Reps to intervene over electricity bill hike at University of Jos

The House of Representatives has promised to intervene over the hike in electricity bill at the University of Jos which has placed the university under Band A.

Rep. Abubakar Fulata, the Chairman, House Committee on University Education, said this in a statement on Wednesday after the committee’s oversight visit to the school.

Fulata said such a hike was unacceptable, promising to work with other relevant House Committees, Ministries, Departments and Agencies and stakeholders to ensure the issue is addressed as soon as possible.

Fulata stressed the need to ensure that federal character principle was adhered to in recruitment in federal universities.

He said that the federal university is not a state-owned institution; hence every state in the country including FCT should be fairly captured.

Fulata said his committee is determined to do everything within its power to improve the standard of education, hence the visit.

He said the committee was examining how the previous allocations from the federal government, and internally generated revenue were utilised to ensure compliance with the appropriation Act.

Fulata said the committee was aware of the roles of the university council which included, employment, promotion among others, adding that the power of appropriation is vested in the parliament.

He said that irrespective of any law establishing the university, any section that conflicts with any section of the 1999 Constitution would become inferior, null and void.

Rep Victor Ogene, a member of the committee called on the authorities of University of Jos to judiciously use the available resources allocated to it.

He said that the university like any other government body might not get all that was required in terms of funds, but effective and efficient use of available funds would help a lot.

Earlier, Prof. Tanko Ishaya, the Vice Chancellor of University of Jos, called on the committee to intervene over the disconnection of the school from public light by the Jos Electricity Distribution Company.

Ishaya said the entire University of Jos had been plunged into darkness for over a month due to the hike in electricity tariff.

According to him, prior to the grouping of electricity consuming customers which placed the university in Band A, the electricity bill of the school stood at N20 million to N25 million per month.

“But with the classification, the bill jumps to about N79 million to N80 million every month which is practically impossible to be paid due to lack of funds.

He urged the company to remove the university from Band A, adding that the university management was finding it difficult to pay the regular bill of about N25 million per month.

Ishaya said that the situation became worse after the classification of the electricity users placing the university in Band A.