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Folarin Kehinde

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FG unveils power sector communications team

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

The Federal Government has inaugurated the Power Sector Communications Team in a bid to enhance transparency and communication within the power sector.

The inauguration ceremony, held at the Power House in Abuja, was presided over by the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who emphasised the importance of effective communication in addressing the sector’s challenges.

This was disclosed in a statement by the Chairman, PSCT Bolaji Tunji, on Wednesday.

In his speech, Chief Adelabu described the PSCT as a “strategic initiative designed to bridge the gap between the power sector and the public.”

He noted that the power sector, which is often misunderstood and fraught with challenges, requires a platform for clear and consistent communication to build trust and confidence.

“The PSCT is more than just a team; it is a commitment to excellence in communication,” the Minister stated.

“We envision a Nigeria where electricity is not just a luxury but a fundamental right. To achieve this, we must work together, and effective communication is key,” he added.

The PSCT, as outlined by Adelabu, will focus on translating complex technical issues into plain language, fostering collaboration among stakeholders, and creating a positive narrative around the power sector.

“I am confident that under the leadership of its dedicated members, the PSCT will excel,” he said, adding, “Together, we will transform the power sector from a source of frustration to a catalyst for national growth.”

The Chairman of the PSCT, Bolaji Tunji, expressed his enthusiasm about the team’s reactivation, noting that while the idea of the PSCT is not new, its revival marks a renewed commitment to addressing communication challenges in the sector.

“It gladdens my heart that the Power Sector Communications Team is being inaugurated today. Our vision is to transform the perception of the power sector by providing consistent, truthful, and insightful information that highlights the ongoing progress and challenges within the sector,” he said.

Tunji highlighted several strategic initiatives that the PSCT will undertake, including a nationwide campaign focused on educating the public on critical power sector issues such as energy theft and vandalisation.

“Our goal is to empower citizens with the knowledge to understand their roles in safeguarding our power infrastructure and to inspire collective action against these harmful practices,” he explained.

The Chairman also stressed the importance of stakeholder engagement, noting that regular dialogues, workshops, and forums will be organised to foster better understanding and cooperation among all players in the power sector value chain.

“This engagement is crucial in ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned in their efforts to provide reliable and affordable electricity to the Nigerian people,” Tunji stated.

In his remarks, Tunji underscored the need for adequate funding and inclusion of the communication team in all relevant activities within the Ministry and its agencies.

“Communication is not just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have for a public utility organisation like ours. I want to appeal to us to commit to communication that is clear, concise, compassionate, and customer-centric,” he added.

The inauguration of the PSCT is seen as a critical step towards improving transparency and building public trust in Nigeria’s power sector.

As the Minister concluded, “By working together, we can create a brighter, more electrified future for Nigeria.”

The coordinator of the Power Sector Communications Team Magdalene Abang, stated that PSCT is committed to fostering a positive narrative around the power sector and building public trust in the government’s efforts to achieve sustainable energy access. 

Abang while appreciating the minister stated that the guidance of the minister has been instrumental to enhancing communication within the sector and promote public understanding of power sector issues.

“We are particularly grateful to the Minister of Power for his visionary leadership and unwavering support for the PSCT. Your guidance and encouragement have been instrumental in our efforts to enhance communication within the sector and promote public understanding of power sector issues.

“We would also like to extend our deepest gratitude to the agency heads present today. Your leadership and dedication to the PSCT’s objectives are truly commendable. Your valuable insights and contributions have significantly enhanced our discussions and helped us develop effective strategies for improving sector communication.” She added.

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Headlines

BREAKING: Wike declares Abuja Park and Pay Policy Illegal

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, has declared the Park and Pay scheme in the nation’s capital as illegal.

Wike made the declaration during a live media parley with select journalists in Abuja, on Wednesay.

The interactive session was put together to mark his one year in office.

The minister said, “A call from a senior advocate, brought to light a scheme that has been siphoning government funds under the guise of a legal operation.

“The scheme, which appears to have been operating under the radar, highlights a critical flaw in the system that allows private consultants to pocket the lion’s share of revenues meant for the government.

“These are things we need to fight within the system. Sometimes, if you don’t bring it to our attention, we may not know. We can’t be everywhere.

“The incident unfolded when a Senior Advocate of Nigeria reached out to me with a troubling report. He said, ‘Sir, some people came to our office and they are trying to seize our cars. They claim to be from the Transport Secretariat. I asked him to give the person the phone, and I asked the person, ‘Who are you?’ He said, he is ffrom ‘Park and Pay from the Transport Secretariat.”

Wike, who was unaware of such activities, immediately sought clarification.

“I wasn’t aware of this, so I called the person in charge of it. I asked, ‘Who collects the money?’ Unknown to us, there are agreements between the secretariat and some people who claim to be consultants. So, the consultant takes 80%, and the FCT administration takes 20%,” Wike explained.

The minister declared their activities illegal, assuring that immediate action would be taken to dismantle the operation.

“I’m trying to say that it’s illegal, and nothing like that exists. And if my colleague hadn’t called me, I wouldn’t have known,” he concluded.

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Headlines

“Beware of fake Milo in circulation”, NAFDAC Warns Nigerians

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

….. begins mop up in bauchi

The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC in Bauchi State has commenced a three-day exercise in markets to mop up fake Milo chocolate drinks in circulation.

The State Coordinator of NAFDAC, Dr Paul Kamai made this known on Wednesday in Bauchi.

“The NAFDAC office began the inspections in markets and superstores to get rid of the fake Milo in circulation following a directive from the Headquarters.

“This exercise will last for three days starting Tuesday,” he said.

According to Kumai, the agency has scheduled a date within the week to engage the leadership of the association of Agro chemical dealers on the dangers of chemicals on foods.

“In Bauchi, we will engage the dealers of Agro chemicals against the use of Dictholoruvis and Paraquat chemicals to store food as we approach the harvest period.

“These are dangerous chemicals that have been banned over time,” he added.

Kamai called the attention of Bakers and packaged water producers to renew their licenses within the stipulated two-year timeline.

He said failure to renew the operational licenses could result in penalties that might affect business operations.

Kamai urged small and medium enterprises to register their products with NAFDAC to assimilate their products into Nigerian markets.

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Headlines

Rain, lightning, thunderstorms caused petrol scarcity: NNPC

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd. has blamed the fuel scarcity that has led to long queues in filling stations nationwide due to recent rains, lightning, and thunderstorm.

NNPCL’s vice-president (downstream), Dapo Segun, disclosed this at a press conference at the NNPC towers in Abuja.

Fuel queues have resurfaced in filling stations across the country, with car owners spending long hours in queues and black markets having a field day with fuel now being sold for as much as over N1,000.

Apologising to Nigerians for the queues springing up across the country and noting that the NNPC will not like to make excuses, Mr Segun, on Tuesday, said the recent weather conditions hampering the sufficient distribution of fuel across the country is beyond the control of the corporation, but assured that all will be done to manage the situation.

“We’ll like to apologise to Nigerians for the queues we’ve been seeing springing up. A number of the causes are outside of our control but we’ll do our best to manage. We do not like to make excuses,” Mr Segun stated. “For example, since the rains began, the Estragos channel has been difficult to navigate through. We have vessel after vessel going around there because of siltation, and that has really hindered our ability to bring petroleum products, particularly PMS, up country.”

The NNPCL executive added, “We also understand that with the rains also, situations where to discharge petroleum products where there is lightning, thunderstorms, you have to suspend, not just the discharge of petroleum products onshore but also, the evacuation from the tankers. We’ve had situations that have occurred in recent times.

“We’ve also had issues with the road network. That also gives challenges in bringing these products upcountry. The tightness you see in Lagos currently was due to a very short supply gap, which has since been redressed. Vessels are in Lagos now, offloading and discharging as I speak. So, that is definitely short-lived.”

Mr Segun vowed that despite the number of factors creating the nightmarish situations, no stone will be left unturned in ensuring that petroleum products get to all nooks and crannies in the country.

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Headlines

JUST IN: Chinese takes over Nigeria’s guest houses in Liverpool, to sell on eBay for $2.2 million

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

A Chinese investment group racing to recover up to $70 million in arbitration awards from Nigeria has concluded plans to list two residential structures it confiscated from the country for sale on global online marketplace eBay, Peoples Gazette was told by people familiar with the arrangement.

Zhongshang Fucheng Industrial Investment Ltd took possession of two buildings linked to the Nigerian government in Liverpool, United Kingdom, in June 2024, years after Nigeria failed to settle an arbitration judgement handed down in 2021, The Gazette learnt.

The properties, 15, Aigburth Hall Road, Liverpool and Beech Lodge, 49, Calderstones Road, Liverpool, were targeted after a December 2021 British court order gave Zhongshang executives the power to seize Nigerian assets in the UK to retrieve the $70 million payment, which remained outstanding as of August 20, 2024, with two per cent monthly interest accruals.

Zhongshang was awarded $55,675,000 plus interest of $9,400,000 and costs of £2,864,445 as of the date of the arbitration verdict on March 26, 2021, court documents said. The case stemmed from a dispute between Zhongshang and Ogun State. The firm said the state violated a 2001 trade treaty between Nigeria and China when its rights to a free trade zone were rescinded in 2016.

The company dragged Nigeria before the arbitration panel in the UK in 2018, alleging that Nigeria allowed its federal organs like the police, immigration and export processing authority to be deployed by Ogun State without due process. Court documents said two Zhongshang executives were expelled from Nigeria between mid and late 2016 after one of them had allegedly been detained and tortured by the police.

The case has once again thrown Nigeria into confusion, barely months after the country luckily escaped a similar arbitration decision that awarded over $11 billion to a consortium called P&ID. The arbitration verdict was thrown out after it was later discovered that P&ID owners were involved in bribery and corruption.

However, the Zhongshang case appeared different, with several European courts already granted enforcement orders in the UK, Belgium, France and other countries, where Nigerian-owned jets and other assets are being tracked down. An appellate panel recently declined to grant Nigeria sovereign immunity protection over Zhongshang’s recovery efforts in the United States.

A consultant working with Zhongshang said the company has been working to put the two Liverpool houses up for sale, including on eBay, where the source said up to $2.2 million would be asked for both.

“They said the value of both properties should be around $2.2 million, so they already put together a plan to sell them to willing buyers,” the consultant said under anonymity to discuss client deliberations. “Some websites like eBay might bring buyers faster than other methods.”

Even though the properties belonged to Nigeria, they were seized because they weren’t listed as Nigerian diplomatic or consular assets. The Gazette learnt that those currently occupying the properties had no ties to the Nigerian mission in the UK. It was unclear when Nigeria bought the assets, but a senior judge said its officials had regularly rented out both places to guests.

In her June 14, 2024, ruling allowing Zhongshang to seize the buildings from Nigeria, Master Lisa Sullivan of the UK High Court, King’s Bench Division, said: “The properties are currently used for the purpose of leases to residential tenants unconnected with Nigeria and its mission. Those are commercial purposes for the purpose of s13(4) of the SIA and therefore the enforcement against the properties is not barred by state immunity.”

The source said the sale wouldn’t be done in secret because the Nigerian people deserved to know how much all recovered assets were being sold until the full amount had been recovered.

“Zhongshang promised to be transparent with the sale because of the keen public interest of Nigerians in the matter,” the consultant added.

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Africa & World

World’s oldest person who lived for 117 years is dead

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

The world’s oldest living person, Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera, who was born in the United States and lived through two world wars, has died at the age of 117, her family said Tuesday.

“Maria Branyas has left us. She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain,” her family wrote on her account on social network X.

“We will always remember her for her advice and her kindness,” they said.

Branyas, who had lived for the last two decades in the Santa Maria del Tura nursing home in the town of Olot in northeastern Spain, had warned in a post on Tuesday that she felt “weak”.

“The time is near. Don’t cry, I don’t like tears. And above all, don’t suffer for me. Wherever I go, I will be happy,” she added in the account which is run by her family.

Guinness World Records had officially acknowledged Branyas’s status as the world’s oldest person in January 2023 following the death of French nun Lucile Randon aged 118.

In the wake of Branyas’s death, the oldest living person in the world is Japan’s Tomiko Itooka, who was born on May 23, 1908 and is 116 years old, according to the US Gerontology Research Group.

Branyas, who lived through the 1918 flu, World War I and World War II and Spain’s civil war, got Covid-19 in 2020 just weeks after ringing in her 113th birthday and was confined to her room at the home but made a full recovery.

Her youngest daughter, Rosa Moret, once attributed her mother’s longevity to “genetics”.

“She has never gone to the hospital, she has never broken any bones, she is fine, she has no pain,” Moret told regional Catalan television in 2023.

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Headlines

FG inaugurates 10-member committee to enforce S’court judgement on LG autonomy

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

The Federal Government has set up a 10-member Inter-Ministerial Committee to ensure the enforcement of the Supreme Court’s recent judgement granting financial autonomy to Local Governments in Nigeria.

This committee was inaugurated by Senator George Akume, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) on August 20.

The Supreme Court, on July 11, 2024, ruled that Local Governments must receive their funds directly, without interference from state governments.

This ruling, delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, declared that it is unconstitutional for state governments to withhold or use funds meant for Local Government Areas.

The committee is led by the SGF, Senator Akume, and includes the following members:

  1. Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume – Chairman
  2. Minister of Finance & Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun
  3. Attorney General of the Federation
  4. Minister of Budget & Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu
  5. Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein
  6. Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso
  7. Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Sewan Temitope
  8. Chairman, Revenue Mobilization Allocation & Fiscal Commission, Bello Shehu
  9. Representative of State Governors
  10. Representative of Local Governments.

The main objective of this committee is to ensure that Local Governments operate independently and receive the funds they are entitled to, as stipulated by the Constitution.

This move aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s efforts to strengthen local governance and promote grassroots development across the country.

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Headlines

Kogi gov appoints 1,192 additional aides

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Usman Ododo, has approved the appointment of 1,192 additional aides.

This was contained in a statement issued on Monday by the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Folashade Ayoade.

“The aides include Yakubu Abdulhakeem who is to serve as the Executive Secretary, Kogi State Office for Disability, 165 Senior Special Assistants, and 36 Special Assistants.

“Others on the list approved by the governor are 574 Ward Special Assistants and 290 Local Government Special Assistants,” the statement read.

Similarly, Ododo also approved the appointment of Alhaji Ibrahim Abdulsadiq as the Director of Protocol, First Lady Office, in addition to other retinue of aides.

The governor congratulated all appointees and urged them to put in their best service to the state and humanity at large.

Ayoade said that all appointments are with effect from September 1, 2024.

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Entertainment

JUST IN: Nigerian Artist, Tekno reportedly slumped during music tour in South Africa (VIDEO)

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

Nigerian Singer, Augustine Miles Kelechi, popularly known as Tekno, has reportedly collapsed during his music tour in South Africa

Meanwhile the cause of the incident still remain unknown as at press time.

Details soon…..

Watch video below:
https://x.com/Postsubman/status/1825916424327421985?t=f0B0bvzGIIcu3wCFqhLDtg&s=08

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Headlines

Nigerian arrested for stealing $10 million in US unemployment benefits

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

A Nigerian man, identified as Yomi Olayeye has been arrested and charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, and identity theft for his alleged role in a $10 million pandemic unemployment assistance fraud scheme in the United States.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts under the Department of Justice revealed this in a statement posted on its website on Monday.

The statement read, “A Nigerian man was arrested on Aug. 13, 2024 upon arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on charges that he and other conspired to fraudulently obtain at least $10 million in COVID-19 unemployment benefits.

“Yomi Jones Olayeye, a/k/a “Sabbie,” 40, of Lagos, Nigeria, is charged with one count of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft. He made an initial appearance in the Eastern District of New York on Aug. 14, 2024 and will appear in federal court in Boston tomorrow.

“According to the charging document, between March and July 2020, Olayeye and others defrauded three pandemic assistance programs administrated by the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance and other states’ unemployment insurance agencies: traditional unemployment insurance (UI), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC).”

Olayeye and his co-conspirators were alleged to have used stolen personal information to apply for unemployment benefits in multiple states, including Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Indiana.

The statement added, “In total, Olayeye and his co-conspirators allegedly applied for at least $10 million in fraudulent UI, PUA and FPUC from Massachusetts, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Montana, Maine, Ohio and Washington and received more than $1.5 million in assistance to which they were not entitled.

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