Stop calling us NEPA, PHCN if you want electricity-Discos

The Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) in Nigeria have asked Nigerians to stop calling its members NEPA or PHCN.

Executive Director of Research and Advocacy, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Sunday Oduntan, said if Nigerians keep calling them NEPA, it means they don’t want electricity.

He noted that PHCN and NEPA are no longer in existence, stressing that those calling them NEPA are implying that they don’t want electricity.

The Cable reports that Oduntan made the statement during a programme on TVC. “I understand how Nigerians feel when it comes to paying more for anything.

But we also want Nigerians to understand the following. Number one, stop calling us NEPA,” Oduntan said. “The more you call us NEPA, the more it shows that you don’t know that anything has changed in this country.”

Oduntan said from his viewpoint, those calling them NEPA neither want change nor electricity.

“We are DisCos, but we are not dancing DisCos. We are distribution companies. PHCN is dead, NEPA is dead,” the official stated.

The National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) was in charge of electricity generation, transmission and distribution in Nigeria, but later changed to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

Meanwhile, the House of Representative on Tuesday, January 14, asked the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to suspend any planned increase in electricity tariff.

The demand was made by the House of Representatives committee on power at its meeting in Abuja Aliyu Magaji, the committee chairman, asked NERC to issue a directive suspending the upward review pending proper consultations on the matter.

Similarly, Femi Gbajabiamila, the speaker of the House of Representatives, has rejected the proposed electricity tariff increase recently announced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).