Tinubu To Move Off-Grid Due To Electricity Overbilling At State House

President Bola Tinubu’s official residence at the State House, Abuja, is set to disconnect from the national power grid by March 2026, due to alleged overbilling by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC).

The State House Permanent Secretary, Temitope Fashedemi, disclosed this during a budget defence session before the Senate Committee on Special Duties, chaired by Senator Kaka Lawan.

Fashedemi said a recent testing of the Presidential Villa’s newly completed solar power system uncovered billing irregularities.

According to him, AEDC had been charging for electricity that was never supplied to the presidency.

“What we have discovered in the course of all of this, especially during the testing phase, is that there’s been a lot of overbilling. When we’re testing it, a number of the transformers, we’re seeing that they were billing for electricity not supplied. So we are using that period now to point it out to them and hopefully do some reconciliation about this legacy liability,” he told the senators.

The solar installation, which was completed late 2025, has reportedly been undergoing testing since December.

Fashedemi expressed confidence that the transition to renewable energy would be finalized soon.

“We are hopeful that maybe by March we’ll be able to do a full cutover,” he said.

Fashedemi added that since the State House Medical Centre completed its solar installation in May 2025, the facility has operated without generator support.

“I have to say that since that time, the generator in that State House Medical Centre has not been put on for one minute since May last year. Only a couple of months, we used three per cent from AEDC (Abuja Electricity Distribution Company), so the rest has been strictly from solar and from the battery electric storage system,” Fashedemi stated.

AEDC had listed the Presidential Villa among its top government debtors in February 2024, with outstanding bills of N923.87m. After reconciliation, this was reduced to N342.35m, which President Tinubu ordered to be settled.