Nigerian government reduce electricity tariffs by half

The Nigerian government has announced a reduction in electricity tariffs by half.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on Wednesday announced the immediate review of electricity tariffs by about 50 per cent.
The Chairman of the Commission, Sam Amadi, who announced the review in Abuja, said the reduction, which takes effect from the end of March, followed the regulatory agency’s decision to remove collection losses from customer tariff under the multi-year tariff order.
Mr. Amadi said following the approval of the multi-year tariff order, MYTO 2.1 in January 1, 2015, the Commission had received several complaints and petitions against the decision, which resulted in astronomical increases in tariff across the different consumer categories.
He noted particularly the petition by industrial and commercial consumers under the auspices of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, which demanded a drastic reduction of their tariffs.
The two categories of consumers had cited the negative impact of their increased tariffs, which they said were threatening their businesses, leading to massive job losses.
Following the review of the petitions, Mr. Amadi said the Commission conducted public hearings to gather evidence from all consumer classes on the affordability of the new tariff.
Again, he said the Commission had consulted with the Chief Executive Officers of the Distribution Companies before deciding to intervene by reviewing the tariffs.
Besides, the Chairman said the Commission also decided to review the technical and financial assumptions of multi-year tariff order 2.1.
The reviews, he noted, were in line with the provisions of the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act 2005 and the Business Rules of the Commission’s mandate, which allow such a decision on a petition by an interested party within 60 days.
He said findings from the various reviews showed that the major cause of the spiralling consumer tariffs was the huge aggregate technical commercial and collection losses.
Some distribution companies have complained that the collection losses, which are passed to consumers, raised the final tariffs by as much as an average of 80 and 103 per cent.
“The Commission has been listening to consumers’ complaints and taking full account of the impact of the high tariff on consumers and the Nigerian economy,” Mr. Amadi said.
“Therefore, the Commission has reviewed the basis of the MYTO 2.1 assumptions and has determined that it is inappropriate to transfer to consumers collection losses that are controllable by the DISCOs (distribution companies),” he announced.

APC Topshot Shot by Gunmen At a Rally In Osun

An ardent supporter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Agunbiade Bukola, was shot by gunmen this weekend during its campaign rally at Ilase in Obokun Local Government Area of Osun State. The victim, we gathered, is currently on a danger list at the Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa.
Daily Sun also gathered that the attack was reportedly carried out by members of the opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), when APC organized a campaign rally in Ilase and Ibokun towns to be attended by Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
An eyewitness account also revealed that Aregbesola and his entourage had gone to pay homage to the Ilase monarch when the crisis started, adding that several APC members were also injured, while posters of contestants, APC flags and the podium on which the governor was to address the gathering were also damaged.
Addressing a press conference in the aftermath of the crisis on Sunday, APC leader in Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency, Mrs Dupe-Ajayi Gbadebo told journalists that the attack was carried out on the order of the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party for Osun East Senatorial seat, Prince Francis Fadahunsi.
The APC chieftain, however, disclosed that members of the party (APC) had been able to identify the attackers and gave their names as Oguntade Blessing, Semiu Lamidi, Abiodun Fayawo and one Kazeem.
Mrs Gbadebo also said that during the attack, hoodlums reportedly shot into the air sporadically to scare the waiting APC crowd before freely destroying the flags, posters and the campaign podium.
In the melee, she added, people had to scamper to safety as the PDP thugs had a field day unleashing mayhem on innocent people.
According to her, the APC had petitioned the Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Morafa. The petitioned signed by its lawyer, Barrister Abdul Rasaq Adeoye, urged the police to investigate the matter.
She added: “We had set up our beautifully decorated podium for the campaign and we had moved to the streets to welcome the governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, when the PDP thugs stormed the venue, shot our members and disrupted the event. The thugs were sponsored by Prince Francis Fadahunsi who wants to be a senator by all means.”: “Prince Fadahunsi had earlier issued an ultimatum to our people that anybody that would not vote for him must vacate this town. We need protection and that is why we are calling on the police and other security agencies to do their job,” she added.
However, Prince Fadahunsi has debunked the allegation and accused APC thugs of using the covering of the governor to unleash violence on PDP members in the area.
Fadahunsi who spoke through his campaign organization spokesman, Mr. Sola Olowoye, insisted that he did not sponsor the attack on APC members. He added that the APC was rather seeking to cause trouble in the town because they are aware that their party is not popular in the area.

Confession Time: Tinubu Helped Make Jonathan President In 2011

A frontline leader, who is also the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, at the weekend confessed he betrayed his own candidate for President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 presidential contest.
In that contest, Mr. Jonathan was in competition with General Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Political Change, but also with Nuhu Ribadu, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, who was the flagbearer of Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
Curiously, while the candidates of the ACN did very well in the legislative and gubernatorial elections, Ribadu was trounced in all but one of the ACN States by Mr. Jonathan.  Observers have always suspected that Tinubu, who was known to have flown to Abuja to meet with the president just before the election, was bought off to give victory to Jonathan in the area.
Speaking at Onikan Stadium during an Ndigbo APC governorship rally on Saturday, Tinubu appeared to confirm those suspicions.
"In 2011, I helped Jonathan become President because he made us believe he was a breath of fresh air,” the APC boss said.  “I didn't say because he was from Bayelsa that I would not help him. We voted for him because he promised to make our lives better. But now, he has failed us."
In the speech, Tinubu appeared to have forgotten he did not belong to Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party in 2011, and that he had a candidate in the race that was not told ACN was voting for Jonathan. Ribadu campaigned on the ACN platform until the end.
On Saturday, Tinubu urged the Igbo in Lagos not to permit the politics of tribe and religion to influence their vote, and that they should support the APC so as to continue to reap the dividends of democracy.
"Igbo have lived here for years, and nobody has discriminated against them,” he said.  “No one would fight them because they are based in their land. No one can determine the tribe or family where he is born; it is only God that can do

Soyinka Pulls Out Of “Anti-Terror” Rally In Lagos

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has pulled out of a rally in Lagos featuring President Goodluck Jonathan and planned by one of Nigeria’s prominent activists, Joe Okei-Odumakin, who runs the non-governmental organization, Women Arise. The rally, which is scheduled to start today at 9:30 a.m. has been tagged an anti-terror event.  But in a brief interview with a correspondent of SaharaReporters this evening, Professor Soyinka said he decided to pull out of the rally because things did not seem as they initially appeared when he first agreed to join the rally.
In a related development, Afrobeat musician, Seun Kuti, told SaharaReporters that he had initially agreed to join the “walk against terror” because he was told that the event was a “non-partisan” action against terrorism. Asked if he would still perform at the event tomorrow, Mr. Kuti, who is one of the sons of the late Afrobeat maestro Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, told SaharaReporters that he was not sure anymore if the rally would be interpreted as a political endorsement for President Jonathan.
Mr. Jonathan has reportedly arrived in Lagos to lead the rally, a Presidency source told our correspondent.
Described as “a non-partisan, citizen-based national rally against terror,” the event is scheduled to hold at the cricket pitch of the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos.
A source close to Professor Soyinka stated that the Nobel laureate was already preparing his presentation at tomorrow’s rally when word reached him that President Jonathan’s associates were behind a disruptive protest rally held in Lagos earlier yesterday and organized by the national coordinator of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Gani Adams. OPC members wielded guns, machetes and spears as they terrorized the city and its residents. Our reporters said the OPC thugs assaulted people, tore down APC campaign posters, and destroyed vehicles and other property.
The Nobel laureate declined to state whether his decision to pull out of tomorrow’s event stemmed from today’s violent action by the OPC, which paralyzed parts of Lagos.

SOURCE: Saharareporters

OPC, SURE-P, Jonathan Campaigners Lead Lagos Anti-Jega Protest

The Oodua Peoples Congress and the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation in Lagos on Monday morning led other protesters to storm the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, demanding the sacking of the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, before the March 28 elections.
The bus of the campaign group and the members of the OPC, who massed at the 7UP/Toll Gate end of the expressway, led the protesters, who were chanting anti-Jega songs, giving reasons why Jega should be sacked.
The OPC members carried guns, cutlasses, pocket knifes among other weapons, occupying one end of the busy highway while some members of the groups harassed some motorists and passers-by plying the road.
Some people, who were clad in black vest, said to be beneficiaries of the SURE-P, also constituted a sizable portion of the protesters.
Heavy traffic built up along the highway as the protesters, who were well protected by heavy police presence, took over one part of the road, grounding movement of other road users.
The protesters took time to distribute leaflets containing seven reasons why the INEC boss should be sacked.
The leaflet also contained what the OPC described as the achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan and why the President should be re-elected.
The protesters are said to be on their way to the National Stadium, Surulere, through the Ikorodu Road, where they will hold a rally.
The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra on Friday protested in Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, among other locations in the South-East, calling for the immediate removal of Jega.
On Sunday, the All Progressives Congress alleged that it had uncovered a plot by its Peoples Democratic Party counterpart to fund ethnic militias to protest and demand Jega’s sacking.
It added that such ethnic militias included the OPC.

SOURCE: THE PUNCH

INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega clears air on forthcoming election issues

Prof. Attahiru Jega in a town hall meeting that ended a few minute ago clears the air on some of the issues bothering on election. He said the card readers are necessary for the elections ahead "If we do not use the card readers, we will lose in many fundamental respects," and only people with permanent voter cards will be allowed to vote. He said the Temporary Voters Cards can no longer be use due to those who register more than once in 2011 that have been removed from the commission database.  Card readers will be configured according to polling units. You can only vote where you registered, Many Nigerians who participated in the card reader test have expressed satisfaction with the use of the card readers, We have done quality assurances field tests that assure us the card readers will work well, he stated further that No material related to the 2015 general elections were destroyed at the INEC institute that gutted fire last night between 11pm to 2am. Jega says he was shocked to see some Governors on TV misinforming people on card readers. "As I speak with you today, we are adequately prepared to conduct free, fair, and credible elections.
He reaffirmed his stand that "No soldiers or armed police will be at the polling units. Armed police will only be at 300 metres away from the polling unit in order to make sure troublemakers are dealt with.
 On his removal or resignation rumour, he said  "I think at this time it would be a disservice to this country to say I am resigning". There has been speculation about my removal,as far as I'm concerned I have a job to do and have no reason to resign". He said himself and other REC commissioners are focus on the success of this election process at hand and have done everything humanly possible to ensure free, fair, & peaceful elections.

INEC chairman, Prof Jega explain the usefulness of card readers

The INEC chairman cleared the air on some of the issues related to the postponed forthcoming election. He said card readers will be use for accreditation and not election as been peddle around in some quarters. He proceed further that the fire that gut the INEC institute started about 11pm on sunday and was put off around 2am, but did not affect any of the materials to be use for the 2015 elections because all 2015 materials have been dispatched to where they are needed.