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Blackout throughout the entire campus
- IBEDC disconnected the University on 5th January 2021
- Electricity bills disputed
The entire campus of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) has been disconnected from electricity supply by Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC). The disconnection occurred on the 5th of January following a dispute over what the OAU says is an unjust increment in the electricity tariff.
OAU has accused IBEDC of unjustly increasing bills for the months of October and December 2020. IBEDC has denied this allegation stating the bill was in line with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (NERC) approved tariff template.
IBEDC said in line with the new Service Reflective Tariff (SRT) a bill of ₦44,243,136.02 was issued to the university for the month of October. The institution, however, only paid ₦25 million, leaving a balance of ₦19 million. In December, the University was also billed ₦56,350,743.20. The IBEDC spokesperson, Busolami Tunwase, alleges that the university owes the company a total of ₦43 million.
The Vice-Chancellor, OAU has rejected the new bills calling them unaffordable for the institution. In a telephone interview with the Punch, the VC said, “the last bill they brought was ₦56 million and students are not on campus. Imagine if students were to be on the campus, then we would be paying far above ₦100 million per month. The overhead for the whole year in our budget is less than ₦100 million. Not one month, but for the whole year”.