The House of Representatives has promised to intervene over the hike in electricity bill at the University of Jos, Plateau State, which placed the university under Band A.

The Chairman, House Committee on University Education, Abubakar Fulata, said this in a statement on Wednesday after the committee`s oversight visit to the university. .

Mr Fulata said such a hike was unacceptable, promising to work with other relevant House Committees, Ministries, Departments and Agencies and stakeholders to ensure the issue was addressed as soon as possible.

Mr Fulata stressed the need to ensure that federal character principle was adhered to in recruitment in federal universities.

He said that the federal university is not a state-owned institution; hence every state in the country including FCT should be fairly captured.

Mr Fulata said that his committee was determined to do everything within its power to improve the standard of education.

He said the committee was examining how the previous allocations from the federal government, and internally generated revenue were utilised to ensure compliance with the appropriation Act.

Mr Fulata said the committee was aware of the roles of the university council which included, employment, promotion among others, adding that the power of appropriation was vested in the parliament.

He said that irrespective of any law establishing the university, any section that conflicts with any section of the 1999 Constitution would become inferior, null and void.

A member of the committee, Victor Ogene, called on the authorities of the university to judiciously use the available resources allocated to it.

He said that the university like any other government body might not get all that was required in terms of funds, but effective and efficient use of available funds would help a lot.

Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of University of Jos, Prof. Tanko Ishaya, called on the committee to intervene in the disconnection of the school from public electricity by the Jos Electricity Distribution Company.

Mr Ishaya said the entire University of Jos had been plunged into darkness for over a month due to the hike in electricity tariff.

According to him, prior to the grouping of electricity consuming customers which placed the university in Band A, the electricity bill of the school stood at between N20 million and N25 million per month.

He stated, “But with the classification, the bill jumps to between N79 million and N80 million every month which is practically impossible to be paid due to lack of funds.’’

He urged the company to remove the university from Band A, adding that the university management was finding it difficult to pay the regular bill of about N25 million per month.

Mr Ishaya said that the situation worsened after the classification of the electricity users placing the university in Band A.

(NAN)