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Tordue Salem – Abuja

The House of Representatives Committee on Power and the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, (NERC) on Tuesday agreed that the planned hike in electricity tariffs was not backed by any law.

Therefore, the Committee headed by Magaji Da’u Aliyu ordered the Minister of Power, Engr. Saleh Mamman and NERC to suspend the plan indefinitely.

The Committee also rejected a presidential directive transferring the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Transmission (NBET) from the Ministry of Power to Finance and claims by NERC that 50 percent Nigerians had prepaid metres.

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The committee directed the ministry and NERC to suspend the tariff review until all customers had prepaid metres and the NERC law tweaked to authorise the policy.

The Committee also grilled the Managing Director of NERC, Prof. James Momoh, who was represented at the panel by Mr. Shafudeen Mahmud, the Commission’s General Manager in charge of Marketing.

He said the tariff hike was not supported by the NERC Act.