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AFR Business

Supreme Court to deliver judgment on Lawan vs Machina case

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday fixed February 6 for judgement in the long drawn legal battle over the authenticity of the Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Entangled in the legal battle for the Senatorial ticket are the incumbent Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Bashir Machina.

The Apex Court fixed the judgement date after taking arguments from counsel for APC and Mr Machina.

Justice Centus Nweze who presided over a five-member panel of Justices of the Court fixed the date.

APC which is rooting for Mr Lawan as its senatorial candidate filed the appeal against the judgements of the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal which held Mr Machina as the party’s candidate.

In its arguments presented by Sepiribo Peters, APC claimed that the primary election conducted on May 27, 2022 which produced Mr Machina is unknown to law because it was conducted by unlawful people.

He claimed that another primary election conducted on June 6 which produced Mr Lawan was the authentic election of the party.

However, Sarafa Yusuff, counsel to Mr Machina asked the Apex Court to dismiss the APC’s appeal for being frivolous and baseless.

He informed the court that the Danjuma Manga Committee was set up by the APC to conduct the primary election on behalf of the National Working Committee of APC.

Mr Yusuff drew the attention of the court to an affidavit deposed to by Danjuma Manga to the effect that he was mandated along with five others by the APC National Secretariat to conduct the Senatorial primary elections in Yobe.

The counsel argued that up till now, the affidavit of the said Danjuma Manga had not been disputed or denied by the APC and subsequently urged the court to affirm Bashir Sheriff Machina as the authentic Senatorial candidate of APC for Yobe North Senatorial District.

NNPC Limited takes over Addax’s assets

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The Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited says it has taken over the operation of Production Sharing Contract assets from Addax Petroleum Development Nigeria Limited.

The NNPCL Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Garba Deen Muhammad, said this in a statement on Tuesday.

Muhammad said all closing obligations had been concluded and the assets transferred to the Concessionaire, NNPC Limited.

The takeover comes three months after the execution of the Addax Transfer, Settlement, and Exit Agreement (ATSEA) for the PSC Oil blocks, OMLs 123/124 & 126/137, operated by Addax Petroleum Limited.

Muhammadu said: “Consequently, NNPC has taken necessary steps to takeover the assets and oversee a clean, amicable, and speedy exit for Addax Petroleum Ltd., operate the asset on interim basis as a first step and subsequently appoint a competent replacement PSC contractor.

“This happened while NNPC Limited continues to remain the concessionaire of the assets in line with extant laws and regulations.

“Exit negotiations and formalities have been concluded and NNPC Ltd. in collaboration with the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, NUPRC, NMDPRA, FIRS, EFCC, and the FCCPC have agreed on the clean and amicable exit for Addax.

“Agreement was reached by resolving all the PSC contractual issues, including litigations that culminated in the execution of a Transfer, Settlement, and Exit Agreement (TSEA) on November 1, 2022.”

According to Muhammad, with fulfilment of the closing obligations by the parties and effective January 31, 2023, Addax transfers the operatorship of OMLs 123/124 and 126/137 to Antan Producing Limited on interim basis.

He said the transfer would last through the transition period pending the emplacement of a substantive replacement PSC in compliance with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Muhammad said the NNPC Limited had already announced the appointment of the Transition Team Lead, Sagiru Jajere, as the Managing Director of Antan Producing Limited.

Before his appointment, Jajere was the Head of PSC Investment Management at the NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services.

The spokesman said that Jajere would be supported by a team of highly competent personnel with in-depth knowledge of the peculiarities of the Addax Assets.

He added: “As the Addax Assets return to NNPC Ltd, it is expected that the much needed investments will be deployed to the assets while prudently conducting petroleum activities and creating value for the PSC, government and other stakeholders.”

Nasir el-Rufai accuses powerful interests of anti-Tinubu moves

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Kaduna governor Nasir el-Rufai has accused powerful interests within the presidency of working against the victory of the All Progressives Congress and its presidential candidate Bola Tinubu, in the 2023 elections.

Mr el-Rufai said that these "interests" turned against Tinubu after their preferrred candidate lost the party primaries.

He said this on Wednesday while fielding questions on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.

The governor said those powerful interests are hiding behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s desire to do what he thinks is right.

He said, ”I believe there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way; they had their candidate. Their candidate did not win the primaries.

“They are trying to get us to lose the election, and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right. I will give two examples: this petroleum subsidy, which is costing the country trillions of Naira, was something that we all agreed would be removed. In fact, I had a discussion with the president and showed him why it had to go. Because how can you have a capital budget of N200b for federal roads and then spend N2 Trillion on petroleum subsidy? This was a conversation I had with the president in 2021 when the subsidy thing started rising. He was convinced. We left. It changed. Everyone in the government agreed, and it changed.

“The second example I will give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the president. People are blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign, but No. You have to go back and look at the first outing of Buhari as president. He did this; the Buhari, Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in secrecy with a view to catching those that are stashing away illicit funds. It is a very good intention. The president has his right. But doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense.”

Whistleblowing gone wrong: My case with NERC

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We all are happy that the promise by the federal authorities to reward anyone who helps to find looted funds seems to be yielding fruit. If the government keeps its promise to give them 5% of the loot, at least two whistleblowers so far will be hundreds of millions of naira richer soon.

Long before this reward system came, however, some of us had been offering the service for free. Rather than get a reward, we have been exposed to greater danger. What can one do when a government agency protects private interests rather than public interests? Perhaps some of us were born into the wrong country!

My case began early in 2016 when I reported UPDC (UACN Property Development Company Plc), which built and manages an estate called Emerald Court in Gudu District of Abuja, to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

Inside Emerald Court where I reside, the company (UPDC) installed a 1.015MW generator, and, without a licence from NERC, operates illegal GENCO and DISCO. It subjects all of the estate’s residents to arbitrary billing: the more you pay, the higher your electricity bills become.

When I discovered that UPDC operated outside the NERC Act, I quickly reported the matter to NERC. In no time NERC officials came to the estate to see for themselves, and quickly confirmed that the company was not just operating illegal GENCO and DISCO but was doing so massively, defrauding residents in all its estates estimated to number 200 across the country. By so doing, UPDC violated Section 62(2) of the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act, 2005, which prohibits a person, except in accordance with a licence issued by NERC, from operating an undertaking for generating electricity above 1MW in aggregate for distribution of electricity with a capacity above 100KVA at a site.

In view of the foregoing, NERC stated that it would penalize UPDC for established violations of the Act, which include: (a) illegal generation and distribution of electricity above 1MW and 100KVA respectively without a licence by NERC, (b) overbilling, (c) illegal disconnection of power supply, and (d) failure to separate grid from private electricity supply.

After a meeting on May 25, 2016, at NERC headquarters, involving me, NERC and UPDC officials, NERC thanked me for my efforts as a whistleblower, and handed a letter which read: “In line with NERC Meter, Billing, Cash Collection and Credit Management for Electricity Supply Regulation, 2007, the Commission hereby directs that:

1. You (UPDC) cease to serve the residents of Emerald Court Estate through bulk metering

2. You (UPDC) install meters for each and every resident of Emerald Estate within thirty (30) days from date of this letter, and revert back to the Commission or provide alternative plans and timeline with which you would meter these customers.”

When I brought up the issue of fining UPDC for infraction and for defrauding thousands of residents in its estates across the nation and making sure that it stopped defrauding its residents, NERC promised me that my request would be granted as soon as possible and that I would be notified.

But, soon after, a friend on the staff of NERC alerted me to some possible backdoor agreements reached between NERC and UPDC. NERC, he told me, seemed to have compromised on its duties to the extent that, rather than be the protector of public interests, it became the protector of private interests. I began to wonder if UPDC was one of those power companies that used to go through the backdoor to have its way.

My friend even told me that NERC would soon give a letter to UPDC to enable it continue with business as usual by illegally granting it six months’ reprieve, which would be enough time for UPDC to perfect and prepare its battle against me.

He was right. As soon as NERC did the suspected letter dated June 27, 2016, to UPDC, my friend advised me to go to NERC and insist on getting a copy of the letter. It took several visits to NERC before I was given a copy of the letter, which under normal circumstances I should have been copied as a person of interest.

Once I got a copy of the letter, I wrote back to NERC a letter dated July 18, 2016, and copied the minister of power, works and housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, to alert his office to the ongoing fraud in NERC.

Here are the issues I raised in that letter:

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1. What are the justifications for NERC refusing to fine UPDC for operating illegal GENCO and DISCO along with illegally trading in electricity and by so doing denying the federal government billions of naira in revenue?

2. What are the justifications for NERC allowing UPDC to still continue operating the same illegal captive power generation, distribution and trading in electricity in all its estates across the nation, and by so doing earning billions of naira from these illegal activities?

3. Why is NERC biased and in a hurry to grant the company GENCO and DISCO captive licence so as to legitimize its illegal trading in electricity but reluctant to ensure that it stops defrauding unsuspecting residents and refund the billions of naira it had already illegally collected from its victims, myself included?

Even though I gave NERC seven days to respond, I am yet to receive a response from either NERC or from the honorable minister, Fashola.

On January 20, 2017, I received a letter from UPDC dated December 5, 2016, part of which states that in order “to comply with NERC regulation and avoid any sanction associated with non-compliance…” the following will be undertaken as solution to the NERC requirement:

1. Exchange the 650KVA generator with 400KVA (to have a total of 400+365KVA which is less than 1MW) as directed by NERC. This will in no way affect power supply as output calculation has shown that the 400KVA will suffice.

2. Connection of each unit to the national grid with each unit having two meters for public and generator power consumption. This comes with associated cabling and electrical works, which cost will be borne by home owners (asset replacement deposit).

Because of this running battle, UPDC has made my life so miserable that, on many occasions, their staffers have had to embarrass me, threaten my family, and cut my electricity at weekends, requiring me to engage in a series of telephone calls before they could restore power to my residence.

Notwithstanding their endless efforts to mess me up and frustrate my life, however, I’ve continued to fight them, not only to achieve justice for myself but also to expose this massive corporate fraud committed by UPDC, assisted by NERC. We are talking about billions of naira this private company extorts from residents in its numerous estates.

Enwegbara, a development economist, writes from Abuja

Abiola Bawuah is named as chief executive of UBA Africa

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The United Bank for Africa Plc has appointed Ghanaian national, Mrs. Abiola Bawuah, as its Africa new Chief Executive Officer.

According to a statement, Bawuah will oversee the bank’s operations across Africa, excluding Nigeria.

She is the first female CEO of the UBA Africa and the board says that her appointment shows the bank’s commitment to diversity.

Prior to her appointment as the bank’s Africa CEO, Bawuah was UBA’s Regional CEO for West Africa, managing operations in nine subsidiaries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. She had also served as the CEO of UBA Ghana.

Commenting on Bawuah’s appointment, the UBA Group’s Board Chairman, Mr Tony Elumelu, said, “Abiola has contributed significantly to the growth of UBA Africa for close to a decade. She brings a wealth of experience in commercial banking, and stakeholder engagement. It also gives me great pleasure that with her appointment, the UBA Group Board has now become a majority female board.”

The bank also announced other key executive appointments across the group.

The appointments include: Regional CEO of UBA West Africa, Chris Ofikulu; Deputy Managing Director of UBA Ghana, Uzoechina Molokwu; Managing Director/CEO UBA Liberia, Ayokunle Olajubu; CEO of UBA UK, Theresa Henshaw; Deputy CEO in UBA America, Usman Isiaka; and Group Treasurer, Adeyemi Adeleke, all appointments subject to their various local regulatory approvals.