The Nigeran Labour Congress (NLC) has come out to condemn the increase in the price of electricity in the country. The body said this act by the electricity company is best described as modern day slavery.
“The NLC is fully ready to mobilise our people to resist attempts by anyone to impose modern-day slavery on Nigerians, be they DISCOs or Regulators of Public Utilities. “We insist that further hike in tariff and user access charges at this time of great socio-economic dislocation would be ultra-insensitive, callous and a pre-meditated attempt to send many Nigerians, workers, pensioners and businesses to untimely graves.
“In the interest of fairness, equity and justice, we demand that the DISCOs refund Nigerians all the estimated billings that had been unjustly collected from our people all these years. “We also demand that DISCOs must pay consumers the cost that their inefficiency has imposed on citizens, residents and businesses.”
“We wish to remind the DISCOs that the provision of pre-paid meters, transformers and investment in the sector are statutorily the job of the DISCOs, not consumers or the government,’’ he said. “On the strength of the open admission by DISCOs in Nigeria to their own grand incompetence and crass failure, we call on the Federal Government to immediately set in motion processes for the review of the power sector privatisation. Enough is enough.
“The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) reiterates its resolve to act on the side and in the interest of the Nigerian people, workers and pensioners always. Wabba said that DISCOs were fully aware of the conditions before subscribing to the power sector privatisation programme. He commended the intervention by the Senate in calling off the threat by Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to hike the electricity tariff.
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