By Correspondent in Minna.
Niger state government says the disconnecting electricity supply to Government House, State Secretariat, the Minna General hospital and the Secretary to State Government’s (SSG) office by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) over alleged N1.3b debt is a ploy by the company to, ‘embarrass everyone’.
The state government’s reaction is coming against the backdrop of last Saturday’s disconnection of electricity supply to Government House, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, including the Minna General hospital over accumulated bills.
According to the AEDC Regional Public Relations Officer, Alhaji Mohammed Adamu, the company disconnected facilities concerned because the state government defaulted after initial agreement to offset outstanding sum running into several billions of baira.
Reacting to the issue,the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmed Matane in an interview said AEDC was merely trying to embarrass everyone because the state government had not defaulted in paying monthly N57 million as agreed.
“The AEDC is claiming that the government is indebted to the tune of N1.3 billion but failed to also let the public know about the one we paid over a period of time. I think they are just out to embarrass everybody by going out and cutting light just like that,”he said.
Matane explained the state government would continue to handle the issue of the AEDC with maturity, adding however that there was no reason why the company still went ahead to embarrass the state government by throwing the entire government facilities in darkness.
Asked what the government has done to remedy the situation, Matane said, “We have been dialoguing with them, even yesterday (Saturday), we met and still talking. But you see they just went to town to embarrass everybody”.
He said that the average consumption monthly according to the AEDC was estimated at about N70 million for all the disconnected facilities, adding that based on agreement, the state government had been paying N57 million monthly and had not defaulted in such mode of payment.
“Even in the Court of law, debt with mutual agreement on mode of payment is allowed or acceptable and we agreed with them on how we will be paying, but like I said, as a government we still maintain this gentleman approach in handling the issue,”the SSG added.
Meanwhile, efforts to confirm claims of offsetting part of the bill by the state government and why most parts of Minna metropolis and environs has been without light for days now from the AEDC regional PRO proved abortive.
The PRO neither pick calls, nor reply text message sent to him by our Correspondent to clarify claims by the state government of having remitted millions of naira, over a time in both cash and provision of cables, transformers and other high profile equipments for ease of electricity distribution to parts of the state.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
