Power supply to Niger government house, MDAs cut off over ‘unpaid N1.3bn debt’

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) says it has disconnected power supply to Niger government house as well as the state’s ministries and agencies over unpaid N1.3 billion bill.

Aminu Ubandoma, legal officer at the AEDC, made this known in Minna on Thursday. 

In the last seven months, there has been a periodic disconnection of electricity supply to the government house. 

Speaking on the latest incident, Ubandoma said the government had released N200 million of the outstanding debt and promised to pay N100 million monthly until it offsets the debt but refused to fulfil its commitment. 

“We have no other option than to disconnect supply to the government house, ministries, departments and agencies over the accumulated unpaid electricity bills totalling N1.3 billion as at September,” Ubandoma said. 

“The government released N200 million of the outstanding debt in September and promised to pay N100 million monthly until it offsets the debt.

“It failed to meet the obligation however. The debt notwithstanding, the government has been up to date since then in offsetting its current monthly bills of about N75 million.

“We took the decision to disconnect supply since government reneged on its promise to pay outstanding debt at the rate of N100 million monthly.

“That promise was made after an intervention by the state’s House of Assembly four months ago.” 

He said the AEDC would restore power supply to government facilities only after the payment of at least N500 million of the outstanding debt.

Ahmed Matane, secretary to the state government, told NAN that the government promised to settle the debt when its finances improve.

“This debt was inherited by the current administration and since government is a continuum, we will settle it when government’s financial position improves,” Matane said. 

“We have invested more than N13 billion on the procurement of many facilities for the AEDC to enable it to perform optimally.

“The company should have commended the state government for its useful contribution to its growth rather than embarking on mass disconnection of supply to government facilities.”