted the move by the NERC to hike tariffs without engagements with stakeholders in the power sector.

In his response, the NERC Chairman, Sanusi Garba, said the commission was focused on increasing current generation capacity rather than commissioning new generating power plants, as demanded by organised labour. He pledged that the commission would go back to the ‘drawing board’ concerning the demands made by organised labour.