n this report, Jennifer Ugwa writes about illegal importation of damaged and obsolete cooling appliances into the Nigerian electronics market and its impact on environment and health.

Fourteen months after Juliet Moses bought a secondhand refrigerator from Alaba International in Lagos, the biggest electrical and electronic market in West Africa, she returns for another one. Her previous purchase is clearly malfunctioning.

“I woke up one day only to realise that the food I had stored in the freezer had gone bad,” says Moses, a housekeeper. “Only the top half of the refrigerator was working, and the freezer wasn’t working.”

Moses had bought the refrigerator for N60,000 ($154.63), a price higher than a new one of similar size at the time. She is convinced that a secondhand refrigerator from America and Europe is more durable than new but substandard products sold in Nigeria, mainly from China.

But purchasing a reliable secondhand product in the market is a gamble. “We buy untested from suppliers in Europe. So we sell untested to make a profit,” says Chijioke Igbokwe whose shop Moses has come to buy another refrigerator.

In his shop at Fridge Line in Alaba International, arrays of imported second-hand electronics like refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines and cookware are on display. For a moment, he haggles over a double-door Samsung refrigerator with a customer and eventually settles for N120,000 ($644.33).

Last September, Igbokwe received a 40-foot container with nearly 200 pieces of used electronics from Europe and within a few months, he had sold most of the appliances. He says he spent about N4 million ($10,309.28) on shipment to Lagos port, adding that he spent additional N5 million ($12,886.6) to clear the goods from the port.

The importation of electrical, electronic equipment or used EEE is not prohibited in Nigeria. In 2019, the country’s imports of EEE amounted to about US$3.72 billion, according to the United Nations import and export database, COMTRADE.

But importing end of life (EoL) and damaged equipment, known as electronic waste or e-waste, is illegal. Under section 67(1) of the National Environmental Regulations, the offence is punishable with a fine of N5,000,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding ​​two years or both.

The Basel Convention treaty which Nigeria has signed discourages e-waste trade because of toxic materials and heavy metals in used electronics that are harmful to health and the environment.

Almost three decades after the treaty’s ratification and national regulation, approximately 15,700 tonnes of damaged EEE enter the country annually, according to a United Nations funded report.

The report found that over 2,300 tonnes of damaged refrigerators and 1,500 tonnes of air conditioners were shipped into Nigeria from high-income countries in Europe, Asia and America illicitly.

In the past decade, despite national and global conversations about the danger of dumping e-waste in low-income countries, lax regulation and enforcement have made Nigeria an attractive destination for toxic e-waste.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-toxic-e-waste-from-high-income-countries-booms-in-nigerian-market/

CONCERNS over voter apathy heightened on the eve of the Anambra State governorship election as residents stayed indoors despite the cancellation of the sit-at-home order issued by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The IPOB had threatened to lockdown Anambra and other parts of the South-East for six days – including the day of the election – if its detained leader Nnamdi Kanu was not released by the Nigerian government.

It was widely believed that the planned six-day sit-at-home was aimed at stopping the Anambra governorship poll in line with the declaration by pro-Biafra separatists that the Nigerian government would not be allowed to conduct elections in territories of the defunct Republic of Biafra.

The sit-at-home order was eventually called off on November 4 – about 48 hours to the election.

While announcing the cancellation of the order, IPOB urged the people of Anambra to turn out enmasse and vote in the election.

But The ICIR observed in Awka, Anambra State capital, and other parts of the state that most residents stayed indoors on November 5.

Only a handful of residents came out of their homes as most of the major streets and roads were empty.

Although commercial vehicles, including buses and tricycles otherwise known as Keke, plied the roads, few passengers were available.

Traffic was light in different parts of the state but vehicles were able to move about freely without any hindrance or molestation.

The ICIR also observed that a handful of shops also opened for business.

The shops operated freely – there were no reports of any attempt by hoodlums to stop anybody from doing business.

Residents who ventured out of their houses to attend to different private or commercial engagements also moved about freely.

But some shops which opened for business closed early due to little or no patronage as most residents remained indoors.

Heavily armed soldiers and policemen continued to patrol major streets and roads in the state.

The prevailing situation heightened concerns that voter apathy would mar the governorship poll.

Further checks by The ICIR revealed that most residents were not aware that the sit-at-home order had been cancelled.

https://www.icirnigeria.org/anambra-election-concerns-mount-over-voter-apathy-as-residents-stay-indoors/

HEAVILY armed troops of the Nigerian Army and men of the Nigerian Police Force are patrolling the streets of Awka and other parts of Anambra State ahead of the November 6 governorship election.

The ICIR observed that armed security agents were positioned in strategic locations in different parts of the south-eastern state.

The governorship poll is holding amid threats posed by pro-Biafra separatists who have declared an intention to stop the Nigerian government from conducting elections in territories of the defunct Republic of Biafra.

A pro-Biafra group the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has threatened to lock down Anambra and other parts of the South-East by ordering a sit-at-home for six days - including the day of the election - if its detained leader Nnamdi Kanu is not released.

It is unlikely that the Nigerian government will release Kanu, and there are concerns that the secessionists may attempt to disrupt the election by attacking voters and electoral officials.

The Nigerian government has vowed to go ahead with the election with President Muhammadu Buhari ordering heads of the country's security agencies to ensure the success of the poll at all costs.

The ICIR learnt that the strategy adopted by Nigeria's military and Police authorities towards ensuring the success of the election included deployment of an 'overwhelming' number of heavily armed security personnel in Anambra State.

The Nigerian Police said they had deployed over 34,000 officers for the poll.

In Awka on November 3, The ICIR observed that heavily armed security operatives were controlling traffic at some busy locations in the state capital.

While their armed colleagues directed vehicular movement, combat-ready soldiers and policemen stood on the alert with their hands on the trigger of their guns.

In an apparent show of force, mobile units of the Army and the Police were conducting a 'round the clock' patrol of Awka and other parts of Anambra.

Siren-blaring patrol vans loaded with heavily armed troops and policemen were touring the state.

* Anxiety grips residents

However, despite the threat of violence hanging over the election, The ICIR observed on November 3 that residents of Awka were moving about their normal activities.

Offices, shops and markets were open, and private and commercial vehicles plied the streets.

Large numbers of residents were seen at busy locations such as Aroma Junction and Unizik Junction.

Major markets in Onitsha and Nnewi were also open.

But The ICIR also observed that some residents were worried about the election.

https://www.icirnigeria.org/residents-on-the-edge-as-heavily-armed-troops-patrol-anambra-ahead-election/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KjBHa3Tmvk

MOST undergraduates of tertiary institutions across Nigeria engage in the Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) to acquire more practical knowledge of their studies. The scheme is managed by the ITF and lasts for three to 12 months depending on institutions. Students are provided a N15,000 allowance upon successful conclusion of the training. However, many students who have participated in the training never received the stipend even after graduation.

Kuvia Mamza studied Microbiology between 2016 and 2020 at the Federal University of Technology, Minna.

She had participated in the SIWES training in 2019 and her Industrial Training at El-Rapha Hospitals and Diagnostics, Abuja.

She told The ICIR that neither she nor members of her class received the stipend upon completion of the training.

“They didn’t pay us. I haven’t seen the money till date. They didn’t even pay anybody in my class,” she said.

An alumnus of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) Chidiogo Ogamba graduated from the Department of Environmental Management in 2018.

She had her SIWES training in 2017. She told The ICIR that she had filled in the necessary details and submitted the forms required of her before proceeding with the programme.

According to Ogamba, nobody in her department received the stipend after concluding the programme.

“I didn’t get that payment. I know some people later started getting the payments in some other departments, but not all departments were paid. They didn’t pay us and there was no explanation,” she said.

Kennedy Uzoma had his SIWES training as a student of Imo State University in 2014. He told The ICIR that he did not receive the SIWES allowance, though almost all his classmates got the payment.

“I didn’t bother following up on it or asking why I wasn’t paid. The process would have been too stressful, so I let it go,” he said.

Obianuju Ezenwosu graduated from the Federal Polytechnic, Oko in Anambra State.

She undertook her one-year SIWES training in 2015, but yet to receive her stipend till date.

Students from Nigerian tertiary institutions and other stakeholders have condemned the continuous non-payment of allowances by the ITF over the years.

In 2017, the House of Representatives addressed the issue during a plenary session, but four years after, the problem has persisted.

Despite the large number of students who never get paid after participating in the training, some others have attested to receiving the allowance.

Divine Mgbenobi had spent the years between 2015- 2019 studying Architecture at Caritas University, Enugu State.

In 2018, she had gotten placement for her IT at El-Mansur Atelier, Abuja, which lasted for six months.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/non-payment-of-stipends-mars-siwes-training-in-nigerian-schools/

Four years after being arrested, Joel Nnaemka Ugwuoke has not returned from the station - neither has he been seen.

JOEL Nnaemeka Ugwuoke, who was arrested at 21, was an aspiring musician and a Hip-hop fan.

He also loved football and played the beautiful game with friends and neighbours.

Joel worked at construction sites - mixing sand and cement, and moulding cement blocks. He had also started learning how to paint houses.

An indigene of the southeastern town of Nsukka, Jude was a Political Science freshman at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).

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People in his family and neighbourhood say he was a respectful and hardworking young man.

On January 12, 2017, three days after his matriculation into the university, a group of local security men, in the company of officers of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), came to the Joel’s parents’ house, located behind Bishop Shanahan Hospital, a Catholic Church-owned hospital in the southeastern town.

The officers knocked on the door of the house at 3 am.

They said they worked at the hospital and demanded to know the whereabouts of Joel. Nkechi Ugwuoke, one of Joel’s sisters, told the officers where her brother was: at the house of another of their sisters in the neighbouring community of Nru Nsukka.

Uzoamaka Ugwuoke, Joel’s other sister, says she was angry that Nkechi Ugwuoke revealed their brother’s whereabouts, although she acknowledges that her sister had spoken out of fear. Uzoamaka joined the local security men and the Anti-Kidnapping officers, who she remembers numbered up to 15, in their Hilux and directed them to Nru Nsukka, which was 20 minutes away.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/mysarsstory-disappearance-or-death/

THE Federal Ministry of Health has proposed a N91.4 million anniversary fund for its Abuja headquarters in its 2022 proposed budget.

The fund does not include allocations for similar activity by agencies, hospitals, and other institutions under the ministry in the financial year.

The headquarters of the ministry, located within the Federal Secretariat Complex, will spend the budget to commemorate six events.

Check by The ICIR showed that the minimum fund for commemorating each event is N10 million, and the highest is N35 million.

The ministry will commemorate International Cancer Week, World Cancer Day, World Drug Day, National Oral Health Week with N10 million each, making N40 million.

According to the budget, the World Drug Day and World Cancer Day commemoration will be accompanied by public enlightenment.

The ministry hopes to spend N35 million on the commemoration of United Nations World Day of Remembrance for Victims of Road Traffic Collisions (TRAUMA) and World Week of Remembrance of Crash Victims, World Trauma Week and Global Road Safety Week (GRSW).

It also plans to spend another N16.45 million on World Patient Safety Day Commemoration and public enlightenment on patient safety.

The funds will be taken out of the N711.28 billion proposed for the health sector, from the nearly N16.4 trillion Appropriation Bill for the year.

Recurrent expenditure, comprising salaries, funds for workers’ training and running of offices, will gulp N516 billion, while the remaining N194.6 billion, representing 27 per cen, is earmarked for capital projects.

Last week, the ICIR reported how the expenditures would consume 73 per cent of the ministry’s budget for the 2022 fiscal year.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/nigerian-health-ministry-budgets-n91-million-for-anniversaries/

THE Commissioner for information in Anambra State, Don Adinuba, said there had not been a single bank robbery incident in the state for seven and a half years; but his claim is exaggerated.

He spoke on a programme monitored on Arise Tv Wednesday morning, challenging anyone with a contrary opinion to come forward. He claimed the state was very safe until the advent of the Anambra 2021 election.

“Anambra is very safe until now. There has been no single bank robbery in the past seven and a half years in Anambra. I repeat, no single robbery in the last seven and a half years. ”

According to him, the security situation in Anambra is political.

He accused an unnamed contestant in the forthcoming Anambra election scheduled for November 6, 2021, as the primary culprit behind the current crisis in Anambra, claiming the particular candidate wants a state of emergency to be declared to be installed as the administrator.

“Someone in the race is very close to Minister of Justice and attorney general of the federation and wants state of emergency here so he can be in charge.”

He also speaks with confidence about the chances of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, in the coming election, claiming the party will win convincingly.

He concluded by praising the good works been done by Governor Willie Obiano administration in the education and other sectors.

The ICIR verified the claim of the Commissioner and discovered that there were a few cases of bank robbery in the state within the reported time though denied by the Anambra Police Command.

Indeed there were bank robbery incidents which the police claimed were unsuccessful.

On July 2, 2017, The Premium Times reported that the police arrested two suspected bank robbers in Anambra, a claim denied by Mark Ijarafu, the then Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ogidi division.

According to Ijafaru, “A three-man robbery gang at about 1 am on June 24, stormed one of the Union bank branches located at Nkpor.

“They tied the security man’s hands at his back, cut the iron door with a machine before gaining entrance.

“Their target was to open the vault and cart away money, but they could not cut the fourth barrier after cutting three others.

“Although their operation lasted till about 5.00 am, they only made away with a laptop.”

Also, on April 7, 2021, The Guardian Newspaper reported a bank robbery case with the headline “Bank Robbery: Anambra police confirm death of two students by stray bullets.”

The report claimed that two students died from stray bullets during the incident, but the then Command’s spokesman, Ikenga Tochukwu, reacting to the story, said there was no attack on any bank in the state, as being reported, and claiming the gunmen were hoodlums.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/commissioners-claim-that-anambra-has-not-witnessed-bank-robbery-since-2014-is-exaggerated/

A first-born son, Solomon Chinedu, was everything to his family. Now, thanks to the police, he’s no more.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZBLeNUcCfU

ESTHER Obi’s son, Solomon Chinedu Obi, was shot and killed during the #EndSARS protests last year on the 21st of October.

Solomon was the first of four children. His mother, Esther, who hails from Ezeagu in Enugu State, describes him as a blessing that arrived in her life on the 1st of October, 1998.

“Six years after Solomon was born, his father died, and our lives changed,” Esther says.

Life was tough for a single mother. Esther struggled to make ends meet to sustain the family. She and her children live in a small room made of patched roofing sheets with a leaky roof. Anytime it rains, the place gets flooded. And when the sun shines, they have to leave the room. It’s even worse when the weather is cold. They found themselves regularly visiting the hospital because they were always getting ill.

Despite these difficulties, she says, “I managed to raise funds for Solomon to train as a mechanic. The sacrifice paid off. In just four years of training, he quickly took to the craft, to the point that he could repair trailer vehicles, tankers and tipper trucks.”

Solomon was a caring and responsible young man. He was the family’s sole provider in his father’s absence and was only 22 years old when the police killed him.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/mysarsstory-a-familys-stolen-treasure/

WHEN the people of Anambra State go to the polls to elect a new governor on November 6, they will make a choice out of 18 candidates from 18 political parties.

It is poised to be a highly intriguing event that is slated to hold amidst uncertainty arising from the effects of the pro-Biafra agitation in Anambra and other parts of the South-East where secessionists, who insist on a breakaway Biafra nation, have declared an intention to stop the Nigerian government from conducting elections in territories of the defunct Republic of Biafra.

The ICIR’s analysis suggests that the outcome of the election would be influenced by a number of factors including incumbency, religion, federal might, voter turnout and zoning, among others.

The ICIR projects the election to be a four-horse-race.

The four leading candidates are a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), a captain of industry Val Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a one-time governor of Anambra State Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Senator representing Anambra South Senatorial Zone, businessman Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressives Party (YPP).

READ ALSO:

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There are two other candidates with an outside chance – the Chief Executive Officer of United Airlines Obiora Okonkwo of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and medical doctor and businessman Godwin Maduka of Accord Party.

The issues at play make the election highly unpredictable.

Be that as it may, The ICIR in this analysis assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the leading candidates.

Soludo
* Strengths

The former CBN governor is favoured by the power of incumbency – his party APGA has been the party in power in Anambra for the past 16 years and he is the personal choice of the incumbent Governor Willie Obiano.

He also boasts of a formidable track record in academics and public service. His supporters point to his achievements as CBN governor – when he championed the recapitalization of the banking sector – to advance the argument that Soludo is a top notch technocrat that would take the Anambra economy to greater heights.

But Soludo’s greatest advantage is the incumbency factor, according to a political analyst, chairman of Anambra Civil Society Network (ASCONET) Chris Azor.

Azor told The ICIR that the power of incumbency was a huge advantage for Soludo in the election.

“The power of incumbency is a major factor and as a result Soludo is the leading candidate.”

APGA was founded by the leader of the defunct Republic of Biafra, late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. It was conceptualized as an ‘Igbo party’ and Franklin Ebukah, who hosts a political affairs program on an Anambra-based radio station, told The ICIR that the sentiment that is associated with Ojukwu could work to Soludo’s advantage.

“One thing that is working for APGA is the belief that it is an Igbo party. That sentiment is a key factor in Soludo’s favour. APGA has been in power in Anambra for 16 years now so it is said that the APGA spirit is already in the state,” he said in an interview with The ICIR.

Ebuka added that since Obiano personally chose Soludo as his successor, it is expected that the state government would deploy all its resources to ensure that he wins the election.

Another Anambra-based political analyst, Chuka Obiano, told The ICIR that beyond the power of incumbency and other factors in his favour, Soludo was the leading candidate on issues outlined in the election manifesto.

Obiano added that the former CBN governor had already displayed the strength of character needed to govern Anambra State.

“Soludo has displayed calmness and stability of mind especially after some of his aides were killed during an attack launched on him in March this year,” he said.

Soludo also appears to have struck the right balance on the issue of religion – a major factor in Anambra politics where the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion are major power blocs that wield heavy influence in elections. Soludo is a Catholic and his running mate, Onyeka Ibezim, is a younger brother of the Anglican Bishop of Awka Diocese Alexander Ibezim.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/anambra-election-the-leading-candidates-their-strengths-and-weaknesses/

YETUNDE Adewole lost her phone in June. She got a replacement weeks later, including a new SIM card and everything went back to normal.

She didn’t give a thought to the missing phone or the SIM card until rumours started flying around in July.

Yetunde owed money. An online loan fintech company was sending WhatsApp and text messages to everyone in Yetunde’s inner circle that she was a debtor and fraudster.

Her close friends, former schoolmates, and work colleagues received these messages, three or four times daily.

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“I tried explaining to everyone on my contact list, whom I could get in touch with, that I didn’t take any loan from the online loan company and it has not been easy trying to clear my name for something I didn’t do.

“It was a really traumatic experience. My biggest regret was failing to block the line when my phone went missing,” she told The ICIR.

Yetunde had never taken a loan from an online loan app, but she failed to block her SIM card after her phone went missing.

If a missing phone fell into the hands of a scammer, a transaction could be done on the account of the phone owner without his or her knowledge.

All the scammer who picked up Yetunde’s SIM card needed to do was, download the online loan app, enter a fictitious financial detail, and let the algorithm generate a credit rating.

The fintech creditor usually asks for permission to access the contacts on the SIM card before the loan is approved, a process that takes barely an hour.

The scammer used Yetunde’s SIM card to take multiple loans from several online loan apps which included: NairaPlus, EasyCredit, TrueNaira, GoCash, CashLion and LCredit.

One month after, the online loan companies hounded Yetunde’s contacts, saying her payments for the loan was due.

She later reported the case to the law enforcement authorities and got a Police report and written affidavit.

The Police assured her of their intervention, promising that the messages by the fintech creditors to people on her contact list would cease.

Two weeks later, her friends still sent her screenshots of the threat messages by the fintech loan companies.

For thousands of Nigerians like Yetunde, whose identities were stolen by scammers, the online loan companies helped to publicly shame them without properly vetting their identities.

A data-sharing breach

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/nigerian-fintech-companies-shame-threaten-customers-for-late-payment-of-loans/

FOR a money-lending firm or financial company to legally operate in Nigeria, they must obtain a license from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. However, The ICIR investigation discovered that several loan firms in the country violate the rules and regulations of the apex bank.

Not only that, the companies use crude methods similar to Shylock tactic to enforce loan repayment from their customers.

In August, Adeleke Ekundayo, a businessman based in Ilorin, Kwara State, was desperate for quick cash to buy drugs for his ailing mother.

He had no savings to spare. Adeleke downloaded the GoCash app, a lending app and applied to get N8,000 to buy drugs for his mother.

They credited his bank account a few minutes later, but the loan agreement terms stipulated he would return the loan within seven days.

On the fifth day, Adeleke decided to seek an extension beyond the agreed date for payment after his mother died in the hospital.

He got a rude shock. When he explained his ordeal to the GoCash loan officer, the agent rejected his request and threatened to share information about his debt with friends and family on his phone contacts.

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At the due date, the debt officer made good on his promise. He sent messages to Adeleke’s friends, relatives and office colleagues saying he was a fraudster and had defrauded the money-lending company.

The regret of losing the trust of close friends and relatives sent Adeleke into a downward emotional spiral.

“It was the worst time in my life. I used to cry myself to sleep and contemplate suicide because those messages closed a lot of doors for me,” he told The ICIR.

When Adeleke finally got to pay the loan a week later, he settled with interest and overdue charges, but the messages had done the damage.

He paid his debt into a UBA bank account named “Soko Lending Company, GOCash Collection”, but his contacts still received messages that he was a fraudster.

Soko Lending Company is the parent company of the GoCash loan app, which is owned by its directors, a Chinese national, Lu Wang and Nigerian Ayodeji Ogunjimi Samson.

During his mother’s funeral, some of his relatives still got those damaging messages, and they called him to explain why he brought shame to their family.

His attempt to convince many otherwise failed.

In August, the National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) fined Soko Lending Company N10 million for sending threatening messages to borrowers, which constitutes a privacy invasion.

Opened on August 28, 2018, Soko Lending Company was legally registered (RC – 1520881) with the Corporate Affairs Commission; CAC, through its business name, has yet to comply with CBN’s licensing requirements.

There are 876 microfinance banks and 94 finance companies licensed by the CBN to engage in financial services, a list last updated on June 30.

Soko Lending Company was missing on the list. Any company offering financial services, except for stockbroking and insurance, must obtain a lending license from the CBN to operate.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-fintech-loan-sharks-in-nigeria-cyberbully-trap-customers-in-debt/

When the Adada River dam project was flagged off in 2011, residents of Enugu state were filled with joy. They expected that the dam will become a source of energy, create employment opportunities for the youths, aid farming activities, and at the very least, ensure the provision of potable water to their communities. But the joy and hope of 10 years ago have turned to frustration. JUDE CHINEDU, who visited some communities in Nsukka, Igbo-Etiti and Uzo-Uwani LGA which the dam ought to serve, reports on his findings.

IT was a sunny Tuesday afternoon in Nguru community, Nsukka LGA of Enugu state. Toiling under the sweltering conditions was Ikechukwu Ugwu, who had spent the entire day watering his pepper and tomato farm. He had stationed a tank in the farm from where he fetched water in a small cup which he applied to the crops. Ikechukwu is only able to do this with the help of his wife.

Ikechukwu spends a greater percentage of his earnings from the farm business to purchase water from vendors who charge N8,000 per tank. For a farming season, Ikechukwu buys 30 truckloads of water, amounting to N240,000. This has taken a serious toll on his finances as he now finds it difficult to take care of his family’s needs.

He said: “We get water from the tanker drivers who get it from the boreholes around Nsukka. Each load is between N8,000 and N9,000 and we buy over 30 loads before the rainy season.”

Ikechukwu is aware that the government was working on a dam just a few kilometres away from his small farm. He wants the dam completed so he can be relieved of the huge expenses and consequently boost the number of crops he is producing.

Dire as Ikechukwu’s situation appears, it is not peculiar. For Thomas Ugwu, a retired civil servant and native of Akachele Obimo in Nsukka LGA, the story is even worse. He can no longer afford to farm during the dry season because of the amount of money involved in getting water for his farm. Since his retirement from civil service many years ago, he had relied solely on the farm for sustenance. If there was a means, Thomas would love to cultivate all year round.

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Ikechukwu and Thomas’ plight mirrors the debilitating experience of farmers in other largely agrarian communities in Enugu North, known to have enormous fertile land for agriculture. But for this encumbrance, thousands of farmers in the senatorial zone are willing to engage in large-scale agricultural activities all year round.

Nsukka is one of the largest towns in Enugu state, with a population of 309,633, according to the 2006 census (though currently estimated at 1,500,000). Its ‘cleanest’ sources of water are from Asho, Ajie, Iyi-Nsukka, and Ikwoka Obimo springs located in different parts of the town. Nsukka is home to the foremost University of Nigeria and boasts of abundant human and natural resources, but the town is plagued by acute water shortages, which seem to have defied government efforts.

The springs are nowhere close to meeting the water needs of the people, and the only government-owned borehole is poorly reticulated and often not in use. Because of this, wealthy individuals now provide water for people by sinking boreholes and selling at very exorbitant prices. These water sources are mostly untreated and dangerous to the health of the people. Little wonder the people celebrated the award and subsequent commencement of work on the Adada River dam project in 2011 with much enthusiasm.

According to the Bureau for Public Procurement, the contract for the construction of the Adada River dam and associated works was approved by the federal executive council and awarded to an indigenous contractor, ROUDO Nigeria Limited, in 2010.

The cost of the project, according to the BPE, is N2,578,472,343.28. The project, expected to be built in three phases — damming, water treatment plant, and reticulation with a capacity of about 1.4 million cubic meters of water per year — was supposed to be delivered in 24 months.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/10-years-after-flag-off-n2-57bn-adada-river-dam-still-in-limbo/

JUST like his 81-year-old father Daodu, Solomon Yellowe loved singing in church. Solomon, the last of seven children, often went with his father to choir rehearsals at their Anglican church, stopping only when he got admission to study Religious and Cultural Studies at the University of Port Harcourt.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf4xrIDMETU

On March 13, 2019, 27-year-old Solomon, now a final year student, left his hostel in the Choba campus of the university to his department to write a test. He was seen on campus by his friends during this time. He later returned to his hostel.

That night, he left his hostel again to withdraw money from an ATM outside of the campus.

This time, Solomon did not return.

Noticing his strange disappearance, concerned family and friends tried to reach Solomon via phone. The calls went through without an answer. The next morning, a stranger picked up and said Solomon had given him the phone to charge.

Friends and family would continue waiting for Solomon, calling him, throughout the 14th and 15th of March, but he neither came back nor answered his phone. It was becoming clear that something was amiss, prompting a search.

On March 18, Solomon’s family began visiting police stations in Port Harcourt. His sister, legal practitioner Anna West, went to the office of the Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) in Rukpokwu, on the outskirts of Port Harcourt, in search of her brother, and was told Solomon was neither arrested nor in their custody.

Anna filed a missing person report at the police station and published it in the newspapers, on television, and on social media.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/mysarsstory-how-sars-killed-solomon-yellowe/

Dominic Onyeukwu managed to save his unborn son’s life during a riot. 20 years on, he could not prevent his son from being killed by SARS

WHEN the Kaduna Riot erupted in February 2000, the late Chibuike Ikeagwuchi was still in his mother’s womb. The riot, which led to over 200 deaths and many properties destroyed, later extended to Kano, where Chibuike’s parents lived at the time.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb5zrAbR-Og

As Chibuike’s mother, Agnes’, due date drew nearer, the riot had intensified. Chibuike’s father, Dominic, decided to prioritize the safety of his wife and family by evacuating them from Kano.

One night in March 2000, Dominic managed to get his plan of escape in motion. But there was a problem. When he and his family arrived at the Sabon Gari Park, the last bus of the F.G. Onyenwe Transport Company to Owerri was almost full, unable to accommodate all six family members.

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Dominic decided to put his pregnant wife and four children on the bus so he could stay behind and join them later. He wanted to, as he recalls, “allow my wife and children to arrive home safely without any pressure on the pregnancy.”

His family did arrive safely, and so did he, a month and two weeks later. The family had relocated to their hometown at Oboukwu Obizi in the Ezinihitte local government area of Imo State. There, Chibuike Ikeagwuchi was safely delivered.

“I avoided every trouble. I dogged every bullet,” Dominic remembers. “I did everything I could to make sure that the child was safe and secure.”

But two decades later, Dominic would not be in the position to protect his son, who was murdered in cold blood.

It was the afternoon of September 19, 2020. when an officer named Isaiah Bene, attached to the Nigerian Mobile Police Force (MOPOL) at the Elelenwo area of the Obio/Akpor local government in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, killed Chibuike, who had turned 20 just months before.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/cold-world-how-sars-killed-20-year-old-daniel-chibuike-onyeukwu/

HERITAGE BANK has failed to provide an update on the debt owed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in November 6 Anambra State gubernatorial election Andy Ubah.

On July 21, staff of Heritage Bank picketed the Abuja home of Ubah, a former senator representing Anambra South zone, for allegedly owing the bank.

Videos showed bank workers standing in front of Uba’s home, asking him to pay his outstanding debt.

On June 23, Uba threatened to sue the bank through his lawyer Ahmed Raji.


Buhari to security agencies: Anambra election must hold at all costs

A spokesman of the bank, Fela Ibidapo had denied that the protest was political or planned.

“That was not planned at all; the bank naturally will go and do recovery. If you check Mr. Andy’s letter through his lawyer, he never said he didn’t owe the bank,” the spokesman told Premium Times on June 23, referring to the video that was in public.

However, three months after this saga, no word has come from the bank to explain whether Uba has paid his debt as it earlier claimed or not.

Two text messages and one WhatsApp message sent to Head of Media and External Relations of Heritage Bank Blaise Udunze were not replied. When The ICIR called him, he promised to call back but did not.

The bank has an obligation to explain to shareholders and other stakeholders who owes what.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/heritage-bank-fails-to-provide-update-on-andy-ubas-debt/

NIGERIANS are beginning to shift to dirty fuels such as sawdust and charcoal as the prices of cooking gas, also known as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), continue to rise.

The price of LPG in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) increased from an average of N4,800 for a 12.5kg cylinder in June to about N7500-N8000 in October.

In Lagos, two persons who bought gas between early and mid-October said they paid N6,400 and N7,200 respectively. The price was below N5,000 in June, they said.

The 10.5 kg of gas costs N6,300 to N6,500 in Abuja. Same in Lagos.

A resident of Port Harcourt Johnson Wogu said he bought 10.5kg at N6,000 in late September 2021.

Acccording to warnings by gas marketers, the 12.5kg of gas is likely to cost N10,000 in the coming weeks.

Sarah Adejo, who lives in Piwoyi, Abuja, told The ICIR that she had newly acquired a charcoal stove with which she prepares food that consumes more gas such as beans.

“I don’t cook beans with gas anymore. I bought a charcoal stove and I use it to cook food that takes time to cook, like beans,” she said.

Yetunde Alade is a mother of three who lives in Mpape. She is considering the same option as Adejo and said it had been difficult keeping up with the steady increase in the price of the product.

A caterer Ebere Onyeali told The ICIR that she had resorted to use of charcoal for her cooking, stressing that most of her customers would not be able to pay beyond N400 per plate of food if she decided to raise the price.
“Charcoal is cheaper for me. The only difference is that I have to wake up very early to cook because charcoal takes time to get the food done.”
She urged the government to come up with incentives to ensure that price of gas was affordable to the common man.
Pape, Abuja-based Usman Aliyu, said he had moved to sawdust, which he could easily acquire with N1,000.
Tochukwu Ezemba, a resident of Onitsha in Anambra State, said his family now uses kerosene stoves, which it had abandoned five years ago.
“We use kerosene stoves now. We also have a ‘saw dust stove.’ The problem with them, however, is that they waste a lot of time. Also, the sawdust stove emits a lot of smoke.”

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/nigerians-shift-to-charcoal-sawdust-others-as-cooking-gas-prices-soar/

ABUBAKAR Sanusi, 22, still trembles. He is also at a loss for words, a month after being abducted in his village in Sokoto, North-west Nigeria, by a group of terrorists known as “bandits”. Anytime he recounts the long thirteen days he spent with the group in captivity, he shudders as beads of sweat settle on his forehead.

The time was 11:30 pm, on the last Friday of August. Goronyo was in its usual quietness until the moment the terror group attacked the village. They came riding motorcycles, shooting sporadically into the air. Sanusi, in his room with three other friends, heard a  bang on the door. But he was unmoved but became furious.

His anger, however, thawed the moment one of his friends, Faruk Jibo, 25, dashed back into the room, gasping for words to relay the horror he saw when he peeked through the window.

“We all heard that someone was at the door, and Faruk went to check through the window only to find out that someone dressed as an armed robber, holding a torchlight, was outside. He then rushed back and locked the door,” Sanusi recalled while speaking with CAMPUS REPORTER, adding that their heavy grunts alerted the terror group who forced their way into the room.

“Lie down and face the ground,” one of the men ordered the startled friends. His face wore a menacing scowl. “If anyone tried to stand or make any move to escape, he would be shot dead,” he declared and went to invade the next room, Sanusi narrated.

Kidnapping for ransom has been on the rise in Nigeria’s Northwest lately. Early in the year, abducted kidnapped a total of 2,944 victims across the country. Sanusi was kidnapped alongside his aged father, three friends and a neighbour.

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Theatre of fear, blood and death

That night marked the beginning of Sanusi’s horrific ordeal at the hands of the armed men. When they began the journey, he said the terror group covered their faces with rags so they could not recognise them and then walked them into the forest where they passed the night.

“We walked for about four hours before we got to a hill where they stopped us. They tied our hands and legs and covered our faces before asking us to sleep.  Later, I heard their boss saying to one of them to bring him water to gargle his mouth; then we realised it was daybreak. They  untied our hands and legs.”

But it wasn’t their final stop.  The bandits moved for another long hour and stopped at a shade to rest. There, they asked his father, Abubakar Danjuma, 65, the amount he could afford to secure their release. “₦1 million ($2,430),” he replied.

This response infuriated their abductors, who claimed the old man was lying because their ‘informant’ had told them the 65-year old man had just purchased a car worth ₦7 million ($17,000). They said: “he has houses in places like Abuja, Sokoto and Minna and that they can get huge amounts of money from him,” Sanusi recalled, his voice breaking intermittently. He said their abductors became impatient and started torturing them. His father and Nafiu Seidu, their neighbour, eventually agreed to pay a ransom fee of ₦50 million ($121,533) altogether.

“They told our neighbour they were aware that he was in charge of salary disbursement to security operatives in both Sokoto and Zamfara. So for that reason, he is to pay the sum of ₦40 million ($97,226) for ransom while my father would pay the sum of ₦10 million ($24,300).”

The armed men asked them to contact their relatives and gave an ultimatum of two days to pay the amount. However, the families were only able to gather ₦2.5 million ($6,076). The gunmen would not bulge. “They said if our people are not ready to have us, they should let them know so that they can kill us and move on.”

They had spent the twelfth night in the bush with the terror group, feeding on two meals per day. They also got them water to drink. When the kidnappers eventually removed the hood on their face, Sanusi discovered they were already in Kalgo, Zamfara state. The family continued haggling with the abductors until the terror group finally settled for ₦3 million ($7,293). They, however, killed his friends, Faruk Jibo, 25 and one other because “the amount was too small” compared to what they had demanded.

Sanusi’s experience is similar to several others’  in villages across the  Northwest as armed groups continue the reign of terror in the region unrestrained. The groups' activities have forced more than 80,000 civilians to flee their communities and find refuge in the Niger Republic. More than 8,000 people have been killed since 2011.

Last month, the governments of the northwestern states of Sokoto, Katsina, Zamfara, and Kaduna, took stringent measures to end terrorism and banditry in the region finally. These include the shutdown of telecom services, ban on weekly markets, among other measures.

Even at that, the region has continued to record unprecedented attacks on civilians and military formations. In Sokoto, most villages in the eastern flank have become strongholds of the terror groups.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/with-n3500-sokoto-residents-buy-locally-made-guns-as-insecurity-spikes-in-nigerias-northwest/

Unending Crisis: How herders invaded Plateau community in reprisal attack despite military presence
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Since the early 2000s, Plateau State has witnessed several violent communal clashes that claimed more than a thousand lives. Yet, the conflict are unresolved due to the failure of government at federal and state levels. More than a hundred lives and properties have been lost in fresh attacks by ethnic groups. The ICIR’s Lukman ABOLADE visited the state to track the triggers of the intercommunal strifes.
MARIO Gado sat on a chair wearing a polo top and Ankara wrappers with a long red scarf which she constantly used to wipe her tears. She had not spoken a word for many hours – her eyes were red and moist because of hours of crying.

Gado had just lost her husband, Ruvo Gado, in an attack orchestrated by suspected herders the previous evening.

Two sons, who were with her husband during the attack, were admitted to two hospitals due to their gun wounds. But Gardo was too overwhelmed with a sense of loss to narrate the tragedy. Instead, it was her neighbour, Josephine Chaye, who spoke to The ICIR.

Each time she attempted to talk, Maria cried inconsolably. Her pain was fresh because her two sons, who were with her husband, were also attacked and admitted to the hospitals. The two narrowly escaped the attack but had gun wounds.

How it happened

According to Chaye, the family of four were on their way to the farm where they cultivated Irish potatoes and maize in Nkiedowro, Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State.

Since the only family motorcycle could not transport everyone from their home in Miango to Nkiedowro, the men mounted the bike while Maria trekked, hoping to catch up with them at the farm.

But not long after her husband zoomed off with the bike, she heard sporadic gunshots from a distance. At the farm, the mother of two found her husband lying lifeless in the pool of his blood.

“While walking behind to join the family at the farm; she heard a gunshot, next minutes her husband was dead and her sons wounded,” her neighbour said.

Rimia Gado, her nine-year-old son, was shot thrice – on the hand, right hip and foot. The older son, Jonathan Gado, 25, was also shot twice.

When asked for details of how it happened, Maria could only respond with more tears and no words.

On that same day, in nearby Tafi-Gana village, 50-year-old Adamu Rangu was also attacked by suspected herders while working on his farm.

He owned two hectares of land where he cultivated maize to feed his eight children and wife.

On the day of the attack, his wife, Maria Adamu, said she heard gunshots from a part of the farm where her husband was working; she knew it could only be him. It was just the two of them on the farm, and her husband did not own a gun.

When she went to check what had happened, she fainted because of shock. Her husband had not only been killed but was also beheaded, and the killers went away with his head.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/unending-crisis-how-herders-invaded-plateau-community-in-reprisal-attack-despite-military-presence/

NIGERIA lost about 9,000 of its doctors to the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries between 2016 and 2018, the ICIR has found.

The loss left the country with only 4.7 per cent of its doctors as specialists, while the remaining doctors were general practitioners.

According to the World Health Organization, the number of doctors in Nigeria plummeted from 83,565 in 2016 to 74,543 in 2018.

Doctors lost by the country within the period could have doubled, given the steady growth in the doctors' population since 2003.

For instance, between 2005 and 2006, the number of doctors in Nigeria swelled from 39,210 to 49,612.

Similarly, between 2013 and 2016, the population grew from 65,759 to 83,565.

Nigeria's population as of the time of filing this report was 212.8 million. It was 200.9 million in 2019.

According to the WHO, the doctors-to-patient ratio per 10,000 population in Nigeria was 3.81 in 2018.

The WHO reported that the number of doctors in Nigeria was 34,923 in 2003. The figure rose to 39.210 and 49,612 in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Between 2007, 2008 and 2009, the country enjoyed a leap in its doctors' population from 49,612 (in 2006) to 55,376 (2007) and to 58,363, respectively.

By 2013, the number of doctors in the nation had jumped to 65,759.

There were 74,543 doctors in Nigeria in 2018, while only 3,035 of them were specialists, otherwise known as consultants. 

The ICIR reports that Nigeria enjoyed a sustained increase in its doctors since 2003 until the growth ceased between 2016 and 2018. 

The depletion in the country's doctors could result from factors namely: incessant strikes by the nation's health workforce, poor and delayed payment of remuneration, the deplorable state of most public health facilities, tempting wages overseas, policy summersaults by successive governments, poor budgetary allocation to the health sector, inadequate and absence of complementary workforce in hospitals, and inconducive working environment, among others.

This newspaper had reported how the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) embarked on strike for two months between August 2 and October 4 over unmet demands by the government. The strike lasted for 63 days.

The doctors had embarked on a similar strike in April. The strike lasted for 10 days.

Nigerian officials, including President Muhammadu Buhari, prefer getting medical attention abroad to patronising the nation's hospitals.

The ICIR reported in 2018 how the president beat the record of late former President Musa Yar'Adua after he spent 172 days of his first 1,096 days in office, receiving treatment abroad.

The Punch had, in September, reported how the United Kingdom licensed over 200 Nigerian-trained doctors between April and May this year. The newspaper had, in 2020, reported how the number of Nigerian-trained doctors had grown to nearly 8000 in the UK.

The ICIR had, also in August, reported how hundreds of Nigerian-trained doctors thronged the venue of a Saudi Arabia government-sponsored recruitment exercise in Abuja, where the employer needed only seven candidates. 

READ MORE HERE:

Peter Obi serially violated the law by failing to declare to the Code of Conduct Bureau the companies and assets he tucked away in secrecy havens.

PETER Obi, the ex-governor of Anambra State in Southeastern Nigeria, is widely regarded in Nigeria as an advocate of good governance, openness, and transparency.

In addition to speeches on his governance records and statistics-laden prescriptions for Nigeria’s development, he likes to talk about how hugely successful he became in business before diving into politics.

In speeches and in printed literature, Mr Obi is never shy, reeling out his numerous business affiliations and accomplishments. On his website, for example, the former governor said he “was chairman of Next International Nigeria Ltd, then chairman and director of Guardian Express Mortgage Bank Ltd, Guardian Express Bank Plc, Future View Securities Ltd, Paymaster Nigeria Ltd, Chams Nigeria Ltd, Data Corp Ltd and Card Centre Ltd.”

On that same platform, the former governor also described himself as the youngest board chairperson ever appointed by Fidelity Bank Plc, a 34-year old Nigerian lender listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

But beyond the facade of priggish speeches and appearances, an investigation by PREMIUM TIMES has now shown that Mr Obi is not entirely transparent in his affairs as he likes Nigerians to believe.

The investigation is part of the global International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)-led Pandora Papers project.

The project saw 600 journalists from 150 news organisations around the world poring through a trove of 11.9 million confidential files, contextualising information, tracking down sources and analysing public records and other documents.

The leaked files were retrieved from some offshore services firms around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore entities for clients, many of them influential politicians, businesspersons and criminals, seeking to conceal their financial dealings.

The two-year collaboration has so far revealed the financial secrets of not less than 35 current and former world leaders, more than 330 public officials in more than 91 countries and territories.

Mr Obi is one of the individuals whose hidden business activities was thrown open by the project. Indeed, he has a number of secret business dealings and relationships that he has for years kept to his chest. These are businesses he clandestinely set up and operated overseas, including in notorious tax and secrecy havens in ways that breached Nigerian laws.
PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Obi with written questions and had an in-person interview with him weeks ahead of this publication.

The former governor admitted that he did not declare these companies and the funds and properties they hold in his asset declaration filings with the Code of Conduct Bureau, the Nigerian government agency that deals with the issues of corruption, conflict of interest, and abuse of office by public servants.

He said he was unaware that the law expected him to declare assets or companies he jointly owns with his family members or anyone else.

The Pandora Papers, the biggest cross-border collaboration of journalists in history, is an investigation into a vast amount of previously hidden offshore companies, exposing secret assets, covert deals and hidden fortunes of the super-rich – among them more than 130 billionaires – and the powerful, including more 30 world leaders and hundreds of former and serving public officials across the world.

The confidential documents also feature a global cast of fugitives, convicts, celebrities, football stars and others, including judges, tax officials, spy chiefs and mayors.

The leaked records came from 14 offshore services firms from around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore nooks for clients like Mr Obi, who seek to shroud their financial activities, often suspicious, in secrecy.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/pandora-papers-inside-peter-obis-secret-businesses-and-how-he-broke-the-law/

Pandora Papers: Global investigation exposes secrets of some of Nigeria’s rich and powerful

The Pandora Papers series is launching more than five years after the Panama Papers revelations of 2016. That investigation exposed offshore companies linked to more than 140 politicians in more than 50 countries.

A new global investigation exposing the offshore hideaways of some of the world’s most powerful personalities is launching today after two years of discreet work by investigative journalists around the world.

The project, known as Pandora Papers, is facilitated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which obtained a trove of 11.9 million confidential files. The reporting, which is still ongoing, involves more than 600 journalists from 150 news organisations around the world.

The journalists spent two years studying and sorting files, contextualising information, tracking down sources and analysing public records and other documents.

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The collaboration has so far revealed the financial secrets of not less than 35 current and former world leaders, more than 330 public officials in more than 91 countries and territories.

The leaked files were retrieved from 14 offshore services firms around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore entities for clients, many of them influential politicians, businesspersons and criminals, seeking to conceal their financial dealings.

PREMIUM TIMES is the only Nigerian newspaper participating in what has now been dubbed the biggest journalism partnership in history.

The stories we will publish in the days to come will reveal how some of the most influential Nigerians – a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, current and former state governors, past and present lawmakers, businesspeople, a popular pastor and many others – set up shell companies, and sometimes warehouse huge financial assets, in notorious secrecy jurisdictions.

Our stories will also show how some of these individuals flout extant laws and legislations as they hide these assets, some of which have attracted the interest of law enforcement agencies in the UK and elsewhere.

In an era of widening authoritarianism and inequality, ICIJ said “the Pandora Papers investigation provides an unequalled perspective on how money and power operate in the 21st century — and how the rule of law has been bent and broken around the world by a system of financial secrecy enabled by the U.S. and other wealthy nations.”

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/pandora-papers-global-investigation-exposes-secrets-of-some-of-nigerias-rich-and-powerful/

DisCOs rip off customers with false promise of regular power supply using faulty tariff bands

THE Tariff Band Methodology deployed by Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies (DisCOs) to promise regular power supply is misleading and unrealistic, and the DISCOs have used it to rip off customers without supplying commensurate power to them.
Going by the band methodology in the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) 2020, the current pricing arrangement which was approved for the DisCOs by the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), consumers are expected to pay cost-reflective tariffs which are determined by the level of electricity supply they receive from the distribution companies.

Before the introduction of the band methodology, there had been five tariff classes for electricity consumers in Nigeria, namely:

• Residential (R1, R2, R3, R4)

• Commercial (C1, C2, C3)

• Industrial (D1, D2, D3)

• Special (A1, A2, A3)

. Public Street Lighting (S).

However, with the introduction of the band methodology following the issuance of Service Reflective Tariffs (SRT) in 2020, DisCOs classified electricity consumers in bands A, B, C, D and E, according to the levels of power supply to be received by consumers.

Consumers on Band A were promised a minimum of 20 hours of power supply per day.

Those on Band B were guaranteed to receive at least 16 hours of electricity supply each day.

Band C consumers were assured of a minimum of 12 hours of electricity supply per day.

Consumers on bands D and E – the lowest classes on the electricity supply chain – were promised eight and four hours of power each respectively per day.

Going by the band methodology, consumers on higher bands pay higher tariffs for kilowatts or units of energy than those on lower bands.

In the same vein, Band B consumers will also pay higher for electricity than those on lower bands. The higher the band, the more the consumer pays for electricity and this ‘cost-reflective’ payment arrangement is based on the promise that consumers are paying for services they received.

However, investigations conducted by The ICIR, as part of the Regulators Monitoring Programme (REMOP) of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), has shown that consumers are being shortchanged and ripped-off because the DisCOs are not meeting up with the promised hours of electricity supply upon which the band methodology was based.

As a result of the development, consumers, particularly those in the higher bands, are paying higher tariffs for electricity which they are not receiving.

For instance, a customer on Band A in Abuja under the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) is promised 20 hours of power supply, according to the MYTO 2020 tariff that is currently being operated in the Nigerian power sector.

But records of daily power generation and consumption show that for five months or more, the DisCOs in, many instances, have not met the Band A promise of 20 hours daily power supply. Yet the customers continue to pay high costs for this band, without any clear mechanism to be either stepped down to a lower tariff band, or refunded the over-payment.

Records from the Distribution Load Profile dashboard published by the Independent System Operator (ISO), a section of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) that manages the national grid, shows that AEDC is not meeting its designated allocation on which basis the Service Reflective Tariff tagged MYTO was computed.

*Inadequate level of power generation contributes to DisCOS’ inability to meet obligations to consumers

Power generation in Nigeria is far below what it ought to be. As far back as 2016, Sunday Oduntan, Director of Research and Advocacy for the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), the umbrella body of the country’s electricity distribution companies stated: “With a country that has a population of over 160 million, and going by the rule of thumb for electricity provision all over the world, we need to generate 1,000 megawatts (mw) per one million citizens. This means Nigeria needs about 160,000mw to have 24 hours uninterrupted power supply across every nook and cranny of the country.”

According to the tariff arrangement computed from September to December 2020, AEDC should get 11.5 per cent of the daily average generation of 4,650mw. The tariff arrangement also projected that average daily generation should have improved to 4,970mw by June 2021. The AEDC is also supposed to get 11.5 per cent of the projected 4,970mw.

But grid operation records obtained from daily monitoring of the System Operator’s distribution load profile dashboard shows that daily generation has not improved to 4,970mw – the projection upon which the Service Reflective Tariff was computed. Instead, average power generation profile has been hovering around 4000mw most days, a development which means that AEDC’s allocation has fallen short of the load supply computation required to meet the level of power supply promised consumers in line with the MYTO.

This volume reaches 450mw or even 500mw and at times, drops to 375mw.

Grid power operation records from the ISO, monitored over a period of one month, showed that average power generation had been lower than 4,000mw most of the day, about 600mw drop from the computed power generation factor and therefore insufficient for the DisCOs to meet promised obligations to consumers in line with the tariff band methodology.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/discos-rip-off-customers-with-false-promise-of-regular-power-supply-using-faulty-tariff-bands/

Profiling Obanikoro’s son who canvassed closure of domiciliary accounts to fix naira debacle

SINCE the gradual slip of naira to N570/$ at the parallel market, most Nigerians have continued to express disappointments at the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
In 2015 when the president assumed office, the official dollar exchange rate to naira was N169 but about six years into his administration, the local currency now stands at N410/$ at the official rate and over N570/$ in the parallel market.

But bulk of the blame has gone to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for failing to effectively manage the crisis, being the controller of the nation’s monetary policies.

Experts have also identified other factors responsible for weakening the naira to include: the declining foreign direct investments, insecurity, rising capital flight and increased borrowing, among others.

It is in this context that Ibrahim Babajide Obanikoro, son of the former Minister of State for Defence Musiliu Obanikoro, joined scores of Nigerians to provide likely solutions to reverse the continuous naira depreciation. But, his proposed solution met stiff condemnations from the public.

On Thursday, September 28, he suggested the CBN shut down the domiciliary accounts of Nigerians, at least for a year to stop the trend.

“I am not the CBN Governor but at this moment, I’m of the opinion that CBN should mandate that all domiciliary accounts be closed for the next 12 months.

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“Let’s see the effect on the Naira,” he stated.

The tweet, according to him, was to harvest people’s opinions. Nonetheless, Blessed Beyond Measure @Drmuzoic queried the suggestion made by the lawmaker. Other unprintable comments followed the tweets as some argued a simple search would have offered the lawmaker a deeper perspective to the economic situation, hence provide a more rational argument.

“Dear Ibrahim B. Obanikoro, you occupy a federal public office. This means that there are certain expectations of you, including a reasonable degree of knowledge of public matters or at least the dignity to carefully research before sharing. Seriously,” Adekunle @adekunleth tweeted.

Dr. Babatunde Adeboye @Babateemd humorously opined that the country deserved the kind of representatives it had. “…why don’t we even just print dollar instead of naira.”

Another user identified as Sani @pdauda said such an idea could be a total end to the local currency.

“This sort of thinking is precisely why you are not the CBN governor even though he mostly reasons like you.

“Close domiciliary accounts just to see the effect on the Naira when anyone can tell you for free that’s the death knell preceding the naira’s worthlessness?”

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But for Tunji Adeniran @tunjiadeniran, a look at the public debt, political instability, insecurity, inflation, forex speculations, the interest rate, terms of trade and current deficit could help restore the naira to normalcy.

The lawmaker later rescinded his opinion by acknowledging his suggestion was not the best for the county at this time.

Who is Ibrahim Obanikoro?

Born to Morufat and Musiliu Obanikoro on June 30, 1981, he attended King’s College in Lagos and had his degree at the St. Cloud University, Minnesota, USA. He bagged a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and master’s degree at Pace University, New York, where he studied Public Administration.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/profiling-obanikoros-son-who-called-for-shut-down-of-domiciliary-accounts-to-fix-naira-debacle/

INVESTIGATION: When Generals Turn Bandits: Inside the massive corruption in Nigeria’s security contracting

By Ogala Emmanuel

“…with the NSA involved I was fine with it. Afterall he is the chief accounting officer of Nigeria’s national security. If he wants to buy it at N100 billion who am I to say no?”

Two years ago, as the late evening sun cast the cityscape in brilliant colours and long shadows, the two of us dragged our chairs under the Ube tree behind the Abuja office of PREMIUM TIMES. The setting sun had left room walls radiating excess heat.

My guest was a contractor who was turning his back on the Nigerian defence contracting gang. It was the second day of a series of interviews that lasted several months. A tripod propped a camera in front of us as he squealed on his collaborators and described a particular corruption-ridden, hyper-inflated gunboats purchase contract he masterminded.

“Why did you not back out (when the government guy approached you to inflate the cost)”? I asked. “…for the sake of the country. For patriotism.”

“Well, you are talking about morals, ethics or considerations like that, but don’t forget that this is a state affair and the state does not embody morality neither does it embody those fine sentiments that people will wish to attribute to it,” he said.

“The state is a living thing of its own and our kind of state is a very predatory state. It thrives on power. Absolute power. And the basic source of capital accumulation for those running the state and their political matters is through primitive accumulation of capital, otherwise theft.”

My guest was describing an inflated contract in which the government was paying him to buy military boats that it already paid another contractor to supply.

Details of this and other tainted contracts are the focus of a coming PREMIUM TIMES investigative series that will reveal the greed and lack of patriotism of some of our country’s security chiefs, abuse of public trust and mindless theft of public funds that characterise defence procurements in Nigeria.

The Objective Situation

Contract inflation is a public sector term that translates to “treasonable stealing”. For a number of high-ranking government officials in Nigeria, stealing public funds through contract inflation is a way of life.

A number of past Nigerian officials are currently undergoing trials for alleged corruption-related offences linked to defence procurements.

Back to my guest. He told me he decided not to walk away from the fraudulent deal in question because it posed no immediate legal threat.

In fact, the deal, he said, got the backing of two National Security Advisers – Andrew Azazi and Sambo Dasuki.

“…with the NSA involved I was fine with it,” he said. “Afterall he is the chief accounting officer of Nigeria’s national security. If he wants to buy it at N100 billion who am I to say no?”

“If the public servant holding power decided to add to what I have submitted and steal it, what can I do about it?” he asked.

“The best I can do is to report it. But who am I reporting to? To him, the very person doing the thing (stealing)? So this is the objective situation.”

My guest’s narration that afternoon portrayed Nigeria’s defence contracting as a sector operating like a pure criminal gang with a well-formed sectioning of roles split between high-ranking government officials, contractors, and manufacturers.

Government officials with authority to initiate defence procurements award inflated contracts to contractors who ferry kickbacks back to them. Patronage, rather than performance, therefore, is the predominant deciding factor in awarding contracts and dissent is treated with grievous repercussion, insiders said.

“Here, I think it is too much asking of me to back out from a direct decision of the NSA,” my guest said. “It would have meant totally shutting the door forever as long as that NSA is in office.”

In subsequent parts of this series, we will give you details of the fraudulent gunboats contract my guest discussed. But for today, as part of this overview piece, we are reviewing Nigeria’s top defence scandals as well as ongoing court cases related to corruption in security procurements.

Top Defence Contract Scandals of Last Decade

My guest was a member of a criminal industry that has robbed Nigeria of trillions of Naira and an estimated 20, 000 deaths of both soldiers and civilians, according to Global Conflict Tracker by the Council on Foreign Relations. The fraudulent contracting processes have also cost the nation multiple international embarrassments.

According to a Transparency International report, a network of Nigerian military chiefs, politicians, and contractors worked together to steal more than N3.1 trillion through arms procurement contracts between 2008 and 2017.

The contract my guest was involved with would have seen himself, military chiefs and a couple of other agents steal N3 billion.

Here are some of the top defence and security procurement-related scandals in recent memory.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-when-generals-turn-bandits-inside-the-massive-corruption-in-nigerias-security-contracting/

AHEAD of the election of new national officers of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) at the national convention scheduled for October 30 and 31, no geo-political zone wants to produce the party's next national chairman.

The ICIR learnt that the determination of the two regional blocs in the country - North and South - to avoid the prestigious position has so far stalled the party's efforts to stage a hitch-free convention.

Checks by The ICIR reveal that the development is as a result of intrigues over the party's presidential ticket for the 2023 general elections.

The PDP, at its last National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on September 9, set up key committees for the national convention - the Convention Planning Committee and the Zoning Committee.

The Convention Planning Committee, chaired by Adamawa State governor Ahmadu Fintiri, was mandated to organise the national convention.

The Zoning Committee is headed by Enugu State governor and its task is to arrive at a formula for allocating the party's national offices, including the office of national chairman, to the various geo-political zones.

The Zoning Committee met in Enugu on September 23 to take a decision on the allocation of the various national offices to the zones.

Besides Ugwuanyi, other members of the committee that were part of the crucial meeting included: Benue State governor Samuel Ortom, Deputy Governor of Zamfara State Mahdi Aliyu Mohammed, former Senate presidents Iyorchia Ayu and Anyim Pius Anyim, former governors of Niger, Ekiti, Sokoto, Jigawa and Adamawa states, Babangida Aliyu, Ayo Fayose, Attahiru Bafarawa, Sule Lamido, and Boni Haruna, respectively.

Others at the meeting were: PDP chieftains Abubakar Kawu Baraje, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, Sunday Okoye, Dan Orbih, Ali Odefa, Kema Chikwe, Osita Chidoka, Chidi Lloyd, Bassey Ewa Henshaw, Emmanuel Nwaka and Donatus Udeh.

However, the meeting was deadlocked as the committee could not agree on which particular zone should produce the national chairman.

The ICIR learnt that deliberations in the meeting were marred by the unwillingness of the various zones to produce the national chairman.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/why-no-geo-political-zone-wants-to-produce-next-pdp-national-chairman/

Sodiq Ojuroungbe visited 72 rural communities in Enugu, Cross Rivers and Ogun states to investigate a $7 billion World Bank-facilitated power project neglected for many years by the Nigerian government due to poor planning and policy failure.
NINETY-two-year-old Pa John Chukwuemeka, a native of Ikpu-Iga in Enugu-Ezike, Enugu State, has for years longed for the day electricity would come to his village.

Enugu-Ezike, a sleepy community nestled in lush green vegetation of about 37 miles off the road leading to Enugu, the capital city, has been in perpetual darkness for decades.

Unlike his grandchildren who live in cities and enjoy the shout of ‘up NEPA’ whenever the power supply is restored, Pa Chukwuemeka never had this fun as a child.

He was born in a village where darkness rules day and night. It was in Nsukka, several kilometres from his village, that he first saw an electric bulb. Then, he fantasised about the day his community of 500 households would be lit by modern electricity. Decades after, that dream remained unfulfilled.

“I was born about 92 years ago. I grew up in this community, but we have not seen the light, not even for a single day in all my life.

“Except for the few ones among us that their children can afford generators, we have not seen any government-generated electricity in this community,” said Pa Chukwuemeka, one of the oldest persons in Ikpu-Aga.

At night, torch and hurricane lanterns hang loosely on walls to provide light for nighttime activities in most houses in the community.

Then, in 2011, the World Bank, in partnership with the Federal Government, launched an electrification project in Ikpu-Iga and four other communities in Enugu-Ezike. The residents went wild with joy and became hopeful again.

But, ten years after the commissioning, findings revealed that the government had abandoned the project. In various communities, the decaying transformers are the only vestiges of buried hopes, even as residents continue to lack access to electricity.

Communities grope in darkness despite installation of transformers, meters

Enugu-Ezike is located in Igbo Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State and consists of five communities, including Amachalla, Umuachi, Uda, Ikpu-Aga and Isiugu. The communities, which share boundaries with Benue State, were selected to benefit from the rural electrification project financed through a World Bank loan.

In 2011, the government contracted East India Udyog Limited to distribute and install poles and transformers in the communities.

The announcement brought joy to many residents. But little did they know that the project would not be of use to them, despite high expectations.

Within few months, the project commenced. Soon after the workers completed installation, poles were erected across the district; cable wires were laid, transformer mounted, and meters distributed to houses. But still, there was no light, especially in three communities among the five selected for electrification. The two others have found alternative means of generating electricity.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-multi-billion-world-bank-power-project-grounded-in-enugu-cross-river-ogun-states-part-1/

Nigeria nears debt trap as Buhari fails to plug wastes, explore alternative funding options

NIGERIA’S President Muhammadu Buhari has accumulated huge debts in the last six years, but he has failed to plug wastes in several corners of his administration and is also reluctant to explore alternative funding options.
External debt has grown under his administration from $7.35 billion in 2015 to $23.57 billion, according to the Debt Management Office’s data analysed by The ICIR.

Nigeria’s public debt hit N33 trillion in March 2021, but Buhari is seeking new $4 billion and €710 million loans from lenders.

The amounts are expected to be approved by the Senate.

With the new loans, the country’s debt has overshot N35 trillion.

Analysts say Nigeria can do without these debts, asking the president to plug wastages in his government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and explore other funding options to avoid plunging the nation into a debt trap – a situation in which debts are hard to repay.

Analysts are also worried that debt service-to-revenue was 98 per cent between January and May 2021, making further borrowing unsustainable.

A classic example of wastes in Nigeria is money pumped into the country’s three refineries.

In Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries, N168.178 billion was lost in 2019, and only N1.681 billion was realised as revenue, according to The ICIR’s calculations of the companies’ financial statements.

In 2020, the moribund refineries wasted N153.084 billion, making only N5.216 billion as revenue.

In both years, Nigeria, the world’s poverty capital, lost N321.262 billion to refineries, an amount that can pay the minimum wage of 1,070 Nigerians in September 2021.

Apart from the refineries, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pays N120 billion in opaque and corrupt subsidy regime monthly, amounting to nearly N1.5 trillion annually.

In sale of public assets, wastes have also been observed. Currently, the legislators are querrying the Presidential Implementation Committee for selling Radio Nigeria building for N100 million when its market rate is estimated at between N1 billion to N1.5 billion.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/nigeria-nears-debt-trap-as-buhari-fails-to-plug-wastes-explore-alternative-funding-options/

ABOUT 18 months to the 2023 presidential elections, a number of Nigerian politicians are being touted as messiahs that would take the country to the promised land after the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari was also presented to Nigerians as a messiah when he contested and won the presidential election in 2015.

Six years after Buhari took office, many Nigerians are dissatisfied with his performance and no longer believe he is the messiah, as his campaigners earlier promised.

With the tenure of the Buhari administration winding down, another set of politicians is being positioned as the country’s saviours come 2023.

The politicians include some who have openly indicated interest to contest the presidential election, and others who have not indicated interest in the office.

* Vice President Yemi Osinbajo

Although he insists that he has no interest in contesting the presidential election, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is being touted as the ‘most qualified’ to succeed his principal, Buhari.

Several groups have sprang up to market the VP as the messiah that Nigeria needs.

In August, one of such groups, Osinbajo Grassroots Organisation (OGO), declared that Osinbajo was the future of Nigeria.

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National Convener of OGO Foluso Ojo, in a statement, said on several instances Osinbajo had displayed competence and ability to govern Nigeria.

“We have identified in the vice president a leader of unimpeachable character; someone who can continue on the good works already started by President Muhammadu Buhari. We do not need anyone to tell us that Prof Osinbajo is a pathway to Nigeria’s future from 2023,” the group said.

The OGO is not the only group that is telling Nigerians that Osinbajo is the answer to the country’s problems.

A group of stakeholders in the All Progressives Congress (APC) known as Progressives Consolidation Group (PCG), led by Ahmed Mohammed and Eberechukwu Eli Dibia, in a letter dated July 14, titled, ‘APC and the future of Nigeria: Why we must get it right and consider the Osinbajo option in 2023,’ made a case for Osinbajo to succeed Buhari.

More on this story here: https://www.icirnigeria.org/2023-presidential-election-behold-politicians-being-touted-as-nigerias-next-messiahs/

Lady risks jail term in France over fake Euro notes issued to her by Standard Chartered Bank in Nigeria

A NIGERIAN lady in France, Elizabeth Henry, has said she is being investigated, and risks jail term over fake Euro notes paid into her account by her sister.

The Euro notes, according to her, were issued to her sister by the Maitama branch of Standard Chartered Bank on 17 August 2021.

Elizabeth sister, Mary, had taken to social media on the 18 of September, disclosing that she applied for a €3,000 Personal Travel Allowances (PTA) at the Standard Chartered Bank, Maitama, Abuja, on August 17, 2021, to finance her study at the University of Burgundy, France.

Mary, who only gave her middle name, was admitted to the school in April 2021 to study international management and business studies.

But later got to know when she deposited the amount to her sister account that two out of the six notes issued to her by the Maitama Branch of Standard Chartered Bank were fake.

She told The ICIR that the issue already affected her studies and caused her documentation to suffer delay.

Elizabeth, who further spoke on behalf of Mary in a WhatsApp interview with The ICIR said the money was paid to her account as Mary had no bank account in France.

According to her, when Mary got to France, she deposited the entire notes to an account owned by her but later learnt on the 17 of September that two €500 bills out of the €3,000 she had deposited were fake and that the bank had deducted €1,000 from her account.

She said, “So my sister arrived in France on the 18th of August for her masters. She came with 3000 euros notes (500×6) because she doesn’t have French Bank Account yet, she asked me to pay the money into my account so she could pay for some fees online for school, we paid in the money and only 2000 euros was credited. So I was pissed and called my banker to ask why only 2000 euros was deposited and she said she was going to ask the service in charge of counting money.”

“she got back to me few hours and told me that they found out that 2 of the note I deposited were fake and the money was sent immediately to BANK OF FRANCE (it’s the equivalent of CBN in Nigeria) they authenticated the notes and confirmed that it was fake. They documented the note and sent me 2 attachments (1 for each note) with the serial number of the note etc. The money was not given back to me because they don’t want it circulating in France.”

More on this story here: https://www.icirnigeria.org/lady-risk-jail-term-in-france-over-fake-euro-notes-issued-to-her-by-standard-chartered-bank-in-nigeria/

A report by The ICIR and The Mail has exposed how Abia State Government, headed by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, spent N1.4 billion on vehicles in the Government House and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) instead of N231 million appropriated in the revised budget.

The report also revealed illegal loan procurement above N11 billion by Abia State Government.

The report detailed the questionable extra-budgetary expenditures by the offices of the governor, deputy governor, ministries of environment and solid minerals and the state’s environmental protection agency.

The total extra spending by these four offices exceeded N14 billion.

An analysis of the 2020 Report of Accountant General with Financial Statements of the Abia State Government revealed that the Governor’s Office purchased an unspecified number and undisclosed brands of vehicles for Government House and MDAs for N1.4 billion in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

In the breakdown tagged ‘Purchase of motor vehicles for Government House and MDAs,’ the report showed that N1.2 billion was spent on the item instead of N231 million appropriated in the revised budget.

Thus, the Governor’s Office spent extra N969 million on vehicles without appropriation or approval by the state legislature.

The report also detailed curious extra-budgetary spending in the Governor’s Office for ‘welfare packages,’ where a whooping N2.2 billion was spent against N1.5 billion budgeted.

The N2.2bn retired as the governor’s welfare package is about the total of two months internally generated revenue (IGR) in the state.

According to the Abia State accountant general’s report, the state generated only N15.9 billon internal revenue in 2020. [Though, the state IGR, according to NBS, is N14.4 billion]

The spending, according to the report, left a variance of N700 million from what was budgeted.

The N700 million extra spent on the governor’s welfare is seven times higher than the total capital expenditure of three ministries combined – Ministry of Women Affairs; Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises Development; and Ministry of Youth Development.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/abia-governor-office-spends-2-2bn-on-welfare-1-4bn-on-vehicles-in-a-year-report/

Discos debts To Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) now N500 billion
Discos transfer burdens to ordinary citizens

MINISTRIES, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at Federal, State and Local Government levels; Armed Forces and Security Agencies, owe Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) billions of Naira.

However, unlike ordinary businesses or individual consumers that get disconnected from the power supply for failure to pay bills, they enjoy continuous access to power supply, despite huge electricity debts affecting the operations of DISCOs.

The failure of the DISCOs to recover these debts or cut off the defaulting MDAs and institutions from the power supply has persisted, despite reminders by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on the rights of the companies to disconnect MDAs that refuse to pay bills.

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Rather than pay up, the MDAs have employed a strategy of disputing the debts and calling for audits and reconciliation of bills over several years.

Consequently, the DISCOs owe other power sector stakeholders and have transferred the cost to ordinary citizens through a combination of estimated billing and other unfair practices.

How much do various MDAs owe electricity distributors?

As of July 2021, The ICIR found that Federal, State and Local Government MDAs owe DISCOs up to N202 billion. The MDAs debts were classified into verified and unverified debts.

According to the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), the Federal Government has verified N48 billion as MDAs’ debts, while N61 billion is yet to be confirmed. This does not include the estimated N93 billion owed by Armed Forces and Security Agencies in Nigeria.

For a comparative scale, this debt exceeds the total amount released by the Federal Government to the Ministry of Health in five years (2015-2019), which is almost N158 billion.

Records obtained by The ICIR from ANED show that the Nigerian Army owes an estimated sum of N48.9 billion naira in electricity charges. The Nigerian Navy owes N11 billion, the Nigerian Police Force owes almost N6.6 billion, and the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) owes N1.1 billion between 2015 to 2020.

Other MDAs include the Ministry of Interior with a debt of almost N3 billion, the Ministry of Education owing N2.4 billion, the Ministry of health owing over N855 million, the Ministry of Finance; N443 million and Ministry of Justice; N112 million.

MDAs in Nigeria have an annual budget for electricity usage under their recurrent expenditure, which is passed into law by the National Assembly.

Between 2015-2020, electricity charges for the Nigerian Navy were over N1.5 billion, N3.4 billion for the Army, N780 million for the Nigerian Police, while the NCoS got N614 million.