Ekiti Election: SDP’s Segun Oni challenges APC’s victory at tribunal
Segun Oni, candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the just concluded governorship election in Ekiti State on Thursday, submitted his petition against the outcome of the election at the Election Petitions Tribunal in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.
Oni was accompanied by his legal team, the SDP Chairman, and chieftains of the party to the tribunal to submit his over-1000-page petition.
Oni is challenging the eligibility of the Governor-elect, Oyebanji, to contest the election and his victory at the poll.
Fuel queues worsen as depot owners, marketers fight over 46mn litres fuel diversion
The buildup of fuel queues in the country’s petrol stations has been attributed to claims by the oil marketers and depot owners that members of either association are involved in smuggling over 46 million litres of fuel daily to neighbouring countries.
The executives of the Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria accused the major and independent oil marketers associations of sabotaging the federal government’s effort to proffer relief from the continued hardship being faced by Nigerians.
The major oil marketers and independent marketers, on the other hand, denied the allegation, claiming that they could not be involved in any act of economic sabotage of petroleum diversion to neighbouring countries.
The current scarcity of fuel in the country, which started in February, has driven the price of the product to be sold at varying prices, with some stations selling it at as high as N250 per litre.
Privatisation: BPE pre-qualifies 16 firms for 5 NIPPs
Sixteen firms have been presented by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) as successful pre-bidders for the privatisation of five National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs).
In a statement, Alex Okoh, the Director-General (D-G) of the bureau, named the companies as Globeleq Africa Limited, Geoplex Drillteq Limited, Asfalizo Acquisition Ltd, Launderhill PJB, and Lauderhill Tata.
The others are Unicorn Power Genco Ltd, Connaught Energy Services Ltd, ENL Consortium Ltd, Ardova Plc, Central Electric and Utilities Ltd, North South Power Consortium, Quantum Megawatt Consortium, Mota-Engil Nig, Amperion Power, Sifax Energy, and Pacific Energy Company Ltd.
The five NIPPs are located at Benin-Ihovbor, Edo State; Geregu; Ajaokuta, Kogi State; Calabar, Cross River State; Omotosho, Ondo State; and Olorunsogo, Ogun State.
The DG believes that the interest shown by the pre-qualified bidders shows that the energy sector still remains an attractive investment option in the country.
Okoh stated that with this successful bid, the country’s quest to increase power generation from the current state of 4,000 megawatts has received the necessary boost.
Egypt’s headline inflation eases slightly to 13.2% in June
According to Reuters, data from the state statistics agency CAPMAS on Thursday showed that Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation slowed to 13.2 percent year-on-year in June from 13.5 percent in May.
Accordingly, the sharpest annual price increases were in the food and drink, recreation, and restaurant and hotel sectors.
However, core inflation, which excludes food, went up to 14.6 percent year-on-year in June from 13.3 percent in May, according to the Central Bank of Egypt.
The country has not been exempted from the global rise in energy and food prices that is attributed to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank still maintains that its inflation targets of 5 percent to 9 percent remain unchanged after it raised its basis points by 200 basis points, which is one of the highest in recent time
Senegal sees growing support for African gas amid Ukraine war
The Ukraine war has provided a great opportunity for the world to rethink its stance on the development financing of gas resources in Africa, Senegalese President Macky Sall said at a World Bank organised conference on Thursday.
Sall accused the West of not investing enough or divesting from gas resources and was only made to do so after Russia invaded Ukraine. He also accused the West of using climate change as not only an excuse to remove the focus on natural gas investment but also the reason why major international oil companies are refusing to invest further in gas projects.
He admired the fact that, though unfortunate, Europe’s attention on investing in Africa’s huge gas deposits to enable them to reduce their reliance on Russia gives the continent a huge opportunity to extract the full benefits of having these gas resources.
