President Bola Tinubu has signed the 2023 Electricity Bill that will guide the post-privatization phase of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) as well as encourage States, and private companies to generate electricity.

Recall that in July 2022, lawmakers passed the electricity act which will replace the Electricity and Power Sector Reform Act of 2005, according to the president on Friday in Abuja.

The president revealed that the aim of the act is to create a comprehensive legal and institutional framework to guide the NESI and consolidates all legislations dealing with the electricity supply industry to provide an ideal Institutional framework.

Also, to ensure the de-monopolization of Nigeria’s electricity generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity at the National level thereby empowering states, companies and individuals to generate, transmit and distribute electricity.

The Act mandates the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) with the power to regulate the electricity sector within Nigeria without bias to the powers of the states to make laws and create electricity markets within the state.

NERC is embedded with the authority to change regulatory responsibilities from itself to state regulators when they are established, which implies that until a state has passed its electricity market laws, NERC will continue to regulate electricity business exclusively carried out in those states.

Currently, Lagos, Edo, and Kaduna states already have electricity market laws and can start regulating their market, while states without such laws will be regulated by NERC.

Issuance of licenses by states to private investors who can operate mini-grids and power plants within the state is permitted by the act, however, the act prevents interstate and transnational electricity distribution.

Electricity generation licensees are obligated to meet renewable generation obligations as may be prescribed by NERC. Under the Act.

Three ad-hoc presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, testified against the electoral umpire and President Bola Tinubu on Friday, saying despite being trained before the 2023 polls, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machine failed to transmit the scanned result sheet of the presidential election.

They were presented by the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate Atiku Abubakar.

At the resumed sitting on Friday, PDP counsel, Chris Uche SAN, told the court that he would continue his case by calling his next subpoenaed witness (PW14) to give evidence.

Grace Ajagbonna, a resident of Egbe, Yagba West LGA, Kogi State, and an ex-National Youth Service Corps member, appeared as the subpoenaed witness.

Tinubu’s lawyer, Akin Olujimi SAN, rose up to restate his objection with regards to the subpoenaed witnesses being presented by the PDP.

APC counsel, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, as well as INEC lawyer, A.B Mahmoud SAN, equally raised objections, asking the court not to take the witnesses’ testimonies.

But Uche urged the court to dismiss the objections in its entirety.

“Ruling on the objection will be delivered along with the judgment,” chairman of the five-man panel of the PEPC, Justice Haruna Tsammani, said.

After that, Grace adopted her witness statement on oath, saying she was engaged by INEC to work as an ad-hoc presiding officer during the 2023 election.

She also presented the letter of acknowledgement from INEC wherein she was deployed to serve as an ad-hoc staff.

Mahmoud asked her if she played her role well and if the electoral process was successful.

She responded in the affirmative but said when she tried sending the National Assembly and Presidential election scanned results, the latter failed to transmit.

“I tried it Continuously. I was repeating it one after the other and it was not going,” the witness said.

She was asked if she was trained on the offline operations of the BVAS.

The witness said she does not remember but was only taught by INEC to use the BVAS to scan results, transmit and then proceed to the collation centre.

She went on to tell the court that she was unhappy when the BVAS machine could not send the presidential results sheets at the polling unit.

“My lord to be sincere, I am not happy that I was unable to transmit the (presidential) election results,” the witness said.

Tinubu’s lawyer, Yusuf Ali SAN, asked her whether she mentioned the name of her training officer.

The witness responded in the negative.

She was told by Ali that the acknowledgement letter she got from INEC did not automatically make her an ad-hoc staff member.

But the witness replied, saying she also has an appointment letter from INEC.

Under cross examination by APC counsel, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, the witness said after the conclusion of her assignment on election day, she wrote a report.

After her, another INEC ad-hoc presiding officer, Abidemi Joseph, announced her appearance saying she served in Niger State.

The same questions asked to the first witness were repeated, of which she insisted the election results could not be transmitted by the BVAS.

Edosa Obosa, an ex-NYSC corps member and presiding officer in Edo State came up to say she tried to upload the scanned result using a BVAS machine but it failed.

But the witnesses all admitted that they submitted the original result sheet, signed by party agents to the Ward collation centre.

The witness was subsequently discharged from the testimony dock and the PDP petition was adjourned to Saturday.

Recall that on Thursday, the PDP fielded two ad-hoc staff who stated the BVAS could not transmit the Presidential election result sheet.

Atiku is contesting the 2023 presidential election results declared in favor of Tinubu.

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Femi Fani-Kayode, has raised the alarm over an alleged invasion of the home of the immediate past governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle by police officers.

Fani-Kayode claimed that policemen invaded Matawalle’s residence in search of cars without an arrest warrant.

Speaking against such act, the former Aviation Minister said it was vindictive for Matawalle’s successor to allegedly send the officers on such an assignment.

He said this while sharing photographs of the invasion on his Twitter account.

According to Fani-Kayode, “This morning a detachment of policemen raided the home of my brother, the former Gov. of Zamfara state, Bello Matawalle in Maradun. They claimed to be looking for cars.

“They did not have a search or arrest warrant and they claimed to be acting on the orders of the new Governor. This is unacceptable. It is not only vindictive but also lawless and it stands condemned.”

This morning a detachment of policemen raided the home of my brother, the former Gov. of Zamfara state, Bello Matawalle in Maradun. They claimed to be looking for cars. They did not have a search or arrest warrant or court order and they claimed to be acting on the orders of the… pic.twitter.com/TqskbmKkKH

— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) June 9, 2023

The remains of High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, the Founder of DAAR Communications, would be buried on 22nd June, 2023 at his residence in Agenebode, Edo State.

This was disclosed by the Dokpesi family of Agenebode, according to the burial arrangements released by the Dokpesi family of Agenebode.

Dokpesi, the owner of AIT and Ray Power FM radio, died on May 29, 2023.

The family released that the funeral activities will commence on 19th June, 2023 with a day of tributes, to take place at the prestigious International Conference Centre in Abuja at 4:00 pm.

In the statement, dignitaries, friends, and well-wishers are invited to pay their respects and honour the memory of the late DAAR Communication founder, Raymond Dokpesi.

On the following day, the 20th June, a requiem mass will be held at the Church of the Assumption in Abuja at 12 noon.

The religious service will be a solemn occasion to celebrate the life and legacy of the esteemed entrepreneur.

After the requiem mass, a reception will be held at the DAAR Villa, located at 1 Ladi Lawal Drive, Asokoro, Abuja, providing an opportunity for attendees to offer condolences and support to the Dokpesi family.

The funeral procession will then proceed to Agenebode, the ancestral home of the Dokpesi family, on the 21st of June. At 5: 00 pm, a Liturgy of Songs will be conducted at Ezomo’s Residence in Agenebode, allowing the local community to pay their final respects to the late Chief Dokpesi.

The main funeral events will take place on the 22nd of June. A funeral mass and interment will be held at Ezomo’s Residence in Agenebode, starting at 11:00 am. Family members, friends, and dignitaries will gather to bid farewell to the visionary founder of Daar Communication.

Entertainment for guests will hold after the interment at the Ezomo’s residence in Agenebode and St. Peter’s Secondary School, at 2:00 pm.

And on 24th June, a thanksgiving mass will be held at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Agenebode at 9:00 am.

The church service will be an occasion for gratitude, as the community offers prayers and thanks for the impactful life of the late Daar Communication founder.

National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has warned corps producing institutions against manipulation of data to allow unqualified graduates enrol for service and other unwholesome practices.

The NYSC director-general, Brigadier General Yusha’u Dogara Ahmed gave the warning yesterday during the meeting of NYSC Management with the Registrars of Corps Producing Institutions in Nigeria, held in Abuja.

He re-echoed the corps strong determination to prevent unqualified graduates from enlistment into national service, while decrying the continuous decline of quality graduates from unaccredited institutions.

Ahmed added that management would deal decisively with any institution or individual found culpable in such acts.

“I have been informed that, since the end of the first meeting with the Registrars in 2022, there has been an appreciable level of implementation of resolutions of Pre-mobilisation Workshops usually attended by Student Affairs Officers (SAOs) and Data Entry Officers (DEOs).

“While I am glad about the positive feedback, more still needs to be done to make the mobilisation process more seamless.

“For instance, the continuous decline of quality of graduates which has largely been attributed to factors such as harvest of graduates from unaccredited institutions, manipulation of data to allow part-time graduates enrol for service and other unwholesome practices leaves much to be desired from the citadels of learning. Management is determined not to take it lightly with institutions or individuals perpetrating these acts intermittently.

“In recent times, the NYSC has consistently harped on appointment of credible Students Affairs Officers (SAOs) and Data Entry Officers (DEOs). In this regard, let me re-echo our call taking cognizance of the fact that no one can guarantee excellent output when the quality of input is not guaranteed,” he said.

The chairman, NYSC National Governing Board, Ambassador Fatima Balla Abubakar, who was represented by a member of the board, Major General BS Adetoro, in her goodwill message enjoined participants at the meeting to critically assess all the steps in the mobilisation process and fashion out a formidable template that will guarantee unassailable mobilisation process.

The director, Corps Mobilisation Department, Hajiya Isa Walida Siddique, enjoined the Registrars to step up their game in the admission of qualified students and their progression till graduation.

The permanent secretary, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Mr Olusade Adesola, who opened the meeting, said the giant strides in the FCT is attributable to the selfless services of corps members deployed to serve within the capital territory.

Concerned Northern Forum, CNF, has called for the arrest and investigation of former Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, over the Nigerian Air scandal.

Chairman of the Forum, Ali Mohammed, who made the call in a statement issued yesterday, said: “The call for the arrest of Hadi Sirika followed the recent revelation by the interim MD of the so called Nigeria Air, Captain Dapo Olumide, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Aviation and said the aircraft used for unveiling of Nigeria Air was rented from Ethiopian Airline.

”No wonder the unveiling was quick, no details were made available, no one has the eyes to say he saw any features of the plane or anything.

“He also said the airline was yet to secure an operating licence for full flight operations, disagreeing with earlier declarations of the former Minister, Hadi Sirika.

“This explains why the minister was so adamant and insisted on going ahead with the unveiling of Nigeria Air, even when there was a court order against that same matter because it’s a half baked project, driven by lies, deception, corruption and personal money benefits to the minister amounting to billions of naira.

“This is deception and breach of trust that should not go un-punished, Hadi Sirika must be brought to face the law.

”It is also a disregard for the rule of law and entire justice system to proceed on matter against the order of a competent court of law.

“The minister has acted with so much impunity on several occasions, as if the law cannot get to him. He has continuously operated as a tyrant, refusing to listen to no one, aviation experts, Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, who advised against this project.

“This national embarrassment and waste of resources incurred on the country could have been averted if he had listened to advice, yet Sirika went ahead knowing it was a charade, to deceive Nigerians.

“The EFCC and other anti graft agencies should as a matter of national urgency, immediately arrest and investigate Sirika as he has been deceiving Nigerians for eight years and now he is lobbying for ministerial appointment.

“We, therefore, caution and kindly call on President Tinubu not to consider him for ministerial position or any appointment in his administration, rather he should be behind bars.”

“The EFCC must not waste any more time in arresting Hadi Sirika along side all his co-perpetrators that took part in deceiving Nigeria, and shaming it before the international community.

”They should be investigated thoroughly, and asked to provide reasonable and acceptable answers with respect to the Nigeria Air project or be made to lay on their bed as they made it.”

There was panic at the Anambra State House of Assembly as four armed men, suspected to be operatives of the Directorate of Security Services (DSS), tried to whisk away member-elect for Nnewi North constituency, Mr Onyekachukwu Ike.

The armed men drove into the Assembly complex in three vehicles and grabbed the member-elect after he participated in a valedictory thanksgiving mass for the seventh Assembly.

They forced the member-elect into their vehicle and were trying to drive out of the Assembly complex when security personnel quickly locked the exit gate.

The Acting Clerk of the Assembly, Mrs Esther Aneto, and other senior staff lamented that the suspected DSS operatives did not inform them or even the Police personnel at the Assembly before trying to whisk Ike away.

One of the suspected DSS operatives, however, explained that they had a court order to arrest the member-elect.

It took the intervention of the Speaker, Dr Uche Okafor, and the Deputy Governor, Dr Onyeka Ibezim, who came to represent the Governor at the Valedictory session of the seventh Assembly, before the member-elect was released.

(NAN)

…As PEPC Reserves Ruling On 12 Questions Obi Asked INEC About BVAS, Others

A software engineer, Anthony Chinwo, appeared before the Presidential Election Petitions Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday and was identified as the second witness fielded by the flagbearer of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, against the Independent National Electoral Commission, President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima and the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Led in evidence by Obi’s legal team, represented by P.I Ekweto SAN, Anthony Chinwo asked the court to adopt his statement on oath.

In his statement on oath before the court, he said from his knowledge of software engineering and computer operations, “the information or data generated/inputted in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System whether operating online or offline were transmitted to the INEC servers, including the virtual server hosted on the Amazon Web Services, AWS, Cloud Platform.”

He also deposed in his statement on oath that the AWS is the world’s most comprehensive platform which enables large enterprises and government agencies to “effectively and in real-time manage data”, thereby disputing the statement by INEC about technical glitches during the presidential election.

Under cross-examination, INEC lawyer, A.B Mahmoud SAN asked him if he was familiar with any of the applications on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.

He responded in the negative but noted that he was familiar with the backend server and INEC Results Viewing Portal, IRev.

The witness was also asked if he believes that the Amazon Web Services, AWS, is the most secure provider of cloud services globally and that INEC engaged it for the purpose of securing the results

The witness agreed that the AWS was secured but explained that “It is not a fair conclusion” to conclude that INEC protected the actual results of the 2023 presidential poll.

“You are not a staff of Amazon?,” Mahmoud asked him.

“No, I am not,” Chinwo replied.

When the turn of Tinubu and Kashim Shettima’s lawyer, Yusuf Ali SAN, came, he asked the witness if he was still standing by his statement on oath.

“They are seventeen paragraphs and I stand by them,” the witness replied.

When pressed further by Ali, the witness agreed that while the election is disputed, it is only INEC that prescribes the procedures for conduct of election in Nigeria.

APC lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, asked Chinwo to tell the court if it was his experience as an architect and software engineer that he used to write his statement on oath.

The witness said he wrote his statement on oath from his knowledge as a software engineer as well as his investigation of the INEC Results Viewing Portal, IRev.

The witness went on to say that he leveraged on the Application Programming Interface, API, to collect and study all the INEC publicly available information on the internet relating to the IRev and the 2023 election.

But Fagbemi asked him why he did not put his profile on oath, to which he replied that it was intentional and for sensitive reasons.

The court subsequently discharged the witness from the testimony dock.

Obi’s lawyer, P.I Ekweto, then adopted his interrogatory application which among other things wants INEC to answer certain relevant questions, including who restored the alleged “technical glitches” the electoral umpire said happened on election day.

He asked the court to grant his application in the interest of justice.

But INEC counsel, Oluwakemi Pinheiro SAN, urged the court to dismiss the application for being a waste of time.

APC’s lawyer, Olanrewaji Akinsola, asked the court to dismiss the application.

Responding, the panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani reserved ruling “for either tomorrow or the next day.”

Part of the question Obi’s team insists INEC must answer border on the technological aspect of the poll.

“What time was the technological glitches fixed and or repaired?

“What was the exact time of the occurrence of the technical glitch which prevented the e-transmission of the results of the Presidential Election on 25th February 2023?,” the application partly reads.

The Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests Association (NCDPA), Kaduna State has written an open letter to the governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani over the controversial viral video by his predecessor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.

The letter, titled: “The Public Declaration of Islamic Political Supremacism by Ex- Governor El-Rufai, Implications on Dialogue and Peace for Your Public Stance” was jointly signed by Rev. Fr Joseph Gandu NCDPA, chairman Kaduna Archdiocese, Very Rev. Fr Douglas Rock, NCDPA chairman Kafanchan Diocese and Very Rev. Fr Samuel Ameh, NCDPA chairman of Zaria Diocese.

They said, “With consternation and utter disillusionment, we watched the now viral videoclip in which the former governor, Nasiru El-Rufai, while addressing a group of Islamic clerics with you sitting by his side, made comments that objectively amount to a divisive, bigoted, hateful and completely unstatesmanlike declaration of Islamic political supremacism in Kaduna State and Nigeria.

“Having soberly considered the contents and implications of such communication by a former State Governor who is known to be your close ally, we feel compelled to write to you, to know where you stand with regards to the commotions Mallam El-Rufai intends to propagate and perpetuate in our State.

“We write to you today because we are responsible stakeholders in the affairs of our beloved State with our own congregations and followers. We cannot fold our hands and watch unpatriotic persons who neither live in the State nor care about it, come and set it ablaze at will. Moreso, we and our congregations have prominently been at the receiving end of the terrors of ineffective governance, especially in the last eight years.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the now-viral video in reference, is that in which ex-Governor El-Rufai among other things, speaking in Hausa language, categorically that most Christians in Kaduna do not vote his party (the APC), hence the reason why he orchestrated their exclusion from being even Deputy Governor.

“Mr. Governor, this, to every discerning mind, is not only the evidence of discrimination and the provocation that most Christian communities and individuals have endured in our State, especially during the reign of former Governor Nasiru El-rufai. It is also an explanation for the many unjust policies of his administration, uneven distribution of State resources, the wanton killings and kidnappings that afflicted the Christian dominated areas, and the nonchalance and sometimes scornful response of the government to the distress calls of victims.

“It is important to call your attention to the fact which we believe you already have details of, that during the pendency of the last administration, our association almost lost count of our members who were steadily being targeted, kidnapped and killed. In most cases, Priests were executed after paying huge sums as ransom.

“This is apart from the several other pastors of other Christian denominations and countless whole Christian communities that are being steadily raided, ransacked, burnt down and their inhabitants either taken for ransom or slaughtered without any of the perpetrators brought to book, nor any support for the survivors from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), or the National Emergency management Agency (NEMA), nor from any other government agency.

“The only response that would usually come their way from the government has been bizarre and inhumane accusations that they provoked their killers, tagging the atrocities as justified revenge killings, with punitive curfews and proscription of socio-cultural and developmental associations of some socio-cultural communities.

“We are fully aware that as guaranteed both by Natural Law and the Nigerian Constitution, Kaduna State and its resources is our common patrimony irrespective of ethnic, cultural or religious diversity and disparity. As such, elements who are notoriously seen to be despotic, divisive, inciting and eminent failures in building peace should be hiding their faces in shame, rather than be publicly seen standing by you and using your religion or party to promote extremist exclusion and anarchy without consequences.

“Our disappointment and shock did not stem only from the utterances of the former governor, but more from the endorsement he received from the audience, made-up of Muslim clerics who excitedly cheered him on. It was more shocking because these are the same clerics with whom we have been in constant dialogue and discussion on how to help entrench harmony, peace and mutual respect for our different faith-persuasions.

“They are the same clerics we have called friends and partners in inter-religious dialogue, and now they seem to stab their friends in the back.

“We expect that you will use your good office to correct the fallacies that the former Governor’s actions and comments have created and propagated, these fallacies are, that: Christians and Muslims in Kaduna State are at war with each other; that your party, the APC, is a party for Muslims, that being a Christian in Kaduna State is a misfortune if not an offense, as religion automatically excludes one from certain State privileges which should be accessible to all citizens”.

Seek Implementation Of Uwais Committee Report

The Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room, a coalition of 70 organizations working to ensure credible elections in the country, on Thursday, asked the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu to apologise to Nigerians over what they described as poor conduct of the 2023 general elections.

The Situation Room, in its final statement on the elections, which it made available to newsmen in Abuja, maintained that the electoral body failed to live up to expectations, despite several assurances from its Chairman.

“Contrary to expectations, the 2023 general election was marred by very poor organization, severe logistical and operational failure, lack of essential electoral transparency, substantial disruption of voting, and several incidents of violence.

“As a result, the process cannot be considered to have been credible. Given the lack of transparency, particularly in the result collation process, there can be no confidence in the results of the election. In addition, there was very poor communication from INEC on challenges with its processes on election day.

“In the light of these shortcomings, the Situation Room believes that additional reforms and improvements are required to ensure that the quality of future elections in Nigeria does not further decline, and that public confidence in the capacity of INEC to conduct elections is restored, while trust in the credibility is re-established.

“As a body, the Situation Room demands that the INEC Chairman should apologize to Nigerians for his failure.”

As part of its recommendations, the CSOs called for an amendment of the Constitution to eliminate the position of Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) under the control and direction of the Commission through the appointments of State Directors of Elections to replace RECs.

“The suggestion by the Justice Uwais Committee for the unbundling of INEC should be considered and implemented without delay. An effective legal framework should be formulated for the establishment of Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal, Political Parties Registration and Regulation Commission, and an agency to handle constituency delimitation.

“Proposed amendments to the Constitution should include issues critical to the inclusiveness of the electoral process, such as endorsement of early voting for election day workers, independent candidacy and voting by Nigerians in Diaspora, in conformity with international principles for democratic elections,” the Situation Room added in the joint statement that was signed by its Convener, Ene Obi and Co-Conveners, Asma’u Joda and James Ugochukwu.