Folarin Kehinde

Dr Benson Uwheru, Managing Director, Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) said more than 70,000 of its customers did not recharge their pre-payment meter in the last six months.

Uwheru disclosed this to the company’s executive members at a meeting in Port Harcourt.

According to a statement by PHED’s Head of Corporate Communications, John Anonyai on Monday, the action of the customers led to the company losing billions of Naira in revenues in the last six months.

“So, how will the company continue to provide stable and quality power supply to customers when the company is not being paid for services provided,” he asked.

Uwheru said that PHED must come up with innovative means to ensure customers recharged their meters as well as collect revenues owed the company.

“So, PHED employees must be solution driven and hungry for innovation and seek more creative ways of performing their assignments.

“We must deploy every available resource to collect monies owed the company by customers.

“Henceforth, every employee has become a techno-commercial staff that should be involved in the company’s revenue drive,” he said.

The managing director said the company would henceforth conduct regular checks on customers’ meters in the four states, to checkmate energy theft and meter by-pass.

He said PHED would also adopt more stringent measures to ensure the company fulfilled the target given to it by the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

“NERC ordered that distribution companies in the country must set and meet its N6 billion monthly target.

“So, we must deploy all strategies towards revenue drive via the transformers, feeders as well as become technically and commercially driven in our franchise area,” he added.

In another development, Uwheru said that PHED had deepened its partnership with First Independent Power Limited (FIPL) for enhanced service delivery to customers.

He said both companies met recently to fine-tune strategies of providing uninterrupted power supply in the four franchise states.

“In 2020, FIPL delivered and added one megawatt of electricity to our network while in 2021 the global energy company added another 12 megawatts to our network.

“In view of this, PHED customers, mostly Maximum Demand (MD) customers in Port Harcourt metro have benefitted from our partnership with FIPL.

“Expansion to other areas in the PHED franchise is currently being considered,” he said.

The Federal Capital Territory FCT Security Committee has introduced a Code of Conduct for vigilance groups operating in the territory, placing a ban on the use of firearms by their members.

In the newly established Code of Conduct for members of Vigilance Groups in the FCT, the security committee also prohibited them from carrying out operations without the presence of the police or the express approval of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), in their respective jurisdictions.

Director, of Information and Communication in the FCT, Muhammad Hazat Sule in a statement said members of the vigilance groups are permitted to possess and use weapons for self-defence or other lawful purposes as allowed by the DPO.

These were some of the decisions reached by the FCT Security Committee at its 11th meeting presided over by the Minister, Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello, held in Gwarinpa I District, Abuja.

“Similarly, the new approved code required that any member of the group, who recovers a hazardous weapon from a criminal suspect is expected to keep a detailed account and report to the police for further investigation.

“The Committee permitted the vigilante group to make arrests of anyone, who violates the laws of the land as allowed under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015”, said Sule.

The committee agreed that any community desirous of establishing a vigilance group should apply and obtain the approval of the DPO within the locality.

On the recruitment of members of the vigilance group, the FCT Security Committee, which is the highest decision-making body on security matters resolved that the process must be supervised by the Community Accountability Forum CAF /Security Committee of the community concerned.

“The CAF is to ensure a fair representation of all segments of society and avoid religious, political, and ethnic persuasion.

“The meeting also agreed that all those to be recruited must be properly profiled by the community leaders and Security agencies.

“The FCT Administration encourages communities to form vigilante groups to complement the work of security agencies, especially in gathering intelligence and boosting the fight against criminals”, he stated.

The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has announced it will open on Saturday for cash deposits only to help customers transit seamlessly into the era of new naira notes.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had on Wednesday announced that N200, N500 and N1,000 notes will be redesigned and will come into circulation on December 15.

According to the CBN, the move is to get more naira notes into banks’ vaults to assist in curbing inflation.

The UBA said in a mail sent to its customers on Thursday that there will be zero charges for all cash deposits, encouraging customers to bring their money to the bank.

The bank said, “On 26th October 2022 CBN announced the introduction of new Naira notes which will come into circulation on December 15th 2022, whilst existing Naira notes will remain legal tender until January 2023.

“To help you through this transition we have put together a number of points to guide you.

“Preparing yourself for this transition:

“Start depositing your existing naira notes into a UBA branch closest to you.

“Don’t panic, we are adjusting our branch opening hours for your convenience. We will open Saturday (Cash deposit only) from 10am to 2pm.

“Zero charges will apply for all cash deposits

“Have your debit card handy for payments on POS terminals

“If you do not have a digital channel, please download the New UBA Mobile app from your App Store, or access one of our other channels – Leo, Internet Banking, *919 for your transactions.

“Remember, present notes can still be used for purchase of goods and services until cut off date in January.

Following the cases of insecurity and the recent terror alert by the US, UK and Canadian commissions in Nigeria, the Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Nigeria, Hidayet Bayraktar, has said that Turkey will soon deploy its drones and helicopters from to Nigeria.

Bayraktar, who made this known during the commemoration of the 99th National Day of the Republic of Turkey in Abuja, said the deployment of the drones and helicopters is part of efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s security architecture.

He described the security support from Turkey to Nigeria as an achievement from the defence cooperation contract signed between both countries in 2021.

The Turkish Ambassador added that Turkey was set to extend all kinds of support to Nigeria in its effort to counter security threats by sharing its experience, technical expertise and technology.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted Bayraktar as saying, “The defence contracts signed between our countries last year marked a historical record.

“Taking this opportunity, I am proud to announce that two of our flagship defence industry platforms, Bayraktar (TB-2) drones and (T-149) ATAK helicopters are set to arrive Nigeria.

“We are confident that new Turkish defence products will support the efforts of the Nigerian government and contribute immensely to the peace, prosperity and security of fellow Nigerians.”

According to him, the Turkish government is also expecting the Nigerian government to reciprocate its legitimate security concerns by taking the necessary steps against the strong presence of heinous FETO terrorist group in Nigeria.

Bayraktar, who also spoke on the bilateral relations between Nigeria and the Republic of Turkey said he was very proud that 2021 and 2022 had been a period of great achievements in the bilateral relations between the two countries.

He noted that with the current pace of increasing commercial relations, he was confident that Turkey would soon achieve the target of $5billion of bilateral trading volume with Nigeria.

On his part, the Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb. Zubairu Dada, said Nigeria and Turkey witnessed increased trade and bilateral relations since the high-level visit exchange between Nigerian and Turkish Presidents in 2021.

The minister added that Nigerians remained keen in doing business with their Turkish counterparts which is reflected in the Turkey-Nigeria Business Congress held in September 2021 in Istanbul.

A security consultant, Ladi Thompson says moles in the government are working to collapse Nigeria.

“It seems that some elements within the government, moles within are working together with this agenda to collapse this country from within,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunrise programme on Saturday.

According to Thompson, the Federal Government’s policies of absorbing captured terrorists into the Nigerian society, failure to prosecute known terror financiers, amongst others are signs of alleged complicity.

“There are moles in high places in Nigeria and what is happening to our people is that when terrorism is being used clinically, one of its objectives is to break the will of the nation,” he emphasised.

Thompson said the alerts of imminent terror attacks in Abuja released by the United Kingdom and the United States must not be ignored.

“Abuja is a matter of time if we don’t change strategies,” he said and advised that low-tech devices should be deployed in Abuja immediately.

The security expert, however, expressed confidence that Nigeria will surmount the current security challenges.

“We will beat this thing but for us to beat this thing, the whole nation must realise that the strategy that this government is putting together has not worked (and) it is not working,” he stated.

Source: Channels

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has been asked to remove the Arabic inscription from the redesigned naira notes.

Tever Akase, Senior Special Assistant to Governor Samuel Ortom on Media and Publicity, said all Nigerian languages should be on the currencies, not Arabic.

In a tweet, Akase lamented that Arabic is not Nigeria’s second official language.

He wrote: “Those redesigning the naira notes should ensure that inscriptions of all Nigerian languages are on the currencies.

“If this is impossible, they should remove the existing Arabic inscriptions and leave only English on the new notes. Arabic is not Nigeria’s 2nd official language.”

The apex bank would unveil the redesigned naira notes on December 15, 2022.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said the new currencies to be launched are N1,000, N500 and N200 notes.

Addressing a press conference, Emefiele advised Nigerians to take their old notes to banks in exchange for new ones.