The University of Lagos (UNILAG) has been disconnected from electricity supply by the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) over unpaid N200 million debt .
According to a report by the Tribune, the university says it has consistently paid it’s electricity bill on monthly basis up till June this year, expending a total of N1.123 billion in electricity consumption in the last 17 months.
The university’s spokesperson, Nonye Oguama, in the report, says EKEDC, keeps raising the electricity bill each month beyond the means of the university.
The report quoted her saying UNILAG could no longer cope with the high monthly bill when it is not e commercial entity.
UNILAG’s vice chancellor, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, also confirmed the development to Tribune, saying the university from January 2020 to June 2021 has paid N1.123 billion in electricity tariff.
Giving a breakdown of electricity bill paid by the university in the last 17 months, Professor Ogundipe said the “N51 million was paid in January 2020; N50 million in February: N58 million in March and N62 million in April,” of same year.
The amount, he said, dropped to N26 million in May 2020 during the general lock-down due to COVID-19 pandemic and further dropped to N21 million in June, but went up to N24 million in July; N25 million in August and N26 million in September.
“So, in October, when activities started coming up again, we had N56 million bill and it dropped again in November to N29 million before it skyrocketed to N81 million in December when the electricity tariff was increased generally in the country by the power distribution company.
“Since then, [EKEDC] has been bringing huge bill every month; N84 million in January; N79 million in February and it rose to N85 million in March when our students started coming back to hostels; N88 million in April and jumped up to as high as N181 million in May and came down again to N118 million in June,” he said.
“So, in the period covering 17 months, we paid a sum of N1.123 billion on electricity and the amount is just too high for the university to cope with,” Ogundipe stressed, adding that the bills are just too high for the university to maintain.
“Even companies that are making profit cannot find it easy to be coughing up such a huge amount of money for electricity every month”
