Nelson Ugwuagbo

The House of Representatives has exonerated the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Mohammed Bello-Koko, of N178 billion in bad debt allegations as contained in the 2019 audited financial statement of the authority.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Public Petitions, Mike Etaba, dismissed the allegations at a public hearing held at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja on Wednesday.

Recall that the Forum of Non-governmental Organisations in Nigeria had accused NPA and Bello-Koko of complicity in the mismanagement of N178 bn for bad debt in the agency’s audited financial statement.

At the resumption of the public hearing on Wednesday, the forum failed to appear before the committee to defend its allegations.

Disappointed by the absence of the forum, Etaba dismissed the petition for lack of merit, saying the petitioner had failed to appear before the committee to prove its allegations against the NPA and the MD.

The chairman said, “This is the sixth time the House Committee on Public Petition is sitting with respect to N178 bn bad debt allegations brought against the authority. The petitioner has not been in this place. The case is hereby dismissed.”

As contained in its petition, the forum had requested that the management of NPA be invited to address the growth of the alleged debt from N135 billion in 2018 to N173 billion in 2019.

“Our attention has been brought to the 2019 audited financial statement of the authority with special reference to trade accounts receivable and the huge provision made for bad and doubtful debts.

“Whilst we note that the position in 2019 would significantly change by now, the poor quality of NPA’s trade receivable account is alarming and requires urgent attention,” the petition read in part.

Bulk power supply flexibility and volume of power into Abuja has reduced by 250MW following destruction of Tower 70 along the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s 330kV Gwagwalada-Katampe Transmission line in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which said the vandalised tower is now standing precariously on the ground, revealed that the incident occurred on Monday, February 26, 2024, at about 11.32pm.

According to a statement signed by the TCN General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, on Wednesday, a copy of which was sent to LEADERSHIP, at the said time of the incident, the Gwagwalada-Katampe Transmission line had tripped at Gwagwalada Transmission Substation and trial reclosure by TCN Operators failed, nessectating a physical patrol of the line.

“The TCN lines and patrol team discovered that the four (4) tower footings of Tower 70 were vandalized, destroying the tower legs and causing the tower to stand on the ground, supported by conductors.

“The incident has reduced bulk power supply flexibility and the volume of power into Abuja by 250MW,” Mbah stated.

Meanwhile, TCN has mobilised to the site of the incident and has commenced an emergency repair of the damaged tower and its associated equipment.

“We reiterate the need for vigilance in the fight against vandalism of power equipment. It is important that we report suspicious movements around all power equipment to security operatives or to the nearest TCN offices nationwide,” the TCN spokesperson added.

Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa of the Federal High Court in Lagos has restrained telecommunication operators in Nigeria from deactivating or barring any line or sim which has not been linked to the National Identification Number (NIN) by their subscribers.

Justice Lewis-Allagoa ruled while ruling on a suit filed by a lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, seeking to stop the move that infringed on his fundamental rights.

Ogungbeje, in a suit numbered FHC/L/CS/667/23, joined the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc and Airtel Networks Nigeria Limited as respondents.

Specifically, the lawyer had asked the court for an injunction pending appeal, restraining all the respondents jointly or severally, whether by themselves or their agents. Outlets, agencies, privies, officials, servants, men, parastatals, units, organs, or anybody or person, however so called, from taking any step or action capable of enforcing the judgment in any way and from further outright barring, deactivating and or restricting any SIM cards or his phone Lines, or of any Nigerian Citizen, slated for February 28, 2024, or any other scheduled date, pending the hearing and determination of his appeal at the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, against the judgment of this Honourable Court delivered on May 8, 2023.

At the court’s last sitting, the judge was informed that none of the respondents had filed their counter to the motion to the suit.

However, after the applicant had moved his application, a lawyer from the Federal Ministry of Justice pleaded with the court that he needed more time to respond to the motion.

The applicant vehemently opposed the application because all parties were served with all the processes and the hearing notice in the matter but failed to file counters.

Justice Lewis-Allagoa, in his ruling after perusing the court file acceded to the lawyer’s request and restrained the telecom operators in the country from barring, deactivating and or restricting any SIM cards or his phone Lines or of any Nigerian Citizen stated for 28 of February 2024.

Justice Lewis-Allagoa also ruled that his order subsists till the hearing and determination of the appeal filed by the lawyer.

Ogungbeje had informed the court that his motion on notice is premised under Order 26 Rule 1 of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019; Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended); Section 6 (6)(B) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and under the court’s inherent jurisdiction.

He listed ten grounds for seeking the application, which include; “That sometimes in April 2022, the Appellant/Applicant herein took out an Originating Summons against the Respondents challenging the action of the Respondents in undermining the judicial powers of the Court and the Nigerian legal system and thus infringing on the applicant’s fundamental rights.

“That this Honourable Court, in a well-considered Judgment delivered on the 8th of May 2023, dismissed the appellant/applicant originating summons.

“The appellant/applicant, dissatisfied with the Judgment, has exercised his constitutional right of appeal by lodging a Notice of Appeal against the Judgment of this Honourable Court on the 26th of July 2023 by the lower Court.

“That the Appellant/applicant’s appeal is against the whole decision contained in the Judgment of this Honourable Court.

“That the Respondents are aware of the appellant/applicant’s appeal to the Court of Appeal of Nigeria as the Respondents have since been duly served with the Appellant/Applicant’s Notice of Appeal.

“That despite the pendency of the appellant/applicant’s appeal, efforts are in top gear by the respondents, specifically on the 28th of February 2024, to ensure further and outright barring, deactivating and restricting of SIM cards and Phone lines of the Applicant and that of Nigerian citizens.

“That the appellant/applicant appeal to the Court of Appeal of Nigeria “has a high degree of success against the Respondents

“There is the need to preserve the rest subject matter of the appeal pending the hearing and determination of the Appellant/Applicant appeal at the Court of Appeal of Nigeria.

“That the appellant/applicant is desirously interested in diligently pursuing the instant appeal that has raised a novel and recondite issue substantially jurisprudential constituting an exceptional circumstance in which this Honourable Court can grant an application of this nature.

“That the Court has the power and jurisdiction to grant application of this nature in the interest of Justice,” he stated.

The Nigeria Labour Congress and other related unions are preparing for the planned protests it declared over the high cost of living, inflation, insecurity and hardship in the country.

Our correspondents who arrived at the Labour House headquarters in Abuja at 7:12 a.m. noticed different union workers and other aggrieved Nigerians trooping into the Labour House.

Also present are operatives of the Department of State Services.

The NLC and the Trade Union Congress had, on February 8, issued a 14-day nationwide strike notice to the Federal Government over the failure to implement the agreements reached on October 2, following the removal of the fuel subsidy.

The FG’s failure to fulfill its promises after the ultimatum by the Organised Labour will be met with a two-day nationwide protest, slated for today (Tuesday), February 27, and Wednesday, February 28.

Organised labour, had last Monday, begun mobilising its members for the nationwide protests over the high cost of living in the country.

Ogun State Government on Monday began the process of offering free surgery to indigents in the state as part of plans to help cushion the effects of the prevailing harsh economy

The Executive Secretary of Ogun State Health Insurance Agency, Dr. Afolabi Dosunmu, at the flag-off of the registration for the intervention held at the State Hospital, Ijaye, Abeokuta, said the intervention was a directive given by Governor Dapo Abiodun to provide succour to the people at this difficult time.

Dosunmu said hospitals in the state were ready to carry out the directive of the governor.

“The modalities are very simple as long as you are a resident of the state, as long as you have one surgical need or the other, you are free to walk into any of our state or general hospitals and enroll on the insurance scheme.

“The doctors there will assess you if it is a case that is ready for surgery and once all other perimeters have been concluded, we will get the surgery done,” he said.

He added that those whose cases are not ready for immediate surgery, would be enrolled for them to have access to the intervention when they are ready.

“Someone can have, for example, a cataract, and the cataract is not yet matured. We will still enrol the person. We will give the person a date for when the cataract is going to mature.

“For example, if you want to remove fibroid when you see the doctor and the doctor says your electrolyte is a bit high or your blood pressure is a little bit high, it needs to be controlled before you can be taken in for surgery,” he explained.

The Executive Secretary noted that surgery operations would start on Tuesday as there were a lot of cases that needed urgent attention.

“We have a matching mandate from the governor for us to enrol 70,000 people and it is broken down to 20,000 pregnant women till they deliver even if the delivery is through cesarean section. The child is delivered, in the first six months, we will take care of its medical needs.

“We have also been asked to enrol 20,000 market women and 30,000 poor people in the state. Among the 70,000, any other person in the state that needs surgery, they have to come down and get their surgery done,” he added.

He lauded the state governor for impacting directly on the lives of the people saying, “Everything is free from the moment they walk in and get enrolled, screened and do tests as well as the surgery and even after surgery.”

Also speaking, Mrs. Olusola Akintola, a retired secondary school principal, commended Abiodun for the programme, saying it would help the less privileged take care of their medical bills while Mr Semiu Koleosho, said he enrolled in the programme to enable his son to benefit from the free surgery.

Police did not seal the secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in Yaba, Lagos, on Monday as rumoured, police spokesman in Lagos State, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, has said.

Hundeyin told NAN that Commissioner of Police Adegoke Fayoade only went to the NLC secretariat to address protesters.

He was reacting to the rumour and giving reasons for heightened security upgrades in hotspots around Lagos on Monday.

Heavily armed police operatives were seen at Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota, and other parts of Lagos on Monday, in readiness for a planned protest by organised labour.

The NLC and the Trade Union Congress, TUC had scheduled a nationwide strike for February 27 and 28 to protest what they called hardship currently faced by Nigerians.

They charged that the hardship was inflicted on Nigerians following the hike in prices of goods and services consequent upon the removal of fuel subsidy and the free fall of the naira.

The TUC, however, pulled out of the scheduled protest on Saturday.

Hundeyin told NAN that the police proactively arrived at the NLC secretariat and other hotspots to ensure adequate security for planners of the strike and to prevent their procession from being hijacked by hoodlums.

“The Commissioner of Police, Mr Fayoade addressed the protesters before the procession took off in his presence.

“The procession was peaceful and without any untoward incident,” Hundeyin said, adding that CP Fayoade monitored the security operation and the protest, ” he said.

He stated also that the protesters neither caused traffic obstruction nor got involved in violent activities.

President Bola Tinubu has sworn-in Mrs Saidat Oladunjoye, as a Federal Commissioner of the National Population Commission (representing Lagos State) at the Council Chamber of the State House, Abuja.

Oladunjoye took the oath of office around 12:36 pm after her citation was read to the members of the Federal Executive Council.

She replaces Mrs Bimbo Salu-Hundeyin, who has been appointed Secretary to the Lagos State Government.

The swearing-in comes four months after her nomination by the President on October 12, 2023.

She was subsequently confirmed by the Senate in December 2023.

A former Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Oladunjoye joined the Lagos State Ministry of Youths, Sports and Social Development as a Sports Officer/Project Officer in 1987-1990.

She served in the state’s Ministry of Finance (1990-1995) as a Research Officer and Lagos State Public Works Department as a Senior Administrative Officer in 1995 before leaving for the private sector, where she served as the Executive Director of an Insurance firm until she was appointed Lagos State Commissioner for Education, during the second term of Governor Babatunde Fashola.

Addressing State House correspondents, Oladunjoye assured the public of a data-driven census that prioritises inclusivity and acceptance. She promised to work with all stakeholders in deploying technology for a better census.

Afterwards, the council proceeded into a closed-door session chaired by the President.

So far, members have sat eight times since the inaugural meeting held on August 28, 2023.

Other meetings were held on October 16, October 23, October 30, November 27, December 13 and January 17, 2024.

On October 16, the Information Minister, Mr Mohammed Idris, announced, “The President has approved that Federal Executive Council meeting will now be happening on Mondays as against the traditional Wednesdays that we are used to.

“Of course, that does not mean that it has to happen every week. If there are no issues to discuss, it will be skipped to the next week.”

Present at today’s meeting are all cabinet members except the Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Dr Mariya Mahmoud, whose residence was razed down by fire on Sunday.

Other vacant seats were those of the Minister of Labour and the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu.

A returning face at today’s meeting is the Minister of Tourism, Mrs Lola Ade-John, who has been away for about five months over health concerns.

Lagos State residents on Monday hit the streets to protest against the high level of hardship in the country.

LeadingReporters learnt that the ongoing protest was facilitated by a human rights group identified as the ‘Take It Back Movement’.

The protesters were seen carrying placards with various inscriptions which expressed their grievances, at the Ojuelegba Under Bridge area of the state.

This is coming hours to the planned mass protest scheduled for February 27 and 28 by the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC.

The Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria has announced that it is poised to begin a nationwide strike on Tuesday, February 27.

In a statement on Monday announcing the strike, the National President of AMBCON, Mansur Umar, said unless the Federal Government honours the agreement made with the association in 2020, the strike would commence.

It also called for the temporary suspension of all types of taxation on the bakery industry at the federal, state, and local government levels.

“The Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria have critically accessed the state of our business operation, consequently demand the liberalisation of flour and sugar importation, reduction or total removal of import duties on major baking materials such as flour, sugar, butter, yeast, etc as applicable to other commodities as have recently been done by the Federal Government and provision of concessionary forex exchange to flour millers and other stakeholders as well as reduction of tariff on imported wheat and sugar,” it said.

It also called for the setting up of a price control and monitoring committee as allowed by the constitution as amended and other conditions that will enhance the ease of doing business in the country.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that the glitch experienced in uploading the scanned images of Polling Unit (PU) result sheets in the February 25, 2023 presidential election was “due to the inherent complexity within the system which was difficult to anticipate and mitigate.”

The commission revealed that while the uploads for the National Assembly election results succeeded because the application identified the respective states and built folder hierarchy for the results organisation process for the elections, attempts to upload the presidential election result sheets, which does not belong to or mapped to any state on the database, failed.

It added that this failure was attributable to the inability of the application to create and build a folder structure to organise the uploaded images of the result sheets of the 2023 presidential election.

This is was disclosed by INEC in a 500-page 2023 Post-Election Report released on Friday.

The report further noted that the first presidential election result sheet was successfully uploaded at 8.55pm on February 25, 2023, after interventions to resolve the error.

The commission, nonetheless, insisted that the glitch in the upload of the presidential election result sheets to INEC Result Viewing portal (iREV) did not affect the credibility of the election, adding that agents of political parties and security agents were given copies of polling unit results after they were announced in public.

Recall that the failure to upload results of the presidential election in real-time had caused major concerns in the course of the election process. While INEC explained that the failure was caused by a technical glitch, the opposition parties rejected the excuse, alleging a foul play in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

However, in the report, which chronicled all activities before, during and after the 2023 general election, INEC stated: “during the troubleshooting process, it was established that there was no issue in uploading the PU result sheets of the Senate and House of Representatives elections through the Election Result Modules.

“However, there was a problem with uploading the presidential election results to the system. Attempts to upload the results were generating internal server errors, which refer to a significant impairment that usually originate from within an application due to problems relating to configuration, permissions, or failure to create or access application resources correctly.

“Further interrogation of the Election Result Modules indicated that the system is encountering an unexpected configuration problem in mapping the presidential election results uploaded into the system to the participating Polling Units.”

The report added that due to the complex, sensitive and critical nature of the systems and the real potential for malicious cyber attacks, the commission immediately put in place several strict security and audit control measures to prevent any unfettered or elevated access to the Result Upload System.

The report added that in the process of resolving the challenge, it was discovered that the backend system of the IReV was able to query and detect the base states for uploading the PU result sheets based on the mapping of all Senatorial District and Federal Constituency elections to the respective 36 States of the Federation and the FCT as established in the database structure deployed within the system.

“In configuring and mapping the election results for the presidential and NASS elections, the Commission created Four Hundred and Seventy (470) election types consisting of one presidential constituency covering the entire country, 109 Senatorial Districts and 360 Federal Constituencies.

Each Senatorial District and Federal Constituency election on the database was mapped to their respective States.

“However, the presidential election result is a single, countrywide constituency and therefore, does not belong to any one State.

Consequently, while the uploads for the NASS elections succeeded as the application was able to identify the respective State and build the folder hierarchy for the results organization process for the election, attempts to upload the presidential election results sheets, which does not belong to or mapped to any State on the database, failed. Instead, it returned a HTTP server error response.

“This failure is attributable to the inability of the application to create and build a folder structure to organize the uploaded images of the result sheets of the presidential election.

“Having identified and established the source of the problem, the Commission quickly created and deployed “Hotfixes” which are software updates for fixing a bug or any vulnerabilities in a system. The deployed hotfixes eventually resolved the HTTP error on the system and the first presidential election result sheet was successfully uploaded at 8.55pm on the 25th of February 2023.

“After the problem with the upload was resolved, the Commission noticed a high volume of uploads on the queue. All results that scanned but could not be uploaded due to the error were queued waiting to be automatically processed. Due to the large volume and high traffic from the queue, the system was running slower, even though it tried to scale up automatically to handle the unanticipated heavy traffic. The density of the traffic that slowed the uploads was one issue.

“Another was that the offline queue requires the BVAS devices to be switched- on and connected to the internet for the upload. However, some of the POs had at the time left their PUs, and the devices had either been switched-off, or were out of internet coverage. Switched-off devices could not connect and upload the results sheets. The Commission had to reach out to the POs of affected areas to switch-on their systems and ensure internet connectivity for the uploads to continue. This accounted for the delay, with some of the results coming in the next day.

“By and large, the glitch experienced in uploading the scanned images of PU presidential election result sheets on 25th February 2023 was due to the inherent complexity within the System, which was difficult to anticipate and mitigate.

“Thereafter, the Commission has made improvements on the IReV and taken additional steps to build more resilience and undertook additional checks to ensure the stability and optimal operation and performance of the IReV portal. Additional quality assurance checks are now done to complement the end-to-end testing of the entire result upload ecosystem before the conduct of any election.

“However, the glitch in the upload of the presidential results sheets to iREV did not affect the credibility of the election. Agents of political parties and security agents were given copies of polling station results after they were announced in public.

“The results were also displayed at polling units for scrutiny by voters. So when they were eventually uploaded, it was easy to compare them with the copies displayed at polling centres and given to party agents and party officials.

“The 2023 General Election produced the most diverse outcome in recent Nigerian electoral history in terms of party representation in executive and legislative elections nationwide. Thus, four (4) political parties produced State Governors, seven (7) secured Senatorial seats, eight (8) won federal constituencies and nine (9) in State seats.

“A granular analysis of the results and performance of the leading parties across the country affirms this diversity. The performance of the four (4) leading political parties – APC, LP, PDP and NNPP – in the presidential election across the 6 geopolitical zones in respect of the required 25% threshold to win a state in a presidential election is shown in Table 9.6 below.

“Clearly, across the zones, the performance of the four (4) leading parties shows the diversity and subtlety in the results, attesting to the integrity of both the process and outcome,” the electoral umpire stated