Court dismisses NERC’s motion for stay in electricity tariff hike suit
(Nigeria) A Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday dismissed
the application for a stay of further proceedings filed by the Nigerian
Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, over the hike in electricity tariff.
NERC had asked the court for stay of proceedings until its
appeal against two previous rulings by the court was heard and determined by
the Court of Appeal.
Justice Mohammed Idris had in one of the rulings barred NERC
from implementing any upward review in electricity tariff pending the hearing
and determination of the main suit.
The other ruling was the dismissal of NERC's preliminary
objections to the suit.
Idris, who dismissed the application for stay of proceedings
for lacking in merit, held that contrary to the claims of the applicant, there
were no indications that the appeal had been listed for hearing at the Court of
Appeal.
"It is clear that the applicant has an application
before the court seeking for an extension of time to compile and transmit its
record at the Appeal Court. There is also another motion for leave to rely on
the same record of appeal in this present appeal. There is no indication that
the application has been listed on the cause list or that it had been heard or
adjourned for hearing.
"In the circumstance, this court cannot grant a stay of
proceedings on an appeal which is awaiting regularisation at the Appeal Court. The
application lacks merit and is dismissed accordingly,’’ he ruled.
The judge also awarded a N10,000 cost in favour of the
plaintiff.
After the ruling, there were arguments among parties in the
case as to which application should be taken by the court.
The plaintiff, in his submissions, insisted that the ruling
of the court had cleared the way for the hearing of his motion for contempt.
However, the defendants wanted the court to hear the
substantive matter.
According to them, the plaintiff had not met any of the
conditions prescribed by the law for his contempt charge to be heard by the
court.
In a short ruling on the issue, Idris held that though
contempt charge affected the integrity of the court, it would be in the
interest of justice for all applications challenging the contempt proceedings
to be heard first.
NERC's counsel, Mr Anthony Idigbe, SAN, then moved his
application challenging the filing of forms 48 and 49 by the plaintiff.
He urged the court to dismiss the application for not
following due process.
The plaintiff, however urged the court to dismiss all
objections to the contempt charge and commit the NERC Chairman and the CEOs of
the Distribution Companies(Discos) to prison for desecrating the judiciary.
He said the action of the alleged contemnors should be
condemned and should not go unpunished.
After listening to the arguments of parties, the judge
adjourned till February 29 for ruling on the application challenging the
contempt charge.
In the substantive suit brought by Toluwani Adebiyi, a
lawyer and human rights activist, the plaintiff sought an order restraining
NERC from implementing any upward review of electricity tariff.
This, the plaintiff said, was against the backdrop that
there had been no meaningful and significant improvement in power supply at
least for 18 hours in a day in most communities in Nigeria.
He also sought an order restraining NERC from foisting
compulsory service charge on pre-paid meters not until "the meters are
designed to read charges per second of consumption and not a flat rate of
service not rendered or power not used.’’
The service charge on pre-paid meters, he added, should not
to be enforced until there was visible efficient and reliable power supply like
those of foreign countries where the idea of service charge was borrowed.
Adebiyi further asked for an order of court mandating NERC
to do the needful and generate more power to meet the electricity use of
Nigerians.
The lawyer also asked the court to mandate NERC to make
available to all Nigerians within a maximum of two years prepaid meters as a
way to stop the indiscriminate estimated bill. (
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