₦airaland Forum

verifiablefacts:
What are you saying, we no fresh for rivers?

The Federal Government and two states of the federation; Lagos and Niger states have launched plans to procure no fewer than 7,700 Compressed Natural Gas-powered mass transit buses to cushion the impacts of fuel subsidy removal in the country.

An investigation carried out by Saturday PUNCH revealed that the Federal Government had planned to procure 5,500 CNG buses and tricycles, while both Lagos and Niger states had provided plans for 2,000 and 200 gas-powered buses respectively to ease the cost of transportation in their states.

The Presidency had said that the Federal Government kick-started its CNG initiative in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital on Wednesday, May 29, as part of plans to commemorate the first anniversary of President Bola Tinubu.

The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, who disclosed this, said the state governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, launched the refuelling and conversion centre for the programme and unveiled the Federal Government CNG buses and tricycles in Ilorin.

He said, “There was a launch in Ilorin Kwara State today (Wednesday) by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazak. The Ilorin launch was a refuelling and conversion centre.

“CNG buses and tricycles were also unveiled. The CNG vehicle assemblers have begun the rollout, beginning from Ilorin.

“The inauguration began today in Ilorin. It started with a conversion centre before they unveiled some CNG buses and tricycles. They have not given a date for Abuja. But the process started today,” Onanuga stated.

Recall that the presidential aide had in a statement issued on April 21, 2024, said the Federal Government was ready to launch about 2,700 CNG-powered buses and tricycles before May 29, 2024, when President Tinubu turned one year in office.

In the statement titled, ‘Presidential CNG initiative set for rollout’, Onanuga said the Federal Government would deliver 100 conversion workshops and 60 refuelling sites spread across 18 states before the end of 2024.


He said the Federal Government was targeting the purchase of “5,500 CNG vehicles (buses and tricycles), 100 electric buses and over 20,000 CNG conversion kits, alongside spurring the development of CNG refilling stations and electric charging stations”.

With necessary tax and duty waivers approved by President Tinubu in December 2023, Onanuga said, “The PCNGI Committee is partnering with the private sector to deliver the promise on the initiative.

“The private sector has responded with over $50m in actual investments in refueling stations, conversion centres, and mother stations. In all, over 600 buses are targeted for production in the first phase which will be accomplished this year.

“A new plant on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will assemble thousands of tricycles. The SKD parts manufactured by the Chinese company LUOJIA in partnership with its local partner to support the consortium of local suppliers of CNG tricycles are set for shipment to Nigeria and are expected to arrive early in May. About 2,500 of the tricycles will be ready before May 29, 2024,” Onanuga said in the statement.

Similarly, the Lagos State Government announced in April that 2,000 Compressed Natural Gas buses would be rolled out in the state before the end of 2024.


The state Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, made this known at the commencement of the 2024 ministerial briefing in the state last month.

Meanwhile, the Niger State Governor, Umar Bago, on Wednesday launched 200 CNG-powered buses to ease the cost of transportation in the state as part of plans to commemorate his one year in office.

While inaugurating the buses in Minna, the state capital, the governor ordered that students be exempted from paying transport fares whenever they board the new buses, while civil servants and security agencies were to pay half of the fares.

Hoelujohn:
I know a local government chairman who wasn't worth up to 100k but now worth over billions

seunny4lif:
We have been hearing this kind of story since the time of Adefariti then Agagu but Agagu messed up big time.


I was disappointed in him, apart from that unfinished university he brought to Okikipupa, Agagu let us down, he should have been our own Mimiko.

Hopefully Lucky will fix those roads around that area and make that part of Ondo state better

christejames:
Let's wait for sustainability...



I don't trust our politicians

nedu666:
So that people like you will shout Jonathan is targeting the opposition. We know your type

Nigeria may add 480,000 barrels to its daily crude oil output as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and ExxonMobil took a step towards resolving the disagreement surrounding the sale of the latter’s asset to Seplat Energy.

On Thursday, the NNPCL confirmed it had signed a settlement agreement with ExxonMobil companies in Nigeria over the proposed divestment of a 100 per cent interest in Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited to Seplat Energy Offshore Limited.

This is coming barely 24 two days after President Bola Tinubu announced his intervention in the debacle between NNPCL and ExxonMobil hindering the sale of the assets to Seplat.

The Minister of States for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri, said recently that Nigeria had lost about $30bn in the past two and a half years as a result of the unsuccessful divestment.

The minister expressed concerns that Nigeria was losing about 480,000 barrels of crude oil per day due to the Seplat/ExxonMobil crisis.

He said the asset was producing about 600,000bpd until the crisis began in 2022, saying the nation was losing millions of dollars daily.

The PUNCH reported earlier that ExxonMobil and Seplat Energy had in 2022 announced a $1.6bn sales agreement deal that would see Seplat purchase ExxonMobil’s complete shares in the NNPCL.

However, just when all hopes were high for the completion of the deal, a letter dated May 16, 2022, by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission to ExxonMobil, stated that the deal could no longer hold because the NNPCL had exercised its right of pre-emption first refusal on the assets.

Right of pre-emption is a legal right to parties in a joint venture to be the first to be considered for any planned sale or takeover of assets in the JVs if either party chooses to trade them off.

According to reports, the NNPCL objected to the sale of ExxonMobil’s equity to Seplat and insisted on exercising its first refusal right after which the company reportedly made an offer above $1.6bn to ExxonMobil.

But after about two years of litigation, there seems to be an end in sight to the crisis.

According to the minister, the oil output from the asset dropped to 120,000bpd down from 600,000bpd since the disagreement began.

Lokpobiri said, “For the past two and a half years, oil has been hovering around $80 per barrel. 480,000bpd, multiply it by two and a half years, it will give you about $34bn. If one asset was doing about 600,000 barrels; but because of the problems which we are trying to resolve, production declined to 120,000 barrels, which means we’ve lost about 480,000bpd. Multiply it by $80, every day you get about $240m; multiply it by two and half years; we are talking of over $30bn. Inject that into our economy today, the dollar will naturally drop. This exchange rate is a matter of demand and supply”.

The intervention of the President appears to have yielded the desired results with the NNPCL announcing the signing of a settlement agreement.


The energy company said, “Settlement agreement between NNPC Ltd. and Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mobil Development Nigeria Inc., and Mobil Exploration Nigeria Inc. signed regarding the proposed divestment of a 100 per cent interest in Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited to Seplat Energy Offshore Limited”.

It is believed that the resolution of the controversies surrounding the sale of the asset to Seplat would add about 480,000 barrels to Nigeria’s low oil production.

Seplat reacts

Alluding to this, Seplat’s Director of External Affairs and Social Performance, Chioma Afe, described the development as a good step.

Afe, in an interview with The PUNCH on Thursday, noted that the energy firm was waiting for approvals to be finalised, especially with the regulators.


“What Exxon and NNPC announced is a step in the right direction and it is a positive outcome,” Age stated.

She told our correspondent that the company did not have the details of the agreement as of Thursday, saying she would not be able to speak to its significance.

“What I can speak to is what we can take from that statement, which is that it is a good step. This was one hurdle. We needed NNPC and ExxonMobil to come to the table to sign an agreement that we agreed to the divestment. Which is excellent,” she explained.

Afe disclosed that other things need to take place, including the regulatory approvals and final government stamp, saying“We are waiting on that”.

Speaking on the impact of the resolution, Afe said it would serve to grow the overall business of Seplat.

On the nation’s economy, she said, “It will add to the number (of barrels) the country is seeking to be able to meet our OPEC number, that is more important; what it will contribute to the national number. It will contribute significantly to what the national output will be and that’s what we are very keen on”.

ExxonMobil has yet to reply to an inquiry sent by our correspondent as of press time.

The divestment deal between Seplat and ExxonMobil has been stalled for over two years.

On July 12, 2022, The PUNCH reported that NNPC blocked ExxonMobil’s asset sale to Seplat.


The report stated that NNPC won a court decision temporarily blocking ExxonMobil Corporation from selling assets in Nigeria to Seplat Energy Plc.

A judge in Abuja had granted NNPC an “order of interim injunction” on July 6, 2022, barring Exxon “from completing any divestment” in a unit that ultimately operates four licenses in Nigeria.

The Lagos-based producer, Seplat, had agreed to acquire the United States oil major’s subsidiary for at least $1.28bn in February.

The report stated that NNPC wished to block the transaction and to take over the permits itself.

NNPC sued Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited on July 5, 2022, asking the Federal High Court either to order that a dispute had occurred between the parties over preemption rights or to order them to take the matter to arbitration.

Seplat, which was not party to the lawsuit, had said its deal with Exxon was “still valid” and the company “remains confident that the matter will be brought to a proper conclusion by the law.”

But with the announcement of NNPC on Thursday, the coast may be clear for the deal to be concluded.

The acquisition would give Seplat additional production of about 95,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day from shallow-water assets that Exxon operated in a joint venture with NNPC.

For more than a decade, international oil companies active in Nigeria have been offloading large parts of their portfolio across the country to domestic players, a trend that has recently accelerated.

Kaptainkoko:
Someone instigated them with this quote
"Both baboon and monkey will be soak in blood"
Hope una touch am too

seborrhic:
Why arrest only the executioners of that well orchestrated and ordered murders?
They were only executing the directive given by a certain jihadist,that later became the worst president,till now,that Nigeria has ever known,a certain supporter of APC Buhari,who was the one that then said,"baboons will be soaked in blood".This mob was only carrying out that order.
Buhari should be arrested and charged with multiple capital crimes too.He no longer enjoys immunity.

Racoon:
Hope it includes Buhari whose inflammatory statements and rhetorics then led to the gruesome deaths of those innocent corpers? No sound criminal justice system in this nation.

Bauchi State Police Command has arrested suspects believed to be the masterminds of the 2011 post-election crisis in the state.

The crisis then led to the deaths of six National Youth Service Corps members and several police officers.

According to the Daily Post, this was disclosed by the Bauchi State Commissioner of Police, Auwal Muhammad, during a press briefing at the police headquarters on Thursday.

Muhammad explained that the initial failure to apprehend the suspects was due to the chaotic nature of the mob action that erupted at the time.

The post-election violence broke out shortly after the announcement of the victory of the then President Goodluck Jonathan in Giade Local Government Area of the state where a divisional police headquarters was set ablaze.

This resulted in the killing of the six corps members who took cover under the police.

While parading the suspects on Thursday, Auwal said: “On 18th April 2011 between the hours of 12:30 pm and 1pm, a group of youths led by one Kabiru Musa, known as Dawa, stormed Giade Divisional Police Headquarters, following the announcement of the 2011 presidential election result.

“Armed with weapons which included a knife popularly called Barandami, cutlasses, sticks, and petrol, they attacked PC Rifkatu Bappa who was on counter duty at the charge room.


“As a result, she sustained various degrees of injuries and was immediately evacuated to FMC Azare and was confirmed dead by a medical doctor.

“Similarly, the said Dawa who was the ringleader and his gang members used petrol to set ablaze a motor vehicle, one Toyota Starlet belonging to Mr Peter Okoye, which was kept for safekeeping during the peak of the attack.

“In furtherance of this dastardly act, the said Dawa attacked, Bridget Peter Okoye, wife of Mr Peter Okoye, cut off her fingers, set fire to the said motor vehicle, and burned down the station which led to the gruesome murder of six corps members who were at the station for safety.”

He mentioned the deceased corps members as Nkwazema Anslem (Imo State) and Adewumi Seun Paul (Ekiti State).

Others are Okpokiri Obinna (Abia State), Teidi Olawale Tosin (Kogi State), Adewei Elliot (Bayelsa State) and Ukeoma Ikechukwu Chibuzor (Imo State).

According to the CP, the deceased NYSC members attempted to flee, but Dawa and his gang pursued them to their places of refuge and gruesomely murdered them one by one.

The syndicate also attacked and looted traders’ shops, carting away their wares.

“After a manhunt for a decade, the suspect has been arrested and the investigation is ongoing, after which he will be arraigned in court based on the findings of the investigation, ” he stated.

introvertme:
Nobody can get that rate with their debit card. Stop all these lies abeg, how much are they paying you?? Lmao.

igwebuike01:
And who gives a fvck about your inferior as.s? Always looking for cheap relevance. Nobody needs you

The Federal Government on Thursday inaugurated a 5.2 million standard cubic feet per day Compressed Natural Gas plant in Lagos, in an attempt to lessen the impact of petrol Subsidies removal on Nigerians.

The CNG plant was built through a partnership between NNPC Gas Marketing Limited and Transit Gas Nigeria Limited, owned by Axxela.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, who commissioned the plant at the Isolo Industrial Area, Ilasamaja in Lagos, said the occasion, under the theme ‘From Gas to Prosperity: CNG for All’, represents a critical turning point in the development of affordable, sustainable, and secure energy sources in the country.

The Minister described 2024 as a historic year for Nigerians, stressing that through his courageous decision to eliminate fuel subsidies and promote the acceptability and broader use of gas, President Bola Tinubu has brought about several fresh beginnings in the lives of Nigerians.

“Although the elimination of the Premium Motor Spirit subsidy has brought difficulties, it has also given us a once-in-a-lifetime chance to invent and adopt more economical, efficient, and sustainable energy alternatives,” the Minister stated.

Ekpo noted that the use of CNG as a transport fuel is a mature technology used globally as it is the cleanest burning fuel in terms of Nitro-oxide and soot emissions.

While it can be employed to power passenger cars and city buses, CNG passenger vehicles emit 5-10 per cent less CO2 than gasoline-powered vehicles, the minister added.

Earlier in his remarks, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, said to maintain energy security and provide more access to CNG by the Nigerian populace, NNPC reached a final investment decision with Axxela Limited to deliver six CNG mother and service stations plants and stations of 5.2mmscfd capacity each, in selected locations spread across the six geopolitical zones including the FCT to ease access to bulk CNG.

He stated that the move was in addition to NNPC Retail’s phased deployment of CNG in over 100 stations across the country as well as other joint venture partnerships on CNG.

In particular, Kyari revealed that the commissioning of the NNPC CNG Station in Ilasamaja was part of NNPC’s efforts to grow domestic gas supply and utilisation by deploying gas infrastructure nationwide.


He said the Petroleum Industry Act explicitly mandated NNPC to promote domestic gas utilisation, thereby strengthening the company’s resolve to deploy critical gas infrastructure projects across the country.

“NNPC will continue to deliver more strategic projects for the benefit of our country. We shall utilise our gas resources for industrialisation, power generation, and economic prosperity for all,” Kyari stated.

In his speech, the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the establishment of the CNG plant aligns perfectly with his vision for economic development, job creation, and industrialisation in the State.

He said in demonstration of its resolve to champion CNG utilisation across Lagos State, the State Government has concluded plans to deploy 2,500 conversion kits and over 2,000 new CNG buses, which will commence operations before the end of the year.


The Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, represented by the State Commissioner of Environment, Mr Ola Oresanya, said the state is supporting capacity building in CNG conversion to ensure sustainability and promote economic development within the state and beyond.

In his goodwill message, the Chief Executive of the Presidential CNG Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi described the plant commissioning as a testament to President Tinubu’s commitment to providing sustainable energy solutions for Nigerians.

The CEO of Axxela, Bolaji Osunsanya thanked all the stakeholders especially the NNPC for its consistent vision towards the delivery of the plant, stressing that his company’s many years of preparation have now met a golden opportunity to deliver cleaner, cheaper energy to Nigerians.

The NNPC CNG Station Ilasamaja is a 5.2MMscf per day capacity station that can serve vehicles and also supply gas to industries and other companies.

The Facility has dispensing points for filling cars, buses, trucks, and tricycles, utilising CNG, and can fill about 3,700 cars or 600 trucks/buses every day, thereby providing a constant supply of CNG.

potland:
if I slap you. which money?

AngelicBeing:
6 months ke, they should pronounce judgement in the next 6 week jare

The Federal Government has disclosed that it has electrified no fewer than 15 federal universities and teaching hospitals with hybrid solar grids with a combined capacity of 35.5 megawatts.

The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu, stated this at the just-concluded Alliance for Rural Electrification Energy Access Forum in Lagos.

Aliyu disclosed that the aim was to supply 24-hour electricity to 350,000 students while giving 50,000 lecturers access to electricity.

He explained that the Nigeria Electrification Project, funded by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, was a $550m project.

One of the universities, he said, included the University of Maiduguri and its teaching, where a 12MW solar grid was installed.

Others are the University of Abuja; the Federal University, Yobe; the Federal University of Calabar and its teaching hospital; the Nigerian Defence Academy; the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta; the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, and others.

The REA boss maintained that the projects in those academic institutions would be launched by the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, in the next two months.

He added that similar projects were ongoing at the University of Port Harcourt; the University of Uyo; the Federal University of Technology, Owerri; the Federal University of Technology, Akure; the Federal University, Lafia; Modibbo Adama University, Yola, and the Federal University, Lokoja.


“The University of Maiduguri’s project is one of the biggest ever done in this country. This is powering the entire university and the only teaching hospital in the entire geopolitical zone. It is also supplying electricity to the water treatment plant in Borno State. This is a 12MW project that is almost completed, and it will be commissioned by the minister in the next two months.

“These projects are going to impact 350,000 students with 24-hour electricity supply. It will also provide over 50,000 lecturers with access to electricity,” Aliyu stated.

He added that over 150 mini-grids had been deployed across the country, with 100 50-kilowatt containerised mini-grids across about 100 health institutions.

He stated that the agency would also launch an interconnected mini-grid of about 1MW to serve 6,000 households in Ondo State.

On complaints that projects executed by the REA did not have a national spread, Aliyu reacted, “The challenge is enormous. No matter the intervention that REA does, you hardly see it until we can scale up to a more significant level. No matter what we do, until we start deploying mini-grids in thousands, that is when we can address this. We are still in the hundreds”.

The PUNCH reported that President Bola Tinubu had approved a $750m World Bank loan for the construction of 1,200 mini-grids in rural communities across the country.


According to Aliyu, Tinubu approved the fund for distributed access through a renewable energy scale-up project, which is aimed at providing energy access to Nigerians in rural communities.