Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, has revealed that he has secured access to 300,000 electricity meters, that were locked up in a legal battle involving the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), so as to get them distributed to electricity subscribers.
Fashola declared that the parties to the matter had reached settlement out of court, adding that the metres were meant for homes in the 11 electricity distribution networks.
He added that the lingering contractual dispute between Geometric Power Limited, owners of the 180 megawatts (MW) Geometric Aba Power Plant, and Enugu Disco over Aba business unit, which was reportedly cut off and ceded to Geometric by the federal government in an agreement but which Enugu Disco has also contested, will soon be over.
Fashola revealed that he had succeeded in getting both parties to sit down and negotiate to settle the dispute, saying that he is hopeful that production of power from the 180MW capacity independent power plant would soon commence.
“There is a contract that was awarded in 2003 for the supply of meters by the old PHCN and it ended up in court and that is for about 13 years,” Fashola said.
“We couldn’t supply those meters and people were bickering and fighting, we have taken that case really out of court and we are trying to close it and hopefully take delivery of the meters that have been locked up in the warehouse, I think about 300,000 meters or so. Hopefully, they will be useful for some purpose.”
