The suit was instituted by a lawyer and rights activist, Toluwani Adebiyi, following which the court had restrained parties to maintain status-quo.
It will be recalled that NERC and DISCOs had gone ahead on February 1, 2016 to hike tariff in electricity, despite the subsisting order.
NERC had asked the court to stay proceedings until its appeal against two previous rulings delivered by the judge was heard and determined by the Appeal Court.
Justice Idris had in one of the rulings barred NERC from implementing any upward review in electricity tariff pending the hearing and determination of the suit.
The other ruling has to do with the dismissal of NERC’s preliminary objections to the suit.
However, while dismissing the application for stay of proceedings for lacking in merit, yesterday, Justice Idris held that contrary to the claims of the applicant, there are no indications that the appeal has been listed for hearing at the Appeal Court.
He said, “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. However, 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 incompetent appeal which is awaiting regularisation at the Appeal Court. On the whole, the application lacks merit and is dismissed accordingly,” the judge said.
The court also awarded N10,000 cost in favour of the plaintiff.
After the ruling, there were arguments among parties in the matter on which application should be taken by the court.
The controversy surrounding the new tariff effected by the NERC took a twist when former chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr Sam Amadi, earlier declared as illegal the recent directive to the agency by the Senate to suspend the newly-effected 45 per cent tariff hike, saying the lawmakers do not have the constitutional powers to reverse the tariff.
The 8th Senate had, last week, directed NERC to immediately suspend implementation of the February 1st, 2016 tariff hikes, which, according to the upper chambers, is both unnecessary and arbitrary.
The Senate gave the order following a motion sponsored by Suleiman Nafiz (APC-Bauchi North) in which he had asked the house to probe how funds allocated to electricity companies were spent..
“Today, the 8th senate directed the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to immediately suspend the February 1st 2016 tariff hike, which are estimated to be upwards of 40 per cent.
“This move is necessary because any increase in cost, without the necessary improvement in service delivery by the power companies is unacceptable.
“Furthermore, the power distribution companies must work to ensure that every establishment in Nigeria is provided with capabilities for metered billing. Doing so would end the sharp practice of arbitrary billing which estimates the power consumption of Nigerians in the generation of their month bills,” read the Facebook post of the senate president, Bukola Saraki.
According to Saraki, this was part of the senate’s resolution during their plenary today February 16th.
On his part, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, described the tariff raise as “ultra-wicked and unconscionable”.
However, justifying NERC’s stance on the hike, Dr Amadi, Sunday, said that the Senate’s attempt to wade into the matter, “is a direct infringement on the independence of the executive to initiate policies.”
“It is a subtle derogation of the powers of the executive. It offends the concept of separation of power.
“The legislature should not interfere and direct executive action. That is clearly against the law. It is unconstitutional.”
Amadi also explained that the NERC lacks the power to suspend or rescind the tariff order issued by its former Board until a new Board was reconstituted.
“Until a new Commission has been reconstituted to consider whether to review or totally suspend the order, nobody anywhere can validly review or suspend the current tariffs.
“It is not wise for the Senate to instruct NERC to stop the tariff. It will create serious regulatory risks across the market value chain. People will begin to look at it and say there is no independence of the industry regulator,” he said.
Further contributing to the development, Senator Dino Melaye, (APC-Kogi west) noted that the latest increase in electricity tariff was the fourth since the privatisation of power.
“We ask for an immediate reversal of the 40 percent increase in electricity tariff because it is arbitrary,” he said.
Also speaking against the new regime, Ekweremadu said, “As a country on life-support we do not need to add to the suffering of the people. For me this tariff increase is ultra-wicked and unconscionable. We must reverse it immediately.”
