The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has said he will be more resistant to paying electricity bills if there is no power supply.

He said this at the 12th Monthly Power Sector and Stakeholders’ Meeting in Ibadan on Monday.

Fashola said the destruction of oil assets and facilities had led to the reduction in power generation.

He said, “The 3,500MW to 3,800MW that we have been able to keep on the grid over the last few months will be assisted greatly if we can have the gas pipelines back and add 3,000MW to it. That means we will be able to deliver well over 6,000MW if the gas pipelines are safe.”

Fashola said the sabotage had also created debt and liquidity problems, shortfall in power expectation, as well as revenue.

“Consumers are more resistant to payment when they don’t have electricity, and I will be, too, and you will be too,” Fashola said.

“We see that they (consumers) pay more when the power is more stable. Of course, there are issues also at the retail end – metering, estimated bills.”

He added, “You will see that government has begun to act. The Vice President, representing the President, is going round those Niger Delta communities, engaging them more openly, more robustly.

“The idea is to bring them to the table to stop the vandalism while the issues that agitate them can be treated and resolved. I believe that if we are successful as we expect to be, we should be able to, sometimes, this year recover all the 3,000MW that has been lost to gas pipeline outages.”

Azeez