By Edith Ike-Eboh
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it supplied 1.44 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol in January 2021.

The corporation disclosed this on its Monthly and Financial Operations Report (MFOR) released in Abuja on Tuesday.

To guarantee energy security, the corporation also supplied a total of 1.44billion litres of petrol translating to 46.30million liters/day, across the country in the period under review, it said.

In the Gas sector, the report revealed that a total of 223.55Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced in the month under review.

It said this translated to an average daily production of 7,220.22 Million Standard Cubic Feet per Day (mmscfd).

The 223.55BCF gas production figure also represents a 4.79 per cent increase over output in December 2020.

Also, the daily average natural gas supply to gas power plants increased by 2.38per cent to 836mmscfd, equivalent to power generation of 3,415MW.

For the period of January 2020 to January 2021, a total of 2,973.01BCF of gas was produced representing an average daily production of 7,585.78 mmscfd during the period.

Period-to-date Production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) contributed about 65.20 per cent, 19.97 per cent, and 14.83 per cent respectively to the total national gas production, it said.

It said that out of the total gas output in January 2021, a total of 149.24BCF of gas was commercialised consisting of 44.29BCF and 104.95BCF for the domestic and export markets respectively.

It said this translated to a total supply of 1,428.65mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,385.57mmscfd to the export market in the month under review.

This indicates that 67.15 per cent of the daily gas output was commercialised while the balance of 32.85 per cent was re-injected and used as upstream fuel or flared.

Gas flare rate was 7.73 per cent for the month under review (i.e. 554.01mmscfd) compared with average gas flare rate of 7.19 per cent (i.e. 539.69mmscfd) for the period of January 2020 to January 2021.

On Pipelines vandalism, the MFOR noted that it recorded a 37.21 per cent decrease in cases of pipeline vandalism across the country in the month under review.

It also indicated that a total of 27 pipeline points were vandalised in January 2021 down from the 43 points recorded in December 2020.

It said that the Mosimi Area accounted for 74 per cent of the vandalised points, while Kaduna Area and Port Harcourt accounted for the remaining 22 and 4 per cent respectively.

However, the report said that the NNPC was continuously working in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders to reduce and eventually eliminate the pipeline vandalism menace.

The 66th edition of the NNPC MFOR highlights NNPCs activities for the period of January 2020 to January 2021.

It is published in line with the Corporations commitment to the tenets of Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE).(NAN)

Source: NAN News

The ECOWAS Parliament has pledged intervention, to end extortion of citizens of the sub-region at border posts by security operatives in ECOWAS countries.

The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mr Sidie Tunis, made the pledge late on Monday at Gbahjakeh in Bomi County in Liberia.

He was on an oversight visit to some communities at the County on entering Liberia from the Sierra Leone border.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) diplomatic correspondent reports that Tunis embarked on the trip to engage with ECOWAS citizens in the border communities to know their challenges and how the parliament could tackle the challenges.

The major complaint of the ECOWAS citizens at the border town of Gbahjakeh centered on extortion by immigration officials each time citizens tried to cross the border between Sierra Leone and Liberia to trade.

Tunis pledged that the parliament would intervene to end the problem, saying that he planned to first and engage with relevant authorities in Liberia and other West African countries.

The speaker noted that in line with the ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons and goods and to foster integration, ECOWAS citizens should be able to move freely within the sub-region without any form of harassment.

Tunis, however, urged ECOWAS citizens to be law- abiding in any country they live in or do business.

One of the reasons why we always have our delocalized meeting is to bring to the notice of authorities the ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons and goods and the issue of immigration officers.

Extortion is just one of the challenges we have as a region and it is not just here in Liberia but it also happens in Sierra Leone and Guinea and in other countries of the sub-region.

These are all part of the challenges that we are having.

We would need to work collectively as a parliament and as an institution to be able to bring this to the attention of the authorities so that we can stop it.

While I am here in Liberia I will definitely meet with the minister in charge of immigration, the ministry of interior and justice and bring to their attention the complaints we have just heard at the border areas.

I also urge you all to be law-abiding when you are in another country. Do not commit any crime or run into trouble.

It is our responsibility as lawmakers to promote integration and your responsibility as citizens to be law-abiding, Tunis advised.

A Nigerian businessman, Mr Collins Arthur, who deals in electronics, said he had lived in Liberia for over 10 years, describing the people of Liberia as hospitable.

He lamented that the major challenge of residing in the country was persistent harassments from the countrys immigration officials.

Arthur said that in spite of having his papers, the immigration officials continually harassed him at his business place just to extort money from him.

He pleaded for urgent intervention of the ECOWAS Parliament to stop the harassment.

Also narrating his ordeal, Mr James Momoh, a Sierra Leonean trader, said that he was jailed at the border post for not bribing immigration officials even with his complete documents.

Sen. Edwin Snowe, representing Bomi County also said the ECOWAS Parliament would swing into action to end the harassments.

Snowe said that it was not possible to solve a problem if the problem was not known.

He said also that the town hall building under construction, which was used to host the visit would be named after Speaker Tunis on completion.

Snowe disclosed that the project was a give-back to his county as it was being built from the allowances he collected anytime he attended a sitting of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja, Nigeria.

Source: NAN News

President Joe Bidens nominee to lead the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division, Kristen Clarke, is poised to take on the role at a fraught time in American history.

Clarke will face a Senate hearing this week as hate crimes against Asian Americans are on the rise.

Republican-led state legislatures are advancing bills that voting-rights groups say will disenfranchise Black voters and former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial facing a charge of murdering a Black man, George Floyd.

Clarke would appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday alongside Todd Kim, Bidens nominee to lead the departments Environmental and Natural Resources Division.

Kim, like Clarke, previously worked in the Justice Department division he was now nominated to lead.

Most recently, he served as a deputy counsel in the U.S. Department of Energy.

Former colleagues said Clarkes experience, both as a Justice Department lawyer and as executive director of a large civil rights organisation, make her qualified to tackle the challenge.

If you were inventing a nominee from scratch. youd come up with Kristen or someone very, very close, said Justin Levitt, a former colleague teaches law at Loyola Law School.

Clarke has spent a good chunk of her career advocating for voting rights issues.

Ernest Montgomery, a councilman in Calera, Alabama, said he was impressed by Clarke when he met her in 2010.

Montgomery was an intervener in Shelby County v. Holder, a 2010 voting rights case arising from a dispute over whether states and counties must seek preclearance, or approval, from the Federal Government before re-drawing voting districts.

He got involved as a third-party advocate in the litigation after the city re-drew his districts lines, diluting the Black vote.

Clarke, then an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, represented him, arguing in support of requiring federal preclearance of redistricting as a crucial constitutional protection to root out discrimination against minority voters.

She did a superb job, Montgomery said.

The lower courts sided with Clarkes view on preclearance, but in 2013 the Supreme Court reversed and gutted a core part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in a move civil rights lawyers say made it easier to discriminate against voters of color.

Since 2016, Clarke has led the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law.

The most intense time in that job arguably occurred around the 2020 presidential election that when former President Donald Trump refused to concede to Biden and made baseless claims of voter fraud.

It is non-stop, Clarkes colleague with the Lawyers Committee, Jon Greenbaum, said of the groups voting rights work in 2020.

It was high stakes.

Clarkes nomination was expected to dominate much of Wednesdays confirmation hearing, with some Republicans poised to pounce after conservative media launched a series of attacks on her dating back to her days as a student at Harvard University.

One has centered on comments in her college paper intended as parody about Black people having greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities in an effort to counter the controversial 1994 book The Bell Curve, which made arguments linking race and intelligence.

Another group claimed without evidence that Clarke was anti-Semitic based on a speaker she invited to a college campus event decades ago, and that she believes single black mothers raise criminals.

Clarke is a divorced, single Black mother, and her comments were about the challenges Black families face when trying to raise children without a father figure.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, in his confirmation hearing in February, sought to beat back some of the criticism.

I do not believe that she is anti-Semitic, said Garland, who is Jewish. I do not believe she is discriminatory in any sense. (Reuters/NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Femi Ogunshola

The House of Representatives, on Tuesday in Abuja, adjourned plenary until April 20 to honour two of its colleagues that died during its Easter recess.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Rep Haruna Maitala (APC-Plateau) died in a car accident on Abuja-Keffi road on his way to Jos on April 3.

Also, Rep Suleiman Lere (APC-Kaduna) died on April 6, at Barau Diko Teaching Hospital, Kaduna State after a brief illness.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, expressed shock over the demised of the lawmakers during plenary.

While paying tribute to the departed lawmakers, Gbajabiamila said Maitala was a quiet gentleman. The loss was very.

The circumstances surrounding his death is very painful

The day he died, he had just come back from an official assignment of ECOWAS parliament.

He was going to Jos for his sons wedding when death confronted him, he died together with his son and Rep Yusuf Gadgi legislative aide, Gbajabiamila said.

On Rep Lere, the Speaker also described his death as painful.

We know how he struggled in law courts for his election petition case and he eventually won almost after two years.

We swore him in two months ago, which was a very bitter fight, only for us to hear he died few weeks after his swearing in.

Both deaths are difficult to understand but God knows best, he said.

Gbajabiamila said that the House would hold a valedictory session next Tuesday, in honour of late Rep Ossy Prestige, who also died in February.

He pleaded with members to be in attendance in order to honour their departed colleagues.

The Majority Leader of the House, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa then moved the motion for adjournment till April 20. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Ismail Abdulaziz
The Kano State Public Complaints and Anti- Corruption Commission has commended the Dangote Group for ensuring that there is no price increase of essential commodities during the fasting period.

Mr Muhuyi Magaji, Chairman of the commission, who gave the commendation in Kano on Monday, said a letter of commendation had also be written to Dangote for the exemplary act in this holy month.

I was informed that the company has flooded the market with commodities that can last until after the Ramadan period and not only in Kano but across the northern states.

That was why we appreciated the company with a letter of commendation last week. I hope the company will sustain the initiative even after the holy month of Ramadan, Magaji said.

Alhaji Salisu Sambajo,, a major dealer of Dangote Group of companies, also testified that there was no time the company increased prices of commodities during the Ramadan period.

He explained that the company sells a bag of sugar to major dealer at N18,500 and also refund N250 per bag to the dealers.

I am among the major dealers of Dangote products in Nigeria. To the best of my knowledge there was no time Dangote company increased the price of its commodities during fasting period.

Sometimes retailers who buy sugar from major dealers jack up the price when they arrived at their destinations.

What Dangote has done to us at this singer market, its only God that can reward him abundantly.

Years back, Dangote used to give us commodities to sell without collateral, until after weve sold the commodities, then we pay back and take the profit, Sambajo said.

Alhaji Sabo Dankoli, another major dealer of Dangote products, explained that they have never experienced a hike in price from Dangote company during the Ramadan season.

There are a lot of commodities on the ground this year. I am assuring the general populace that this year we are not expecting any hike in sugar and other commodities, just like last year.

Even that of last year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic which caused lockdown, Dangote companies did not hike the prices of their products, Dankoli said.

Alhaji Garba El-Suleiman, a senior official of Dangote Group of Companies, said the company has put measures in place to guarantee stable prices for its commodities during the Ramadan.

He said that the company had flooded all the markets across the country with commodities in order to ensure that no dealer is able to arbitrarily increase the price of any of its products.(NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Emmanuella Anokam
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, on Tuesday called for the establishment of Nigeria-France Business Council to enhance trade relations between the two countries.

The Minister made the call in Abuja while addressing French Minister for Foreign Trade and Attractiveness, Mr Franck Riester, who was accompanied by some French investors in Nigeria.

He explained that the council, which would be private sector-driven, would perform the statutory roles of coordinating and promoting enabling business environment that would spur economic growth.

Adebayo, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Ifedayo Sayo, also called on French companies to take advantage of the nations teeming youth to invest in software manufacturing in the country.

Noting that France is a large exporter of software, he called on some of the French software companies to come into the country and establish their companies to create jobs for the teeming youth.

This, the Minister said, would help President Muhammadu Buhari to achieve its plan to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years.

Adebayo said the setting up of some Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to promote the manufacturing sector had provided investors another great opportunity to invest in the country.

He explained that the special economic zones were being provided with the much needed infrastructure that would ease the setting up of industries in the country.

Besides, he urged them to take advantage of Nigerias participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to invest in the country so that they would have access to a very large market in the continent.

Riester had congratulated the country on the emergence of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, noting that France stood by Nigeria in seeing the emergence of her candidate for the WTO topmost job.

The French Minister said France would like to build a longtime partnership with Nigeria, not only in the area of trade, but also going into other areas.

He also welcomed the idea of setting up the Nigeria-France Business Council, saying it was the desire of the French authorities to get more of its businessmen to come into the country to invest.

Addressing representatives of French companies in the country, Adebayo said the Federal Government would continue to do its best to create a conducive environment for them to thrive.

Some of the companies which had representatives present at the meeting were CFAO represented by Mr Regis Tromeur; FanMilk, Mr Ferdinand Mouko; Swipha, Mr Frederic Lieutaud; Spie Oil and Gas, Mr Guillaume Niarfeix; and PACE, Mr Mathieu Guillerey.

In their different presentations, they sought the ministers intervention in accessibility to foreign exchange, increased efficiency at the port to ease clearance of consignment, improvement in security situation in the country and stable policies, amongst others.

They however pledged to continue to do business in the country, stressing that they were committed to expanding their investment with the support of the government.(NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Thompson Yamput/Zainab Oyekan
Police in Plateau on Tuesday refuted rumours doing the rounds that three female students of Plateau State University, Bokkos, were kidnapped by bandits on Monday.

Police spokesman in the state, ASP Gabriel Ubah, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that while it was true that bandits attacked the students village in Mbar community in Bokkos, no student was kidnapped.

Some students lost their phones to the assailants, while a male student was shot, treated in a hospital and discharged, Ubah said.

He added that investigation was on-going to track the assailants so as to bring them to justice.

Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Yohana Izam, also refuted claims that assailants kidnapped three students from the institution.

He equally confirmed the discharge from hospital of the male student who sustained gunshot injuries.

We are taken aback by the attack on the students community, but we are equally happy that our students are intact.

We are still investigating the incident, which we condemn in totality, he said.

Izam appealed to the students to be calm as security operatives were investigating the attack.

Students of the university protested against the attack and called for more security personnel to be deployed in the university community.

Dr Bentse Pamson, ASUU Chairman in the university, who also condemned the attack, called for more security around the institution.

This issue of insecurity in the institution is what we agitated for in our Memorandum of Action with the state government about two months ago.

Its unfortunate that nothing from the MOA signed between ASUU and the government has been implemented, he said.

Meanwhile, Gov. Simon Lalong has lauded security operatives for foiling the attempted kidnap of four students at the Plateau State University, Bokkos.

This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Makut Macham, the Director of Press and Public Affairs to the governor, on Tuesday in Jos.

Lalong, who commended the security agencies for being proactive, directed the immediate establishment of a police post within the host community of the university in order to forestall any future re-occurrence.

The governor also directed that security should be tightened in all schools across the state to guarantee the safety and security of students.

He also assured the students that all necessary measures would be taken that they learn and dwell under a peaceful, secure and conducive environment.(NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Abubakar Ahmed

Gov. Bello Matawalle of Zamfara has congratulated the Muslim faithful as they begin this years Ramadan fast on Tuesday.

This is contained in a statement signed by Yusuf Idris, the Director-General on Media to the governor and made available to newsmen in Gusau.

Gov. Bello Mohammed Matawalle heartily congratulates the Muslim Ummah in Zamfara in particular, and in Nigeria in general, over the commencement of the holy month which ushers in the Ramadan fast from today (Tuesday).

The governor wishes all Muslims a successful Ibaadat and urges them to use the period to rededicate their prayers to Allah to continue to make lifeeasier for all, the statement read.

The governor also urged Muslims to imbibe the teachings of the holy month through Taqwa and giving sadaqah (gifts) to the needy and the less privileged.

He further urged people to use the Ramadan period to repent from all bad acts and other social vices by following the teachings of the noble Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

He also asked Muslims to pray for an end to terrorism, armed banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling and other crimes bedevilling the country so that the government can continue to bring the dividends of democracy to the people.

He appealed to traders in selling essential commodities to cut down prices throughout the blessed month, and beyond, so as to benefit from Allahs rewards.

He assured of his administrations commitment to upholding all the Islamic norms and values entrenched in the teachings of Islam.

He prayed for the successful completion of the Ramadan fast with ease and blessings. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Perpetua Onuegbu

The Federal Government should make the Abuja Master Plan public to end the misery and anguish of private sector and individual developers.

Mr China Emeka, a housing expert, made the declaration in Abuja on Tuesday when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Emeka said the current system in which the Plan is shrouded in secrecy has contributed to the somersaults in its execution.

He decried the situation where the Master Plan had been the exclusive preserve of successive administrators of the Federal Capital Territory.

An incumbent Administrator at the Federal Housing Authority approves the erection of structures in a particular area as being in compliance with the Master Plan.

As soon as another Administrator succeeds the officer, he or she declares the approval as not being in consonance with the Master Plan and orders demolition of the structures.

This is regrettably causing a lot of problems and losses to developers who are punished for not following a Master Plan to which they were not privy, Emeka said.

All individuals, public and private investors should have free access to a copy of that Master Plan.

It should be available for sale just like newspapers and nobody under any circumstances should be allowed to build outside the Master Plan.

That way, when everyone is aware of the demands of the Master Plan, following it becomes easier and violating it becomes an offence, Emeka added.

He noted that rate of adherence to the Master Plan in the city centre could be put at 80 per cent, while it could not be higher that 20 per cent in the satellite towns.

I will attribute the low implementation to the secrecy and exclusivity of the Master Plan and low administrative strength in implementation, he said.

The housing expert said prospective house owners would continue to encounter problems unless the Master Plan became public knowledge and accessible to all.

TheAbuja Master Plan must be all-inclusive of the Area Councils and all the land mass planned, gazetted and made public to all stakeholders, he added.

The real estate strategist also recommended that all cities, layouts, area councils and upcoming settlements should be deliberately planned and designed.

He added that this should be done in a detailed document that would guide the public and such documents should be made public.

This way, we will be creating better planned, deliberate cities, he stressed.

NAN reports that there had been public outcries in recent times overdistortion of the original Abuja Master Plan.

The most recent was by Adkan Residents Association in Gwarinpa, an estate within the city (actually the largest single housing estate in Africa).

They accused the Federal Housing Authority of selling off some parts of the estate meant for recreational purposes.

The Authority countered the claim by dissociating itself from such sale,and said all its projects wereexecuted according to the same Master Plan which is kept away from the public as a secret document. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

By George Odok

Gov. Ben Ayade of Cross River has charged Muslims to use the Ramadan period to pray for Gods intervention in the myriad of challenges currently facing Nigeria.

The governor congratulated Muslims on the beginning of Ramadan fast, describing it as a period for sober reflection.

In a Ramadan message signed by Mr Christian Ita, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, on Tuesday in Calabar, Ayade called for peaceful coexistence of Nigerians devoid of ethno-religious wrangling.

He said that God has a reason for bringing together people of diverse culture and religion to form a country.

The month of Ramadan is sacred and holy. It is also a month of sober reflection and introspection.

I, therefore, call on the Muslim Ummah to use this holy month to seek Gods intervention in the myriad of challenges facing our country.

God did not make a mistake bringing people of diverse culture and religion to form a country.

He has a reason for it, he said.

He thanked the Muslim community in the state for its unflinching support to his administration, stating that he was looking forward to breaking fast with them someday.

I am looking forward to a day when I will sit down and break the fast with the Muslim community leaders who have contributed immensely to the social, political and economic development of our dear state.

Cross River is an example of a state where there is co-habitation among diverse people, religion, ethnicity and tribes.

There are over 20 Muslims holding important political positions in our government.

This goes to show that in Cross River competence is placed above primordial, ethnic and religious sentiments, the governor added.

He wished the Muslim community a successful Ramadan, praying that the holy month brings peace and development to Nigeria, starting from Cross River. (NAN)

Source: NAN News