With the increment, this disparity will not only be substantial, it will kill Nigerians and their businesses. The saddest part of it all is that there is no co-relation between the quality of service delivery and this tariff.

“The point must also be made that the immediate past government in its twilight approved a whopping N18.26 billion for these companies to boost electricity supply. Yet there is nothing to show for it. A privatised sector that continues to parasite on government with insignificant benefit to Nigerians is at best a leech on our economy and should be interrogated.

We would want to make the point that this tariff increase is only intended to protect the investment of a select few and not to serve the interest of other Nigerians. In light of all of the above, this increase is illegal, unfair, unjustifiable and a further exploitation of the already exploited Nigerians”, labour said. The NLC, Trade Union Congress (TUC) and other stakeholders, including the Electricity Consumer Protection Forum, had earlier condemned the plan to increase electricity tariff and rejected in totality the proposed increment.

To this end, they demanded an immediate suspension of the proposed increment and warned of the dire consequences if it is implemented.

The joint forum threatened to mobilise all Nigerians to vehemently resist the new tariff and will shut down all Generation and Distribution Companies offices across the country.

Yemi-Adebiyi, a legal representative in his remarks said until Nigerian are provided with metres within the 18 months’ time frame, any increase would be illegal.

He stated that it was the injunction that compelled NERC to back down from increasing the tariff in June 2015.

He also pledged his support for organised labour to resist any tariff increase until the NERC, Gencos. and the Discos do the right thing.

Also speaking, Adeola Samuel-Ilori, the Consumer Protection Forum Coordinator, said that the organisation had engaged distribution companies several times on the issue of estimated billing without result.

Samuel-Ilori said it was regrettable that estimated billing was passed by the National Assembly and it has become statutory.

He however said that if the DISCOs were able to meter all Nigerians within the 18 months gestation period, the problem of estimation billing would have long been solved.

On its part, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) had last year instituted a case in the court and secured an injunction that disallowed the Discos from increasing electricity tariffs of its members.

The President of MAN, Franks Jacob said the proposed increase would not be for the members of the association.

“The increase I believe would have nothing to do with our members, if not that means those responsible can be charged with contempt of court.

“Besides we have instructed our members to pay only the old tariff until the case was concluded in the court, because the increase right now is illegal and we are not going to support it in any way”, he said.

Jacob said the initial agreement on MYTO 2.0 was still in operation and would only expire in 2017, wondering why NERC and the Discos should come up with the MYTO 2.1.

He said, “MAN is in court with NERC and the DISCOS on their contentious bills and has obtained an injunction restraining them from applying such charges or disconnecting members who refused to pay at the MYTO 2.1 rate.

However, unlike the organised labour which has decided to picket as well as charge NERC and the Discos for contempt of court, MAN said it met with NERC last week to seek a way out of the logjam.