NERC fails to halt proceedings in suit against electricity tariff hike

JUSTICE Mohammed Idris of a Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday struck out an application by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) seeking to stay further proceedings in the electricity tariff case.

A lawyer and rights activist, Toluwani Yemi Adebiyi, had filed the action against increment in the electricity tariff approved by NERC.

NERC is asking the court to stay proceedings until its appeal against two previous rulings delivered by the judge is heard and determined by the Appeal Court.
Justice Idris had in one of the rulings barred NERC from implementing any upward review in electricity tariff pending the hearing and determination of the suit. The other ruling has to do with the dismissal of NERC’s preliminary objections to the suit.

While dismissing the application for stay of proceedings for lacking in merit, Justice Idris held that contrary to the claims of the applicant, there were no indication that the appeal was listed for hearing at the Appeal Court.

The judge said: “It is clear that the applicant has an application before the court seeking for an extension of time to compile and transmit its record at the Appeal Court.
“There is also another motion for leave to rely on the same record of appeal in this present appeal. However, there is no indication that the application has been listed on the cause list or that it had been heard or adjourned for hearing.
“In the circumstance, this court cannot grant a stay of proceedings on an incompetent appeal which is awaiting regularisation at the Appeal Court. The application lacks merit and is dismissed accordingly.”

The court also awarded a cost of N10,000 in favour of the plaintiff.

After the ruling, there were arguments among parties in the matter as to which application should be taken first by the court.
The plaintiff, Adebiyi, in his submissions, insisted that the ruling of the court has cleared the way for the hearing of his motion for contempt.

But the defendants’ counsel, Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN), wanted the court to hear the substantive matter.
According to Idigbe, the plaintiff has not met any of the conditions prescribed by the law for his contempt charge to be heard by the court.

In a short ruling on the matter, Justice Idris held that even though contempt charge affects the integrity of the court, it will be in the interest of justice if all applications challenging the contempt proceedings are heard first.
Idigbe, then moved his application challenging the filing of forms 48 and 49 by the plaintiff. He urged the court to dismiss the application for not following due process of law.

The plaintiff, however urged the court to dismiss all objections to the contempt charge and commit the NERC Chairman and the CEOs of the Distribution Companies (Discos) to prison for desecrating the judiciary.