₦airaland Forum

A civil lawsuit brought in the US says MTN paid protection money to the Taliban; and actively helped its fighters from being detected by US counter-insurgency forces

MTN, along with five other companies, have been accused in a US court; of having violated the Anti-Terrorism Act by paying protection money to the Taliban; a designated terrorist organisation known to have been working with al-Qaeda.

The Taliban was overthrown by US-led forces in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks; when the US accused Afghanistan’s ruling party of harbouring those responsible for the attacks.

MTN also confirmed the lawsuit in a statement issued on Monday, December 30.

The lawsuit filed in the federal court of the District of Columbia; seeks damages on behalf of the American service members and civilians and their families; who were killed or wounded in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017.

“Defendants decided that buying off the terrorists was the most efficient way to operate their businesses while managing their own security risks; even though doing so jeopardised other American lives,” the suit reads.

MTN Group and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, MTN Dubai and MTN Afghanistan are listed as defendants.

“MTN is reviewing the details of the report and is consulting its advisers; but remains of the view that it conducts its business in a responsible and compliant manner in all its territories; and so intends to defend its position where necessary,” the company said in the statement.

The lawsuit further claims that MTN has made protection payments to the Taliban from 2006; resulting in payments potentially amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
This, it is claimed, became a major source of funding for the Taliban.

“MTN was a particularly aggressive practitioner of protection payments. Rather than invest in expensive security for its transmission masts, MTN purchased security by buying it from the Taliban,” the papers states.

The lawyers representing the families base their allegations on a wide range of evidence; including confidential witnesses, internal company documents and declassified government-intelligence reporting.

https://1stnews.com/mtn-involved-with-al-qaeda-victims-testify/

Trippledots:
Pls can i get the link? Or urs if you don't mind giving it out.

Please note that the screen display can not be switched off, at least that's with the one I have. This picture seems to show an improved new model (can't be so sure but the switch on this is different from that in mine).

Also I found out that generally, inverters with in-built AC charger tend to have higher no-load consumption hence the reason I retired it for one with no AC charger. I didn't really test the consumption but I took that "fact" of higher no-load consumption as a fact.

This inverter has in-built voltage stabilizer as well, so I guess that will further contribute to no-load consumption.

Another thing noteworthy in this inverter is the fact that when the charging voltage is low to around 180v to around 196v (which is very common with NEPA supply) and you have appliances plugged into it, the voltage stabilizer switches the battery charging off and shunts the voltage directly to power the appliance, hence battery charging suffers. But if appliances aren't plugged in during this period, the battery is charged.

If voltage input is adequate, charging is quite fast (I think the in-built charger is 20A) and it is able to power appliances at the same time.

I hated that problem so I bought an external charger to charge my batteries.

solasola:
hello ceaser, pls help out with recomending a 12v pure sine wave hybrid inverter with adjustable dod that can power a 150w fridge. Thanks

I actually have one that I have retired. Very good product like that. Used for a year. 12v "BTS" PSW with AC charger with 20% 50% selectable DoD. But it's 750kva so I'm not too sure if it will handle your load. I believe the highest KVA with 12v in that product line up is 1.2kva. Higher KVA come at 24v nominal. It was bought off of Konga. I'll see if I can retrieve the link.

solasola:
hello house, being a while. need some inputs on this.
I currently have a system that works well for me.
2pcs of 100ah batteries in parallel.
40a pwm cc, 1000w modified 12v inverter and a 600w pv (150x4) in parallel.
inverter runtime is from 7am to 9:30 pm daily with average load of 80w. from 9:30pm to 7am, I run dc loads of about 80w load.
am able to achieve. above 50% dod with this setup. I am now upgrading as I need am adding a 80w AKIA fridge to the setup. the fridge will run during peak sunlight around 11am to 3am.
I would still love working with a 12v inverter because of my Dc loads.
whats your take on the required upgrade.@ceaser,topmost,kiekie,..niyi....ojesky....etal

I think your 600 watts panel will still be sufficient to power the total 160 watts load and charge the battery sufficiently especially during this periods of good insolation, you may need to add more for the rainy season.

You are about putting two appliances with huge startup current on the set up. The two will have to start at different times. A 1000 watts (2000 watts surge) may be sufficient.

And why modified sine inverter with your refrigerator? You may get by with this but believe me, that is not healthy for the compressors. Akin to someone binging on junk foods instead of better foods. Such individual may get by for sometime, but if obesity doesn't catch up soon, hypercholesterolemia and MI will.

As per 12v vs higher volts, well my take is that I have done fine on loads within 200 watts on 12v system but with good cabling sizes. Although on the flip size, I wished I'd started with 24v system since I now have 24v lithium within reach (I'd stayed away from 24v system because of the trouble with battery balancing and other babysitting that 24v lead acid set up requires).

While 200 watts load on your 12v system may not be much of a hassle in surge-free conditions, the challenge I foresee is the startup surges of the devices (now 2 of them) which 24v will have handled seamlessly.

Your choice of 12v DC devices should not preclude you from upgrading to 24v system, in fact you have better versatility with 24v system: longer run distances at lower heat losses and you still get to be able to use devices that may require 18v-24v DC. I have a water tank level meter cum pump controller that is 15vdc - 24vdc rated, so there are everyday devices that still run on higher than 12v.

Better still, if you are on 24v and needs to run 12v devices, high efficiency, minimal losses buck converters abound out there that you can always rely on.

Please await input from the gurus in the house.

earthrealm:
HMMM..MAYBE I WANT MINE TO TRACK SOMETHING DIFFERENT,
THE ENERGY BEING DRAWN FROM THE PANELS via the cc, i already know, as the cc tracks/displays that.
what i want to track/know is the energy being taken from my battery from the inverter to power loads, my mustpower inverter simply shows instantenous load, but i need to know the total daily kwh taken from my battery daily, thats the main reason i bought the unit.

my lil confusion is with the cc+inverter in the mix, both acting as energy supplier and then inverter acting as energy consumer {which in my mind = LOAD}, when phcn is off

my plan for connecting it - battery = dc in
inverter = load

Perhaps you'll do better with new types of DC meters that utilize hall sensors rather than wire connections to measure the energy consumption. The terminals on those ones are usually limited to the Voltage input, hall sensor terminal and the temperature probe terminal for those with temperature parameters (that's about four terminals in all). The energy is measured with the hall sensor. Some have the added advantage of being able to simultaneously measure parameters either way i.e. the energy going into the battery and the energy being utilized all through the same wire(s)

They are a little bit pricey though.

By the way, I am wary of putting energy meters in-between the solar panels and the Charge Controller cos one MPPT CC manual I have explicitly forbade it. However I still love to do that.

Has anyone done that with an MPPT SCC without consequences?

queenfav:
happy New year solarlanders.Pls i just got this hisense fridge,i can't seem to find d watts it uses.Pls can anyone help me figure that out from the info here?

Olendave has given a likely consumption of your device.

But the other way to be absolutely sure about your device is to have a wattmeter handy. Use it to determine the consumption of this fridge.

Subsequently when you wanna purchase any AC appliance, go to the merchant armed with the meter and have it plugged into the appliance when it's being tested. You can then relay your findings to guys here to help decide before your buy.

Callmenuel1:
60watt solar flood light available, #16 000. Contact us on 08168986461

How many hours into the night does this work (at full brightness) after full charge?

And I hope it's not with PIR sensor.

saint2ace:
Got hit by the spam bot yesterday while trying to post the link to the power bank case you posted here, na wa oh. By force holiday

Sorry bro. That thing could be so annoying . Me Don become veteran for that ban thingy.

EgunMogaji2:
Looks like the antispam bot scored. Again.

Baba, it did. Multiple times sef. The thing tire me.

BetaTechnicians:
Are you charging with solar panel directly?

Read the item description well before you increase solar panel


and before you also increase the batteries, keep in mind that the BMS may not support it.

Are you charging with solar panel directly?

Yes, 80 watts for the first one I ever bought. And that's what I've used for almost two years. Being 100% off grid, no time for PHCN.

The one in the picture is the 3rd one I purchased purposely to mod into the fan about the same time I bought the latter off of Konga. But it is currently on 50 watts panel and doing fine.

Read the item description well before you increase solar panel

I understand your concern. The instructions on the site states that you can charge with a laptop charger (which mostly gives 19vdc out). Some chargers are rated for as much as 4 amps. 3.3amps spec on this power bank X 19VDC is 66 watts input.

I've actually hooked up extra 3s2p pack to one before (totalling 3s4p) and on a 50 watts panel it did fine. Before 2pm battery is fully charged. Backup was much longer.

There's actually another type of power bank/ups (bought on Kong's) with much smaller and less powerful BMS that had done fine on extra 3s2p and 50 watts panel, so I was sure this having more powerful circuitry will handle it.

@earthrelm, whwnevr I quote that your post to respond, I get bot-whacked.

kindly confirm the original sellers name. this is the you posted.
where did you buy the batteries and for how much?

NB: Pardon that I spelt your username wrongly. I had to remove a letter cos I just didn't know the trigger word that gets me slammed.

Can't even use the word "baaanned" cos it's a suspect too.

Trippledots:
What's LFP pls?

LiFePo4

I hope the bot won't ban me for that harmless reply.

NB: Just got a ban lifted this afternoon.

igbesachick:
what makes things most hilarious is, in china there is no liberty of speech, and no report of any corruption news, and thus every chinese innocently thinks they live in a zero corruption country.

HOPELESS !

This is so akin to the hate speech bill that Nigerian politicians are trying to pass.

If they get thru with it, then mum's the word on citizens crying foul of any misdeeds by politicians.

Like in China, corruption may even eventually be included among the "hate speech words"

igbesachick:
in china, usually under 2 circumstances, will a corruption be busted.

one is , your father is murdered by a greedy corrupt official, and you swear to run him in even in risk of your life. your a deadbeat.

two is, you are a concubine of an bigwig, and he throws you in jail after he is sexually fed up with you or even worse, he has to get rid of you in order to exculpate himself of his corruption evidence. and you, a dumped concubine, after 10 years" jail life, comes out and seeks revenge by reporting everything to the police.

Waoh. These are serious revelations.

Trippledots:
A nairalanders shop got razed down by his li-ion battery pack oh... Choi!

I suppose LFPs are much safer sha. The worst experience that I've had with LFP misuse/maltreatment is swelling and outright power degradation. I have LFPs replaced the AGMs inside the house. Li-ion will not tolerate such nonsense hence all Li-ion packs are hung outside.

saint2ace:
The connector cable from power bank to the appliances...

Aha! Now I get you.

If yours didn't come with it, then I'm 90% correct that you probably bought the product from one of the sellers that sell the imitation. The link I posted is that of the original guy and he sells with the adapters. Trice have I bought from him till date.

The only time I bought the cheaper alternative from another seller that turned out to be an imitation was the only one sold without the adapters.

johntolu:
I am sure you are saying this because you have not seen any of the X-rated movies the guy produced after he fled Biafra land.
You might want to see some of his porn movies to understand what I am talking about.

Please let's not call a dog a bad name simply because you want it hanged.

You have no evidences, yet you sound so emphatic. Haba!

saint2ace:
I ordered this

I hope you ordered from the seller that has the genuine product. I've had a genuine one working well for almost 2 years now. 3 months ago, I ordered a cheaper offer which was a perfect imitation from another seller and the way it functioned showed that it's not the real deal. In fact the power bank begun acting up on the 3rd week of use. I just filed dispute immediately and got my money refunded fully.

but how do I get the DC adapter, is it sold locally?

What DC adapter is that?

darkwan:
whats the sense of even votin goverment sef....??

lets beat each other up....!!

may the fittest man or woman win....

"The purge - Apocalypse"

darkwan:
whats the sense of even votin goverment sef....??

lets beat each other up....!!

may the fittest man or woman win....

"The purge - Apocalypse"

AreaFada2:
Abeg educate me on this minimum wage thing. Is it 30K or there's another minimum wage?

So you mean many people doing FG jobs using CONTISS or whichever salary scale of their MDA still earn below 30K monthly?

Biko how do they live on that in 9ja?

What kind of FG job roles do people get paid 30K doing aside BMC?

They've basic salaries, then they'll have allowances too.

I think that percentage was calculated as a fraction of basic salary. The allowances were left out. Including allowances would have given appreciable increase to the proposed MW, something that were giving people the excitement before this peanuts they begun to get in their alerts.

Penuelseun:
why don't you just screnshot the link and post it as a picture

Okay. Thanks.

saint2ace:
Don't post the complete link, leave spaces btw the slashes and u might just get away with it

Lol. The bot go just dey look you guys. E go be like "another ban loading in 3, 2, 1..."

Valto:
i decided to order some items from justcallmenuel. his services is very fast and efficient. he is ever ready to pick your calls, share his transaction processes through whatsapp pictures. he even helped settle a dubious transaction i had with another reseller. all items has been sent & received at bayelsa park in lagos. i now await the arrival of the goods.

Nice. Good job

ifecx4real:
Good morning, still need assistance

First is that you left out the info (specs) of the luminous inverter.

More important is that you left out info of your loads or at worst describe the gadgets that will be placed on the inverter and the back up time (duration of time- runtime after full charge) you desire

After those are boxes are checked, then people can drop a point or two on your panel requirements, battery backup requirements and possible upgrades in inverter if there is necessity to be tailored to your load.

There shouldn't be much qualms about in-laws coming to live with the couple. Africans generally and Nigerian in particular have a communal culture. Your kids are even raised by the whole community. This is what has been able to still keep some sanity within the concept of family in traditional Africa, though this concept is being gradually eroded with neocolonialism something which is responsible for the upsurge vices (advanced fee frauds, LGBTQ etc) amongst children.

What should worry anyone though is the question of the couple going to live permanently with parents especially that of couple permanently living with parents of the wife.

How is the yield of the suckers?

How many cycle of harvest annually per plant can it give?

simydan:
Abeg make you volunteer na

Ha, spare me abeg. I'm too trusting and it'll be disastrous.