Power generation: Fashola replies DisCos, says Nigerians traumatised by your service
Sunday Oduntan, executive director, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), the umbrella body of DisCos, had said the federal government lied about an improvement in power generation.
In a statement on Friday, Fashola said Nigerians can testify to the upswing in electricity in the past few years. The minister said he does not recognise Oduntan or ANED, adding that if DisCos connect with consumers, they would realise that service delivery is poor.
The statement read in part: “Before fiction becomes fact for lack of a response, I feel obliged to respond to some, not all of the allegations credited to one Sunday Oduntan who presents himself as executive director, research and advocacy of the Association of Electricity Distributors (ANED), which he made in response to my directives to NERC (the regulator) and BPE/NBET as contracting parties to the DisCos.
“Throughout my press statement which contained the
directives, I referred copiously to the provisions of the Electric Power Sector
Reform Act (EPSRA) which is the law that regulates the power sector. I referred
to DisCos in their capacities as licensees.
“Oduntan should tell members of the public if ANED
is a licensee. He should tell the public whether he is an investor in a DisCo
and in which DisCo he has invested and what he invested.
“He should tell members of the public that I
walked him out of our monthly meeting because he has no capacity to attend and
he was not invited. If ANED is not a licensee, who is ANED? An NGO? If so, they
should listen to consumers because nothing is going on about poor service.
“However to suggest therefore that my directives
were political, turns reality on its head; because for the past 20 months, in
all my public briefings at monthly meetings with the DisCos, these same issues
of service delivery of meters, estimated billings, investment in distribution
equipment by DisCos have dominated my remarks.
“I do not recognise him because the law that
guides my functions does not recognise him. His statement that no directives
from me will save the power sector from collapse, is consistent with the views
of someone who has no skin in the game.
“As for the allegation that figures of power
generation and distribution released by me are not true, the taste of the
pudding lies with those who eat it. Electricity consumers know what their
experience was in 2015, 2016, 2017 and today.
“If the DisCos connect with their consumers, they
will hear from them first-hand, how traumatised they feel about load shedding,
absence of meters and estimated billing.”
The Cable
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