The electricity bill for the University of Jos has risen from between N20 and N30 million to N80 million, following the recent hike in electricity tariffs, particularly for consumers on Band A.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Tanko Ishaya, disclosed this on Tuesday, when members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the institution, led a peaceful protest to his office.
Ishaya, who described the monthly allocation for the university as grossly inadequate, said that the management of Jos Electricity Distribution (JED), Plc, had threatened to disconnect the university from power source.
”We budgeted between N20 to N30 million monthly for our electricity bill, but with the new tariff, JED gave us a bill of N80 million for the month of April.
”Unfortunately, our monthly overhead is just N14 million and we recently increased students charges to cover these essential services.
”But we can’t cope with this development and JEDC is already threatening to disconnect the university from power source,”he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that ASUU members in the university had organised the peaceful protest over the non-implementation of agreements reached with the Federal Government over the years.
Prof. Jurbe Molwus, Chairperson of ASUU in the university, represented by his vice, Prof. Kiri Jaryum, presented the union’s charter of demands to the vice chancellor.
Molwus said that the protest was in line with the directive of its National Executive Council (NEC).
