TheCable

Power went out at the national assembly on Monday when Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power, was briefing a senate committee on the rationale behind the recent hike in electricity tariff.

On April 3, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approved an increase in electricity tariff for customers under the Band A classification.

The commission said customers under the classification, who receive 20 hours of electricity supply daily, will now pay N225 per kilowatt (kW), starting from April 3 — up from N66.

The development elicited outrage from citizens who asked the national assembly to pull the plug on the hike.

Addressing the legislators, Adelabu said the nation would have been thrown into darkness if the federal government did not increase the electricity tariff.

“The entire sector will be grounded if we don’t increase the tariff,” the minister had said.

“With what we have now in the next three months, the entire country will be in darkness if we don’t increase tariff.

“The increment will catapult us to the next level. We are also Nigerians, we are also feeling the impact.”

Adelabu was still fielding questions from senators when power went out in the room.

Enyinnaya Abaribe, chairman of the senate committee on power, pointed to the incident as a reminder of why fixing the energy sector has become imperative.

“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,” Abaribe said.

Power was restored after five minutes and the hearing with the minister continued.