Anambra: Police Arrest Cultist On His Way To Initiation Ceremony

Operatives of Nigeria Police attached to Obosi Divisional Headquarters of Anambra State,has  arrested Mr. Izunna Ifeobu aged 21years on his way to initiation ceremony of his cult group

Izunna, a native of Ugamuma village Obosi, belonged to Bagger cult group and was arrested with one cut to size single barrel gun concealed in a bag.

According to the Police spokesman, Ikenga Tochukwu,  the arrest was made following information received on September 9 that a cult group had a meeting scheduled that date.

Izunna was arrested at Eke Obosi, by Obosi/Nkpor road where he confessed to be a member of Baggers confraternity and was on his way to the initiation ceremony.

According to Ikenga, other gang members of the cult group on hearing of the arrest fled the venue of the initiation meeting.

The Commissioner of Police Echeng Echeng has directed that the case be transferred to Anti- Cult formation of the Police Command for a discreet investigations.

MTN Commences 5G Network  Services In Lagos

MTN Nigeria has commenced its commercial 5G network services in Lagos, with a promise to launch the network in Ibadan, Kano, Owerri, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Maiduguri.

The Lagos 5G commercial launch came on the heels of its 5G pilot launch three weeks ago, as mandated by the telecoms industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

MTN had  during the pilot launch,promised to carry out 5G commercial launch in six cities, beginning from Lagos.

Speaking during the launch in Lagos, its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Karl Toriola, said the event was in fulfillment of MTN’s earlier promise to begin 5G commercial launch in cities, within one month of 5G rollout.

The advanced 5G technology promises to extend the reach and capacity of MTN Nigeria’s data network in Nigeria and enable much faster speeds and lower latency, giving customers near-instant access to the things they care about and downloads that take seconds, instead of minutes.

According to him:“To access the 5G network and enjoy its benefits, customers would need compatible devices, such as routers and mobile phones, which can be pre-ordered from designated MTN walk-in stores and online via the MTN Nigeria website and e-marketplace. The pre-ordered devices could be picked up or would be delivered to customers at designated location.”

He promised that the same vigour MTN deployed services in second, third and fourth generation networks is what will be applied in the 5G technology to make it massively accessible to majority of users particularly in major urban cities in the coming weeks and months.

He added: “Although the company was going to make decisive investments in the roll out of 5G in Nigeria, 4G is still the company’s bread and butter and investments, deployments for both networks would be done simultaneously.

He lamented the challenges of getting the foreign exchange to import necessary facilities to fast track deployment of networks including 5G, but noted that as a Nigerian company, persevering to surmount the challenges is part of the prices to pay to get the country back on the right economic footing.

Also speaking,the Chief Marketing Officer, Adia Sowho,said that the network will not only help MTN to connect, create, collaborate, and compete in ways never imagined, it will also help users realise full potentials of the internet revolution and enjoy communication and interactions spectacularly.

She said: “Every major technological evolution redefines what is possible – changing the way we live and the way we connect. If 4G helped you to communicate with people, 5G will help you feel them closer. The possibilities of 5G are in such a way we have not even begun to imagine”

Earlier, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC Prof Umar Danbatta commended MTN for its pioneering role in the 5G deployment in Nigeria, promising that the commission will continue to provide enabling environment for businesses like MTN which correctly interprets government policies of engendering growth in different sectors.

Danbatta said the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, the efforts of Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami and the regulatory prowess of the NCC gave rise to the feat MTN has achieved in being the first to deploy 5G in Nigeria

Bonga Maintenance: Safety Will Be Our Watchword, Says SNEPCo

Bonga Maintenance:Safety Will Be Our Watchword,Says SNEPCo

Shell Nigeria Exploration, and production Company Limited (SNEPCo), says the scheduled turnaround maintenance of its offshore Bonga asset would be defined by safety as top priority.

Its Managing Director, Elohor Aiboni, gave this charge recently at a session with the chief executive officers of contractor companies participating in the Bonga TAM scheduled for October.

“The Bonga TAM is important to revitalise this important critical national asset. But more important is carrying out the turnaround safely. That is what keeps me awake at night. It is our top priority as a company and we promote this by encouraging our staff and contractors to speak up and work only if it is safe,” Aiboni said.

She implored the CEOs to embrace the culture of encouraging their staff to speak up and stop work if safety is being compromised. “It is the only way your organisations can thrive as they work to ensure the safe delivery of services for Bonga’s rebirth.”

The company’s Senior Asset Management Integration Lead, Jonathan Amakiri, described the session with the senior executives of the industry service companies as a deliberate strategy by SNEPCo to ensure alignment on safety, speed of execution, compliance, and excellence.

“It is important that we share learnings and demonstrate commitment to addressing the relevant health, safety and environment issues to keep our people safe and motivated,” said Amakiri.

Responding to the SNEPCo charge, District Service Manager, Solar Turbines Services Nigeria Limited, Marcus Flynn, pledged the support and commitment of the CEOs to safe delivery of the TAM noting that the contractors would make safety a habit. “We will continue to make safety a way of life. That is the least we owe SNEPCo and ourselves.”

SNEPCo pioneered Nigeria’s deep-water oil and gas production at Bonga, a project that increased Nigeria’s oil capacity by 10% when it began producing in 2005. Bonga is located 120km offshore and lies in water more than 1,000 metres deep across an area of 60 square kilometres. It has the capacity to produce more than 200,000 barrels of oil a day and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas a day.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 2000 people benefitted from the just-concluded one-week Vision First initiative held in Lagos by SNEPCo in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC).

The initiative is a focused eyecare programme aimed at providing free medical eye care to underprivileged people to help eliminate preventable and treatable blindness among Nigerians.

“This is just one of the ways to show care to people and help advance medical care among vulnerable Nigerians with little or no means to access quality medical eyecare,” SNEPCo Managing Director, Aiboni said about the programme.

Aiboni, who was represented at the opening and closing events for the medical outreach by SNEPCo’s Business Opportunity Manager, Ibiyemi Asaolu, described the large turnout of people for the free eye care as a pointer to the huge number of Nigerians battling with preventable blindness and who, with little help from public spirited individuals and corporations, could regain their vision.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, who was represented at the outreach by the Director for Administrative Training, Ministry of Health, Dr Olufunmilayo Shokunbi, described the programme as critical intervention, asking other corporate organisations to follow in the footstep of NNPC and SNEPCo to support the health ambition of the state.

The Vision First Initiative according the SNEPCo’s Regional Community Health Manager, Dr Akin Fajola, was launched in 2019 and has since taking medical eyecare to various parts of the country as part of the social investment portfolio of SNEPCo and its partners.

 

 

No Plan To Disenfranchise 7million Nigerians -INEC

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied playing any negative roles in the failure of about seven million potential voters to complete their registration to vote in next year’s election.

Nigerians recently approached the court over an alleged role by INEC in their inability to complete the voter registration exercise before the deadline date set by the commission.

But, the electoral body in a statement issued Monday and signed by Barrister Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, maintained that accusation was unfounded.

It said:”The attention of the Commission has been drawn to media reports that some seven million Nigerians who applied for online pre-registration as voters during the last nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) were denied the opportunity to complete their registration and consequently the collection of their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs). This claim is misleading.

“To set the record straight, Nigerians may recall that on 28th June 2021, the Commission introduced the online pre-registration of voters. By doing so, citizens were given the opportunity to commence the registration online and then book for an appointment at their convenience to complete the physical Biometric Capture at designated centres.

“It was a novel idea leveraging on technology to ease the registration process. This was in addition to the walk-in option at physical centres, where Nigerians can commence and complete thier registration simultaneously without going through the online pre-registration procedure.

In the interest of transparency, the Commission provided weekly statistical updates on the exercise.

“For the online pre-registration, a total 10,487,972 commenced the process. However, by the deadline of the exercise, 3,444,378 Nigerians completed their pre-registration physically at the designated centres in line with the Commission’s policy. Some 7,043,594 applicants did not complete the registration.

“Again, the Commission made the information public. This is what some people are now using to say that they were denied the opportunity when in reality they failed to either complete the online enrolment or appear physically at the designated centres to complete the process.

“A breakdown of the 7,043,594 incomplete online pre-registrations is as follows: 4,161,775 citizens attempted but either did not complete online pre-registration or abandoned it and went for the physical registration instead.

“2,881,819 registrants completed the online pre-registration but did not show up to complete the physical Biometric Capture at designated centres before the deadline.Therefore, it is clear that no Nigerians were deliberately denied the opportunity to complete their online pre-registration.

“We appeal citizens to always adhere to timelines as against the endless agitation for eleventh hour extension of set deadlines”.

PIA: Six Draft Regulations Ready For Gazetting, Says NUPRC Boss

Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has said that six draft regulations have been finalized and ready for gazetting in order to ensure that industry operators can align their operations with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) provisions as quickly as possible.

He disclosed this on Monday in his opening remarks at the second phase of consultation with stakeholders on draft regulations held in Abuja.

He also noted that already the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Host Community Development Trust regulations has been gazetted.

He added that the six draft regulations were among the ones presented for discussion during the 1st phase of consultations with stakeholders in April including Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Host Communities Development Regulations; Royalty Regulations; Domestic Gas Delivery Obligation Regulations; Nigeria Conversion Renewal {Licence and Lease} Regulations; Petroleum Licensing Round Regulations; andUpstream Petroleum Fees and Rents Regulations.

He said:”The inputs of the Stakeholders from the engagement were incorporated, where necessary, in the draft regulations. Thereafter, the regulations were forwarded to the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice for vetting, legislative standardization, and approval. I am happy to inform you that One of the regulations, the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Host Community Development Trust regulations has been gazetted while the remaining five have been finalized and ready for gazetting” he said.

He stated that the stakeholder consultation which is compliance with Section 216(4)(g) of the PIA 2021, is prior to finalizing other draft regulations including Acreage Management (Drilling & Production) Regulations; Upstream Petroleum Environmental Regulations; Upstream Petroleum Environmental Remediation Fund Regulations; Upstream Petroleum Safety Regulations; Unitization Regulations; Upstream Petroleum Decommissioning and Abandonment Regulations and Frontier Exploration Fund Regulations.

He said:”Permit me to reiterate that the process of formulating the above regulations has been a rigorous and strenuous exercise. They are products of critical thinking and evaluation, and hard work by the Commission’s Regulation development Team and the Presidential Implementation Committee on PIA. Despite this however, the process is not complete until the Stakeholders’ critical inputs are obtained, discussed, and incorporated, where necessary, in the regulations.

“To this end, | am of the firm view that with the level of turn out today, we will have healthy, robust, and intellectual discussion on the Regulations during the syndicate sessions to come out with robust regulations with best international best standard”