• Friday, March 29, 2024
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News Roundup: High profile terrorist commander surrenders, Government to phase out non-energy saving appliances…

29 Nigerians secure Eni’s scholarships

High profile terrorist commander surrenders – Defence headquarters
The Defence headquarters says Saleh Mustapha, a notable commander of Boko Haram terrorists, has surrendered to troops of Operation Hadin Kai, in North-east Nigeria. A total of 51,114 terrorists have, so far, surrendered. Bernard Onyeuko, Director, Defence Media Operations, stated this while addressing journalists on the operations of the military between March 25 and April 7 on Thursday in Abuja. He added that a total of 51,114 terrorists and families comprising 11,398 men, 15,381 women, 24,335 children had, so far, surrendered to troops as ofApril 5. In the last two weeks, the troops recovered one battle tank, five artillery guns, two GTS and three AA guns. Others are one Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, three gun trucks, One MOWAG Armored Personnel Carrier and two RPG tubes, among others.

We’ll kill train passengers if Government fails to meet our demands – Bandits
The bandits, who abducted passengers on a Kaduna-bound train last month, have threatened to kill them if the federal government (FG) fails to meet their demands. In a video released on Wednesday, the armed men said they were not interested in money, adding that the FG knows what they were asking for. The video, which was less than two minutes, had four of the bandits with one of the abducted passengers, Alwan Hassan, Managing Director of Bank of Agriculture. One of them, who spoke in Hausa, said the MD was released due to his age and in the spirit of Ramadan. According to reports, the terrorists, clad in military uniform, made the video at the Forward Operational Base in Polwire, Birnin Gwari, Kaduna State, which was attacked on Monday.

Read also: Oil inches higher after consuming nations announce huge release from reserves

Government to phase out non-energy saving appliances
The House of Representatives has urged the federal government to develop policies that will phase out non-energy saving appliances. A request will be made from the Federal Ministry of Power and the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to establish a sustainable policy aimed at phasing out non-energy efficient appliances or equipment for domestic, commercial and industrial usage. The resolution was made on Thursday, following the adoption of a motion moved by Rotimi Agunsoye (APC, Lagos). In his motion, Agunsoye said households in Nigeria still use high energy-consuming devices which have some negative impacts on the greenhouse, stating that Nigeria can take a cue from other countries around the world that already prohibited the use of non-energy appliances.

Nigeria loses $5.5 million since 2021 due to oil theft
Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), has corroborated the claim by Tony Elumelu, Chairman of the United Bank of Africa, that Nigeria is losing 95 percent of oil production to thieves at Bonny Terminal, Rivers State. “Look at Bonny Terminal that should be receiving 200k barrels per day, instead it received less than 3,000 barrels, leading the operator @shell to declare force majeure,” Elumelu tweeted.

While appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Kyari disclosed that the country lost $4 billion to theft at the rate of 200,000 barrels per day in 2021, having already lost $1.5 billion so far in 2022 because the vandalism has escalated. The rate of vandalism has forced the NNPC and their Joint Venture partners to shut down two production fields, and the NNPC had to abandon the lines because removing the breach will not deter the oil vandals from stopping.

Create 37 discos to improve electricity supply, engineers urge Government
To ensure efficient power supply to the over 10 million registered electricity consumers, the Nigerian Institution of Power Engineers (NIPE) has urged the federal government to create 37 distribution companies (DisCos) for the states and the FCT. Israel Abraham, president of NIPE, during a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, said the current arrangement with 11 DisCos, where some had over four states in their franchise areas, had contributed to the poor power supply as it was too big for the operators to handle. Abraham noted that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) could create a state-by-state franchising for the DisCos which would help the operators to manage the system better and have state governments investing more in the networks.