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HURIWA Blasts Buhari Over Planned Energy Tariff Hike
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has accused the Federal Government and the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) of committing what it called “electricity terrorism.”
A prominent civil rights advocacy group, HURIWA, made the remark while urging Nigerians to publicly protest the proposed hike in the electricity tariffs as proposed by NERC to commence on April 1, 2020.
It accused NERC of conniving with shylock and corrupt private sector operators in the electricity industry to inflict unquantifiable agony and pains on Nigerians who are at the receiving end of what can possibly be described as ‘electricity terrorism’.
Dismissing the proposed hike in electricity tariff as the biggest April Fool’s scam by any government agency, the rights group asked Nigerians who are “sleep-walking” into involuntary servitude being imposed by the current totalitarian regime, to demand accountability from the Federal Government on how several billions of public fund frittered away packaged in the guise of dubious grants to the private entrepreneurs in the electricity power sector as a condition precedent before any national dialogue can take place on the way forward towards improving the dwindling and poor electricity power supplies to Nigerians.
A statement by HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, noted that any upward review of tariffs of electricity can only be an imposition of “slave tariffs for the darkness that envelopes most parts of Nigeria at night following constant failures of the distributors to meet up with their business obligations to the consumers of electricity.”
The statement reads: “Nigerians must realize that what is needed for a dictatorship to take root is for the masses to accept hook, line, and sinker every unimaginable and toxic policy for good or for evil introduced by government without asking intelligent questions to ensure that there is transparency and accountability always.
“Nigerians should ask the federal government to explain how the N37billion grants for prepaid meter supply it gave to a private sector operator to supply meters to interested distribution companies were utilized since millions of electricity consumers are still without those meters even in the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja.”
HURIWA recalled that in 2028, the then Power Minister, Babatunde Fashola, disclosed that N37 billion was distributed as meter grants just as he made the announcement at the 28th monthly meeting of power stakeholders in Kaduna.
The rights group quoted Fashola, who did not mention the name of the company, as saying that the Federal Government provided the fund based on the demand for meters, given the increasing power generation, transmission and distribution in the country.
HURIWA, however, insisted that there was no empirical evidence to show what the unnamed company that benefitted from the political largesse of N37billion did with this humongous public cash given that millions of homes can’t find electricity meters for their use, thereby exposing them to extortion rackets run by the different regional DisCos that still charge estimated billings.
“Nigerians should also ask the Federal Government to render account on the N1.095trillion federal intervention fund distributed to DisCos by the Central Bank of Nigeria since 2018 even when power supplies are still poor and indeed over 80 million Nigeria families are still without electrical power.
“According to public information made available by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s annual report for 2018, the apex bank had as at the end of 2018, granted total credit of N1.095trillion to the power sector under three different schemes it set up.
“The schemes were Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilization Facility (NEMSF) worth N213.417billion meant to settle outstanding payment obligations due to market participants during the interim rules of the market as well as legacy debts owed by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to gas suppliers; the N300billion Power and Airline Intervention Fund (PAIF); and the N701billion Payment Assurance Facility (PAF) extended to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) to settle invoices of generation companies (GenCos) to a minimum level of 80 per cent,” the statement added.
The rights group condemned the opaque system in operation within the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Power Ministry because two years after, there are no available body of knowledge to justify or rationalise how these huge public funds were spent.
HURIWA said: “We call on Nigerians in their numbers to reject the decision by NERC to hike the tariffs of electricity power to be paid by Nigerians with effect from April 1 even without accounting for how government utilized the quantum of cash paid out to the private businesses in the electricity sector even without any form of improvements.”
Recall that NERC had recently directed the 11 electricity distribution companies, DisCos, to hike their tariffs by average of 50 per cent on April 1.
Ikeja Electric (IE) Plc, which made this disclosure in its memo to the commission, noted that the directive is “in order to meet the tariff shortfall funding target from 2020 by the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
Owing to the directive, the 50 per cent tariff increase is expected to raise the average tariffs from the current level of 27.30 N/kWh to 40.95 N/kWh, according to the Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Youdeowei.
The memo was dated February 12, 2020.
The power distributor titled the document: “Re: Addendum to Ikeja Plc’s Performance Improvement Plan and application for extraordinary tariff review of MYTO-2015.”
NERC, according to the IE document, said: “The objective for the extra-ordinary tariff review of MYTO-2015 is to ensure Ikeja Electric adjusts its tariff in line with the commission’s directive that current average allowed tariff shall be grossed-up 50 per cent from April, 2020.”
IE informed the commission that in line with the directive, “we have designed the tariffs based on the MYTO tariff model contained in the document, ‘Ikeja DisCo Tariff Model January, 2020’ shared with IE by the commission.
“In this application, we intend to create a new tariff class, called Bilateral; a class that is being created for customers that IE has a signed Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with under a willing-buyer-willing seller arrangement. In order to provide an efficient and reliable service to customers in this tariff class, cost-reflective tariffs are required to cover the cost of service delivery.”
The Rivers State Chief judge, Justice Simeon Chibuzor Amadi has granted pardon to six inmates standing awaiting trial at the Port Harcourt maximum correctional center.
The six lucky inmates granted pardon on Tuesday by the state Chief Judge included Nwekeala Chizoba, Samuel Emmanuel, Aniete Kelvin, Ebube Fubara and Goddey Okpara who were on awaiting trial as murder suspects and have all spent between 10 years to seven years in the custody without a proper information filed against them in the court.
Justice Amadi during a special gaol delivery exercise last Tuesday at the Port Harcourt Maximum Correctional Centre opined that the special gaol delivery was part of activities lined up to commomerate the 2024/2025 legal year in the State and restated the commitment of the state judiciary in decongesting the correctional centre and ensuring that those inmates who are not supposed to be there are removed from the custody.
The state chief judge stressed the need for all stakeholders to work together to build a society that supports rehabilitation and gives a second chance to anyone or group of people who have fallen short of the expectation of the law and have been punished accordingly.
He stressed that the National Judicial Council(NJC) encourages judges to pay more attention to criminal matters to enable them to decongests the correctional facilities, noting that since his assumption into office, his administration has been able to reduce the number of inmates in Nigerian Correctional Centres and the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre in particular, to less than 2,000 as against the over 4,000 inmates previously in the faculty.
According to him, “as they release the deserving inmates, they affirm their commitment to justice, compassion and rule of law but that they must not forget the fundamental principles of justice delivery system which is truth and fairness, integrity and equality before the law.”
I encourage you all the released inmates to return to your families and become better citizens. You must not engage in action that will return you all back to prison. Let me say that while the judges show empathy to you all, it does not absolved individuals from being held accountable for actions against individuals, corporate organisations and state which the law frowns at, ”he stated
The Chief Judge thereafter stood down the exercise to enable the DPP to intervene to case files following the fact that majority of the persons listed to benefit from the exercise are facing murder charges and adjourned to a date that will come before December.
Earlier in his goodwill message, the outgoing state Comptroller of Nigerian Correctional Centre, Port Harcourt, Felix Lawrence, who was recently promoted to the rank of Assistant Controller General, commended the state judiciary led by Chief Judge, Justice Simeon Chibuzor Amadi for their continuous effort aimed at ensuring justice and decongesting the facilities.
Other activities lined up for the event included special church service at St Paul’s Cathedral , Anglican Communion, Rebisi Port Harcourt, inspection of guard of honour by the state Chief Judge mounted by officers of the Nigerian police and a special court session held at the ceremonial court hall.
By: AkujobiAmadi
The Director General of Rivers State Bureau on Public Procurement (RBoPP), Dr. Ine Briggs, has explained that the Sir Siminalayi Fubara administration plans to enforce transparency in governance through public procurement.
Speaking at a one-day Public Procurement Enlightenment workshop organised in collaboration with the State Local Government Service Commission for newly elected chairmen, vice chairmen, secretaries and leaders of legislative assemblies, Dr. Briggs said it is key for grassroot development.
She stated that the Sir. Fubara administration plans to reduce wastage and at same time infuse efficiency in public expenditure.
The RSoPP DG said the local government political office holders remain key drivers in the new vision hence the workshop is to arm them with knowledge on how to execute projects in tandem with needs of the people.
“ Your role in the prudent management of public resources is, therefore, not just administrative it’s the cornerstone of delivering the dividends of democracy. Every procurement decision you make must reflect a commitment to fairness, transparency and accountability” Dr. Briggs submitted.
One of the key goals of the administration she further reminded the participants was to use their offices to foster economic growth through public procurement.
She warned that the law establishing the agency empowers it to penalise defaulters, but that what is more important is voluntary compliance to the laws.
In addition to that, she said urged the local government council leaders that champion the practice and implementation of public procurement law.
On his part, Acting Chairman of Local Government Service Commission, Pastor GoodLife Ben Iduoku averred that the aim of the workshop is to arm key stakeholders in the local government system to generate new ideas, innovation and strategies in tandem with government policies and programmes.
The workshop dealt on various topics on procurement planning, methods, Understanding Bid Process, including types of Construction Contracts and law.
Some participants were awarded excellence and meritorious awards as part of the programme.
By: Kevin Nengia
The 19th anniversary of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Rivers State Chapter, recently ended in Port Harcourt in grand style, with participants from various schools including proprietors, the academia, civil society groups and top government functionaries charting the way forward for educational improvement.
The 19th NAPPS anniversary christened, ‘Innovation and Adaptation: Transforming Challenges Into Opportunities’ was held at Casoni Hotels, Port Harcourt.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Rivers State Chapter of the association, Dr. Jaja Adafe Sunday expressed gratitude to the members and executives for their untiring efforts towards the achievements of the body.
He sought the intervention of government on the lingering crisis on the economy as it is affecting the running of schools.
He decried high cost of things including fuel and raw materials which has adversely affected the running of schools and payment of teachers.
Dr. Sunday hinted that the current economic situation in the nation is biting hard on the operations of schools, saying inflation, removal of fuel subsidy, fuel scarcity, poor electricity supply, tariffs and lack of government grants are some of the challenges faced by schools, and urged the members to brace up to the challenges, as it is the panacea to building a brighter future.
Guest speakers from the health sector and the academia thrilled the gathering on the essence of basic education which they said is the key to national development.
Former Dean of the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Professor Azuru and the Chief Medical Director of Meridian Hospitals, Dr. Odo Iyke were some notable guest speakers who delivered lectures at the occasion.
Some distinguished proprietors also got special recognitions and awards.
The 19th anniversary cake was cut by the Rivers State NAPPS Chairman with representatives of the state government assisting.