A South-East group, Njiko Igbo Forum, yesterday has alleged that there is a grand plan to cripple the economy of the zone through arbitrary increase of power tariff.
President of the Forum, Rev. Okechukwu Obioha in an exclusive interview with DAILY POST wondered why the South-East electricity tariff should be increased by over 90 percent, whereas Ikeja and Eko got only about 20 percent increase.
He described the development as a deliberate plot to kill South-East based industries to pave way for the eventual death of the region’s economy.
“It has become necessary for us to raise this alarm because it is really something that is strange to us.
“We can’t understand a situation where 22 percent increment went for Eko and Ikeja districts whereas Enugu received over 80 percent. Before now, Enugu was on the same page with Eko and Ikeja, even Ibadan”, he stated.
“But whatever reason, after the privatization, they now increased Lagos to 22 percent and increased South-East to 94 percent. It is so alarming. What is the yardstick?” He queried.
While warning on the consequences of the new tariff, Obioha said “it means that all the industries in the South-East will collapse; there will be serious unemployment; there will be robbery, all manner of crimes everywhere in the East.
“So, we see this as a grand design to take us back to where we were after the civil war when they gave us 20 pounds and the westerners acquired all the companies; that is the same thing they are trying to do because power is wealth”.
He added that apart from industries, residential areas were equally affected by over 100 percent increase, a situation he further described as “unacceptable and anti-Igbos”.
He called on the Federal Government to urgently intervene in the matter by calling the distribution companies to order and to also “either subsidize the tariff or to cushion the effect and make the zone at par with other regions”.
Obioha further accused some forces in the country of sabotaging the efforts of the former power minister, Prof. Bath Nnaji to provide stable power for Aba residents through his private power firm.
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