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The Niger State House of Assembly has called on the state government to end its business with the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), as it has failed to serve the people of the state, in spite of the three hydropower stations in Kainji, Jebba, Shiroro, and the fourth one in sight in Zungeru.
The state assembly, during its plenary on Tuesday, called on Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago to commence negotiations with an alternative electricity distribution company, as it was evident that the AEDC has failed to give electricity to the people, throwing them into untold hardship over the years.
Speaker of the Assembly, Rt. Hon. Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, said he was totally displeased over the epileptic electricity supply in the state, in which the state contributes about 60 percent of electricity to the national grid and therefore cannot be seen not to benefit from a steady power supply.
"There is no justification whatsoever for the state not to enjoy a minimum of 18 hours of electricity supply in a day.
"The people of Niger State have been pushed to the wall, and we will no longer tolerate the continued blackout of the state by the distribution company," he said.
He further stated that instead of the citizens benefiting from the AEDC, the reverse was the case, as it was the state government, politicians, and people who purchased equipment and transformers for their communities.
The Speaker urged the state government to try another company to see if the desired result would be achieved.
Other speakers during the plenary said that the metering process was even faulty, as consumers were not billed for what they consumed.
The AEDC management, led by the Deputy Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mr. Okwuokenye Chijioke, said that the poor power supply to the state was due to the N3 billion debts owed the company as it uses money to purchase energy for distribution.
"The consumers in the state owe AEDC well over N3b, which is huge. AEDC is a private company and buys the energy from the transmission company to sell to the public; due to a lack of payment, the company was losing enormous energy,"he said.
Making further efforts to explain to the house why the poor power supply has been continued by the COO, the legislators, unsatisfied with his explanation, maintained their ground to switch to another distribution company as demanded by the people of their various constituencies.