.........Wants DISCOs Licenses Revoked
The Federal Government of Nigeria has been told to revoke the licenses of Power Distribution Companies in Nigeria (DISCOs).
Human Rights, Liberty Access and Peace Defenders Foundation,(HURIDE) and Campaign for Democracy (CD), South East in a statement in Enugu said that revocation of the DISCOs' licenses has become imperative given the fact that. they have failed abysmally.
In the statement signed by the Executive Director of HURIDE and Chairman of CD in the South East, Dede Uzor A. Uzor, the rights groups insisted that it is crystal clear that the DISCOs can't provide power to Nigerians anymore.
They said that power distribution in the country should be handed over to tested companies with track records of performance in the industry internationally, adding that the companies would have enough resources too.
The rights groups condemned the collapse of the national grid, attributing it to " monumental corruption and lack of credible leadership.
They called for the immediate sack of the former Minister of Power as well as probed the immediate past Minister of Power, Fashola for not doing anything serious to improve power supply to Nigerians in his eight-year tenure.
They equally condemned the plan by the Federal Government and the DISCOs to increase tariffs when there is no corresponding increase in power supply to the people.
The rights groups also condemned the situations where Nigerians were compelled to virtually purchase everything ranging from transformers, cable repairs, prepaid meters and many others.
"Where are all the billions of naira allocated to the Power Ministry in the last administration? What did they do with all the money? Now Fashola is working free because he is a Lagosian like the President. The time has come when things should be done in the right way. If it is in China people like Fashola would be facing the hangman" said the groups.
The rights groups said that this administration told Nigerians that a German company would come to beef up the power supply in Nigeria, but it appeared all that was a fluke.
For Nigeria to have constant power supply foreign investors with expertise in power management should come and take over power distribution in Nigeria.
They said the era of communities/individuals contributing money for the repair of power equipment should stop forthwith.
" An average Nigerian pays between N25,000 and M50,,000 as bill per flat. The meter has been tampered with by DISCO officials to read faster after dismantling the earlier meters and installing fast-reading ones.
The groups lamented that the DISCOs are being controlled by Politicians and their friends businessmen, warning that the Federal Government should drop the idea of hiking the tariff in this hard time, saying that the Federal Government should find a way of cushioning the impact of economic hardships on the people instead of increasing tariff.