Power outage disrupts power minister’s speech at National Assembly

There was a mild drama on Monday when power supply was interrupted as the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, was speaking at the National Assembly.

Adelabu was fielding questions from senators at the investigative hearing on “the need to halt the increase in the price of electricity” organized by the Senate Committee on Power.

However, power was shortly restored.

Speaking about the power outage, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Eyinnaya Abaribe, said what the minister said about the stable electricity in the country was implicative.

“You see what just happened. This is what we all experience. We the Senators experience it too and I am sure even the President does experience it at the Villa, just that he cannot speak out like we are,” he said.

MAGIC FM recalls that the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, had on April 3, approved an increase of 340% in electricity tariff for customers under the Band A classification.

According to the NERC’s Vice Chairman, Musliu Oseni, Band A, customers will begin to pay N225 kilowatt per hour from the current N66.

According to NERC, B and A customers are those who enjoy 20 hours of electricity supply daily.

The Senate had summoned the Minister to speak on the recent tariff and justify the increase.