| By Debo Omilani, LAGOS Lagos State House of Assembly has urged the National Assembly to hasten the passage of the Electricity Reform Act 2018. The lawmakers also charged the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, to order Eko and Ikeja Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to phase out metering system and provide pre-paid meters to residents of the state. This followed a motion moved on Tuesday in the House of Assembly by Tunde Braimoh. Braimoh, representing Kosofe Constituency II, in the motion, urged on the National Assembly to expedite action on the Electricity Power Reform Act 2018 which criminalises the estimated billing system. “The House resolves to call on the National Assembly to amend the Schedule Two of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to allow states and local governments to generate electricity. “The National Assembly should expedite action on the Electricity Reform Act 2018. “The House calls on the Minister of Power and the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to call on Eko and Ikeja DISCOs to desist from taking transformers away from consumers over non-payment of bills. “The minister and NERC should ensure the distribution of prepaid meters to consumers and the Consumer Protection Agency should ensure that the rights of consumers in Lagos State are protected,” he said. The House Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, stressed the need for the Federal Government to allow states or local governments which can generate electricity to do so. Obasa observed that concentrating electricity generation in the hands of the Federal Government, when there are no resources to do so, is wrong. The Speaker ordered the Clerk of the House, Azeez Sanni, to write the National Assembly and the Minister of Power, Works and Housing on the resolution of Lagos House on the matter. In his own contribution, Bisi Yussuf (Alimosho 1) said that the electricity issue is a daily occurrence in Lagos State, as leads to violence between officials of DISCOs and the consumers. According to him, the officials of DISCOs usually remove transformers and that they would not replace them for six months, while they still bring bills for such months. He condemned a situation where consumers buy transformers, which later become those of DISCOs. |
Lagos Assembly Charges NASS on Passage Of Electricity Reform Act
By tech