By Olugbenga Salami
Social and public affairs commentator, Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim, has criticised the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC for alleged low supply of electricity to consumers in Kwara State in the last eight weeks.
In a statement issued on Sunday and made available to our correspondent in Abuja, Ibrahim questioned why IBEDC electricity supply has been too low while other distribution companies DISCOs are delivering on their mandates without interruption; wondering what has happened to the subsidy given to electricity consumers in Nigeria.
He recalled that President Bola Tinubu recently approved over N1 trillion to power industries comprising of all generating, transmission and distribution companies in the country for the current Year 2024 in order to reduce the hardship facing Nigerians.
According to him, “this federal government approval was sequel to refusal of President Tinubu to approve any increase in electricity tariff to cushion the effects of any hardship this denial would cause the Industries.”
Ibrahim, who is also the National Coordinator of Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria, MMWG, said it was “highly unfortunate that inspite of subsidy granted by the President, some DISCOs, especially IBEDC are still denying consumers the benefit of the subsidy by giving low supply of electricity to the people of Kwara State.”
“If this situation continues, what this means is that only states enjoying regular supply of electricity are the ones enjoying the subsidy because of the fact that their lights are usually on, while those in Kwara, Oyo and Osun States are losing through unbearable load shedding,” he added.
He, therefore, called for restoration of uninterrupted power supply to Kwara State by IBEDC for the benefit of all consumers, warning that the company should not deny people of the state the benefit of subsidy given the electricity consumers by President Tinubu.
