OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Six electricity distribution companies or DisCos have withdrawn their petitions against the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, in the ongoing license withdrawal battle.
In a tweet by the regulator on Monday, NERC said public hearings for the DisCos earlier scheduled to begin from Wednesday will no longer hold as the six affected companies have all withdrawn their petitions to challenge the NERC plan to withdraw their licenses.
The affected companies are Abuja Electricity Distribution Company Plc, AEDC; Benin Electricity Distribution Company Plc, BEDC; Ikeja Electric Plc, IE; Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, KAEDCO; Kano Electricity Distribution Company Plc, KEDCO; and Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company Plc, PHEDC. Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc, which also petitioned against the plan was yet to withdraw its petition.
NERC had last month accused the DisCos of breach of contract of the provisions of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, EPSRA terms and conditions of their respective distribution licenses and the 2016-2018 Minor Review of Multi-Year Order, MYTO and Minimum Remittance Order for the Year 2019, threatening to withdraw their licenses.
Following the threat which NERC said would take effect if they failed to show cause in writing within 60 days from the date of the receipt of the cancelation notices as to why their licenses should not be canceled, seven DisCos except Yola DisCo filed petitions, after which NERC said it would give them fair hearing.
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The Commission said last Thursday, that it received petitions from the seven DisCos challenging the minor review and minimum remittance order in pursuant to section 50 of the EPSRA and the NERC business rules of the commission (regulations 2006).
NERC had said all petitions would be heard over a period of four days, starting from 6th-8th November in Abuja.
With the new development, however, the Commission said the public hearings would no longer hold ad scheduled.
NERC is yet to announce date for hearing the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc since it is the only DisCo yet to withdraw its petition.