An expert on power, Mr Princewill Okorie, has called on the Federal Government to set up an investigative committee to check the performance of Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos).
Okorie, the Executive Director, Electricity Consumers Protection Advocacy Centre, who said this in Abuja on Sunday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), noted that the call had become imperative.
He spoke against the backdrop of the privatisation and deteriorating state of power supply in the country.
According to him, the committee when set up should look into the performance of the DisCos) since 2013 to date.
“The committee should also look into the revenue generated from non-metered and metered consumers from 2013 to date.
“They should look into the investment of DisCos in terms of infrastructure, network expansion and maintenance till date.
“What has been the investment of international community in the power sector and the performance service standard for monitoring the DisCos,’’ he said.
Okorie said that privitasation of the power sector was an exploitation of consumers.
According to him, privitasation is a way of creating avenue for the so called investors that have not invested much but reap Nigerians off because the investment of the Discos is not understood.
“We only hear the price of gas but we don’t hear the amount spent on infrastructure and network expansion by the DisCos.
“So if they cannot provide the required investment and Nigerians are still the ones funding the sector, government should take the DisCos back and arrange how they can manage them.
“They can bring technocrats and engineers that have knowledge of the sector to handle it, ‘’ he said.
Okorie also called for the overhauling of agencies in the power sector, adding that the problem with most of them was leadership.
He said that most of those heading the agencies were the same people that were there during (National Electric Power Authority (NEPA).
“Retaining people that ran NEPA that government said was not working which brought about privatisation and now the same people are deployed to different agencies to head them.
“These people are not adding any value, so there is the need to review the sector and restructure the mode of the privitasation, ‘’ he said. (NAN)
