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No Power, Petrol Price Hikes Till After Elections

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Nigerians should be ready for hike in power and petrol prices immediately after the 2019 general elections, economists and investors in the power and petroleum sectors have warned.

In a chat with New Telegraph in Lagos, they insisted that the expedient hike in prices of electric power and Premium Motor Spirit (PMS); two utility products in Nigeria, will wait till immediately after the general elections.

Speaking with this newspaper last night, CEO of Financial Derivatives, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, a frontline economist, said nothing would happen on both power tariff and petrol price until after the election.

“Nothing will happen until the government gets another four-year mandate. If they do now, they will lose and that will not be a wise decision,” he said.

Similarly, Managing Director, Cowry Asset Management, Mr. Johnson Chukwu and investors in the 11 distribution companies, said that no party or individual that emerges winner in the election will sustain the energy tariff and oil subsidy burden.

The All Progressives Party (APC)-led Federal Government, New Telegraph gathered last weekend, foreclosed the processes it started to make the current prices of these two products competitive basically because of the effects it could have on voting pattern during the forthcoming general elections.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) incurs about N774 million daily under-recoveries to subsidise the N145 per litre pump price of petrol across the country.

Chukwu told this newspaper that the “government is absorbing the shock presently, which is inevitable, but at the long run, any government that comes in after the election will definitely review the prices.”

Specifically, he said: “Immediately after the election, whoever wins will not sustain the energy tariff and oil subsidy.

“Even if the government increase tariff today, the power generation will not change overnight, it will only enable operators to raise funds to strengthen their networks.”

Besides, he noted that the reality of the matter was that no government will inflict hardship on the masses prior to an election.

“So they are actually not willing to say that they want to increase tariffs or drop subsidy on oil before the general elections.

“They will be going for votes in the next six months to seek for mandate and there is no reason for any government to want to increase any tariff few months to the national election. It doesn’t happen anywhere in the world.

For me, it is a known fact that government will not increase the tariff. The government is currently absorbing the loss in terms of price difference between boarding price of petroleum product and the pump price,” he said.

Blaming the current woes in the power sector on the government’s inability to effect a cost-reflective tariff for power, investors in the 11 DISCOS in the country, said through their Director, Research and Advocacy, Association of Electricity Distributors (ANED), Sunday Oduntan, that the government can’t raise power tariff.

“They (the government) can’t do that until after the elections. They just cannot do that because it will be politically unwise. You know, there are problems,” he said, but refused to be specific.

He described the government’s inaction to raise the power tariff as “illegal.”

Besides, he insisted that actions and inactions of the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, on the tariff and relationship with shareholders should be checked if the country is ready to be out of the power crisis.

The minister’s relationship with stakeholders, he said, is headmaster/pupils rapport, as such, “gives no room for sincere collaboration.”

“Under the watch of Mr. Fashola as the minister, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has conducted no minor review of the Multi-Year Tariff in violation of the law. This has worsened the under recovery in the entire value chain far above N1.1 trillion,” he said.

Stating that the DISCOs are battling with dire economic situation foisted on them by the lack of cost-reflective tariff, Oduntan maintained that only one of the DISCOs had foreign direct investment as at the time the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN’s) assets were sold to them. Others procured the assets with facilities from the Nigerian banks.

Meanwhile, International Oil Companies (IOCs) in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry have commissioned studies on feasibility of violence during the 2019 general elections with focus on protection of over 1.2 million barrels of equity crude they produce daily in the country.

This move, investigations by this newspaper showed, has led most of the oil producers into talks with foreign and local safety and security consultants as the polls draw nearer.

Describing this move as a normal routine by “multi-national business concerns”, a management staff of one of the IOCs who confirmed this development to this newspaper, maintained that the consultants are being charged to beam searchlight on areas such as the oil-rich Niger Delta where over 2 million barrels of oil are being produced jointly by the IOCs, NNPC and the indigenous oil companies.

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FAAN shuts KFC outlet that humiliated Gbenga Daniel’s wheelchair-bound son

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The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has shut down a KFC outlet at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

This move came less than a day after the airport branch of the fast-food restaurant allegedly humiliated a wheelchair user, Adebola Daniel, the son of former Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel.

Sharing his experience, on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, Daniel said he was “made to feel “less than human” because of his disability.

He said while passing the time alongside his wife and siblings, at the restaurant ahead of his flight, a manager of the restaurant told him to leave the premises because “No wheelchairs allowed.”

“To be disabled in Nigeria is to be undesirable, unwelcome and unaccepted. As I’ve said before, it’s a lonely, scary and isolated place. Never has this been more true than it has ever been today where I faced the worst sort of public humiliation that I have ever experienced. To think that this happened at an international brand, KFC at an international airport – Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos – is unthinkable,” he said.

Reacting, the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, announced in a statement on Thursday, March 28, 2024, that the restaurant has been shut down.

According to the statement signed by Obiageli Orah, the law clearly states, “A person shall not deprive another person of access to any place, vehicle, or facility that members of the public are entitled to enter or use on the basis of the disability of that person.” This legislation underscores the seriousness with which the Nigerian authorities view discrimination, particularly in spaces accessible to the public.

The incident came to light after a Passenger with Reduced Mobility (PRM) reported on social media the unfair treatment they encountered at the KFC outlet within the airport premises.

Reacting to these allegations, FAAN’s MD/CE, Olubunmi Kuku assembled a team to investigate the claims. The team included other officials of the agency such as the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Obiageli Orah, and the Regional Manager South West, Sunday Ayodele, among others.

Following the investigation, FAAN said the allegations were confirmed to be true and proceeded to close the KFC facility implicated in the discriminatory act.

As part of the corrective measures, KFC management has been instructed to issue a written apology to the affected individual and to publicly display a policy statement of non-discrimination at their facility.

This statement must be visibly placed at the entrance of the KFC outlet at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport before the establishment is allowed to resume operations.

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FCT court discharges, acquits Adoke in OPL 245 trial

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Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the FCT high court has dismissed the charges of fraud, bribery and conspiracy filed against Mohammed Bello Adoke, former attorney-general of the federation, by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Ruling on the “no case” submission made by Adoke, Kutigi said the EFCC failed to prove its charges of fraud, bribery and money laundering and ruled that the defendant has no case to answer.

He discharged and acquitted the former minister on all counts.

The judge said the allegation of illegal tax waivers granted to Shell and Eni was not corroborated by the Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS) or any authority in government.

On the alleged N300 million bribe said to have been given to Adoke by Abubakar, the court ruled that the EFCC did not provide any evidence to prove its case.

Nigeria has now lost virtually all the cases it filed or joined in Italy, the UK and Nigeria.

This is expected to finally bring litigation over the OPL 245 saga to a close.

The EFCC had earlier conceded that it did not have sufficient evidence to oppose the applications by Adoke, who was listed as first defendant, and others — although it insisted that Rasky Gbinigie had a case to answer over the alleged forgery of company documents to remove the name of Mohammed Abacha as a director.

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DHQ declares eight wanted over murder of army personnel in Delta

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The Defence Headquarters has declared eight persons wanted in connection to the killing of army personnel in Okuama community, Delta state.

The 17 army personnel were killed on March 14 during an operation in the community.

DHQ named those declared wanted as Akeywiru Omotegbono, Ekpekpo Arthur, Andaowei Bakrikri, Igoli Ebi, Akata David, Sinclear Oliki, Clement Oghenerukevwe and Reuben Baru.

The names of the deceased soldiers are A.H Ali, D.E Obi, S.D. Ashafa, U. Zakari, , Yahaya Saidu, Danbaba Yahaya, Kabir Bashir, Abdullahi Ibrahim, Bulus Haruna, Sole Opeyemi, Bello Anas, Alhaji Isah, Clement Francis, Abubakar Ali, Adamu Ibrahim, Hamman Peter, and Ibrahim Adamu.

After the killing of the army personnel, President Bola Tinubu and the military high command promised that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.

On Wednesday, the personnel were buried at the military cemetery in Abuja and were posthumously conferred with national honours by President Tinubu.

The president also offered scholarships to children of the late officers.

Speaking during the burial ceremony of the late personnel at the military cemetery in Abuja, Taoreed Lagbaja, chief of army staff (COAS), said it was “highly demoralising” that the soldiers were killed by those they were equipped to protect.

The army chief added that it took over 72 hours of searching to recover the vital organs of some of the deceased soldiers.

He added that the Nigerian Army exercised “a lot of restraint” in the search for missing arms and body parts of the deceased soldiers.

The army chief also said some of the widows of the slain officers are pregnant.

“The Okuama killing has added to the care of the Nigerian Army and, by extension, the Nigerian state, 10 widows, three of whom are four, five, and eight months pregnant, 21 orphans, and many other dependents, which include parents,” Lagbaja said.

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Bodex F. Hungbo, SPMIIM is a multiple award-winning Nigerian Digital Media Practitioner, Digital Strategist, PR consultant, Brand and Event Expert, Tv Presenter, Tier-A Blogger/Influencer, and a top cobbler in Nigeria.

She has widespread experiences across different professions and skills, which includes experiences in; Marketing, Media, Broadcasting, Brand and Event Management, Administration and Management with prior stints at MTN, NAPIMS-NNPC, GLOBAL FLEET OIL AND GAS, LTV, Silverbird and a host of others

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