Withdraw licenses of incompetent power companies, lawmaker tells FG

Hon. Idu Igariwey, a member of the House of Representatives representing Afikpo North/South federal constituency, Ebonyi state, has urged the federal government to withdraw the licenses of Electricity Distribution Companies, DISCOS, who fails to meet the power demands of Nigerians across the country.

The lawmaker, who made reference to the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC, said this during a town hall meeting he organised in his constituency in Afikpo north local government area of the state,

According to him, the situation forced him to slam a N100 million suit on the EEDC at the Federal High Court in October last year.

The lawmaker accused the EEDC of sabotaging government’s effort towards stabilising power supply and distribution in the country, describing the company as being incompetent and incapable of providing quality service to the people.

“We should lay the blame where it is. For today, government is no longer responsible for the distribution of power; it has gone to private hands. In our own case, it is EEDC.

“So, if something has gone to a private hand and that person is not providing the service, then that person should be held responsible. So nobody should hold government responsible, whether state or federal government, the person to hold responsible is EEDC.

“The point I want to make about EEDC is that they lack the capacity to do the job, they are completely out of their depths, they have been unable to invest in infrastructure and I am very sure they must have deceived government into giving them a licence.

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“I am recommending that the Federal Government should review the licenses granted to distribution companies. I am not making a blanket condemnation of all of them; some of them are quite responsible. I do my work in Abuja and I think that  Abuja  Distribution Company is quite responsible.

“When you review, you see the good and bad aspects of what you are reviewing and that is what I am recommending. The Federal Government should review the discos to see those that cannot go on with this business.”

The lawmaker who expressed outrage at the poor power supply distributed to his constituency lamented that many small and medium scale businesses in the area have closed down due to the ugly development in the area.