‘New Electricity Tarrif Ill-Timed’

The Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists, Rivers State Council, Mr Opaka Dokubo has said that the introduction  of new electricity tarrif by Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) with effect from July was wrongly timed.

Opaka, who was responding to questions from journalists in his office in Port Harcourt, explained that Nigerians would be willing to pay any increment in the tarrif when they see some reasonable improvement in power supply but added that a situation where the people were asked to pay additional cost for services not really there in view of the epileptic supply of power was abnormal.

“The problem is not how much tarrif but let us see what we are paying for. You have not seen anything and somebody is saying you should pay. The moment we have steady supply of light, we shall pay”, he said.

The NUJ boss noted that Nigerians daily suffer poor supply, generator maintenace, cost of fueling and other hazards with people dying of generator fumes should be considered.

He maintained that what Nigerians spend to provide alternative power supply is high, as such, the increment in tarriff is not scaring but the issue, he stressed is improvement in supply.

Mr. Dokubo described the introduction of higher tarrif at the present period as another direct way of adding more pains to suffering Nigerians.

He advised NERC to consider ways of alleviating the pains and suffering of Nigeirans in regulating the tarrif.

Chris Oluoh