Television Nigerian

The Lawmaker representing Umuahia South State Constituency at the Abia State House of Assembly, Barr Jerry Uzosike, on Thursday distributed some relief materials to the people of his constituency to help cushion the effects of the lockdown in the state occasioned by the global coronavirus pandemic.

Uzosike who gave out the relief materials through the Umuahia South Local Government COVID-19 Committee admonished the people to obey government directives on the prevention and control of the virus by staying at home until otherwise directed.

He reminded them that the pandemic was real and that staying at home helps prevent its spread.

READ ALSO: Improve power supply within Three months or face sanction ― FG to DISCOs

The items donated by the lawmaker included 50 bags of 50kg rice, 70 cartons of super pack noodles, 200 face masks, 200 hand sanitizers and N5,000 cash for each of 100 indigent constituents.

Uzosike who said he was moved to donate the relief items to ameliorate the difficulty the people are passing through at this time, thanked the Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Chinedum Enyinnaya Orji, for his contributions in bringing succour to the people of the State and for his exemplary leadership at the House, also thanked Pastor Emeka Inyama for his cash donation of N200,000 at the occasion, and the TC Chairman of Umuahia South Local Government Area, Dr Max Ndukwe Adindu for his contributions to the growth of the LGA.

The lawmaker thanked Governor Okezie Ikpeazu for decisively leading the fight against COVID-19 in Abia State, and called on other public-spirited people of Umuahia South Constituency to come to the aid of the people in these trying times.

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•Chief Ayiri Emami

Chief Ayirimi Emami, the Ologbotsere of Warri Kingdom has condemned the alleged murder of 28 – year old Joseph Pessu, by soldiers detailed to ensure compliance of the COVID – 19 lockdown in Warri, noting that everything would be done to seek justice.

Chief Emami, who was miffed at the report of Joseph Pessu’ s death, stated that under no circumstances should a civilian who wasn’t armed be killed by security agents, saying the lockdown declared by the Delta State Government is to prevent Coronavirus from spreading to the state and ultimately save lives, not to unlawfully kill innocent persons.

READ ALSO:COVID-19: Buhari’s daughter rejoins family after self-isolation

While condoling with the Pessu family over the death of Joseph, Chief Emami called on the Chief of Defence Staff and Chief of Army Staff, to immediately launch an inquest into the circumstances that led to the death of Joseph Pessu Thursday in Warri, to unmask the soldier (s) that killed him.

He appealed to Itsekiri youths to remain calm and peaceful, assuring that everything would be done to ensure that those responsible for the death of Joseph Pessu , face the full weight of the law.

” The era when trigger – happy security men take the lives of Itsekiris through extra-judicial means were over, adding that the life of every law-abiding Itsekiri indigene will be protected in line with constitutional provisions” he added.

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…as NERC demand 4yrs performance record

By Ediri Ejoh

In a bid to restore efficiency in the power sector to grow the country’s economy, the Federal Government has threatened to sanction the Distribution Companies of Nigeria, DISCOs, on improved quality in power supply, issuing a three-month ultimatum to that effect.

This came as the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, directed the DISCOs to finalise and submit their Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) between 2017 and 2020.

On the DISCOs performance, the Minister of Power, Mr. Mamman Saleh, in a statement in Abuja, said before the three-month delay on the take-off of the implementation of tariff measures, the Discos must be willing to supply meters, improve power supply and agree on what is the reasonable tariff for consumers.

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He said there would only be a rise in tariff when the DISCOs had committed themselves to play their roles effectively, rather than waiting for Nigerians to pay more for electricity.

“Tariffs will only be raised as the Distribution Companies (Discos) improve the quality of supply, meter consumers, and agree with consumers on rates. Discos that fail to improve will be sanctioned.”

Mamman added that the ministry of power remained supportive of a “service-reflective” tariff system, which he said would be more equitable and would encourage investment in the sector.

He said: “The ministry will work with NERC to ensure that improvements happen in the entire Discos network and estimated billing is capped per NERC Order 197/2020. This will eliminate arbitrary billing that Nigerians have raised issues with.

“We are also implementing other key emergency measures to support the NESI (Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry). We are working with the CBN to ensure payments to the generators and gas suppliers through the Payment Assurance Facility (PAF) are expedited to support power supply.

“TCN is also creating emergency measures to ensure staff will be available to monitor the grid and perform technical interventions.

“These changes and emergency measures will have an impact on government finances. The Power Sector Recovery (PSRP) Financing Plan is being updated to reflect the changes. The financing plan will help support ongoing discussions with the World Bank on financial support for the sector and the transition away from tariff support as government optimises its resources.”

He explained that the ministry would continue to implement key infrastructure programmes such as the Siemens/Presidential Power Initiative (PPI), continue the transmission rehabilitation and expansion programme in partnership with the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB) and other key development partners.

“To support the underserved and citizens without access in this difficult time, the ministry will accelerate programmes with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) focusing on solar home systems and solar mini-grids that impact the poor. These programmes continue to be supported by the World Bank, African Development Bank, USAID, DFID, and other key development partners.

Meanwhile, the Regulatory arm of the power sector, NERC, in its report, stated that the DISCOs have been directed to finalise and submit their Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs).

According to the report, “The Commission continued consultations with relevant stakeholders to develop lasting solutions to the gas impasse in the power industry. Furthermore, the Commission continues to execute a number of actionable items identified in its Strategic Plan 2017-2020 to completely resolve the technical and operational challenges in NESI.

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“Pursuant to this effort, the Commission directed DisCos to finalise and submit their Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) covering 2020 – 2025 using the guidelines provided by the Commission.

“The overall objective of the PIPs is to ensure that utilities invest in projects critical to addressing the technical and operational challenges affecting their operational efficiency. Engagement of consultants to support the Commission in evaluating the PIPs has since commenced.

“The evaluation is expected to appraise the DISCOs’ proposed utilisation of capital and operating expenditure allowances for relevance and cost efficiency, the investments required by DISCOs towards addressing distribution networks bottlenecks and free up part of the stranded generation capacities and address other related constraints inhibiting the flow of energy.”

It added that “During the same period, the Commission approved the 2016–2018 minor review of the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) 2015 to determine the cost-reflective tariffs, relevant tariff, and market shortfalls and prescribe the minimum remittance thresholds for each DisCo in line with the allowed end-user tariffs payable by customers.”

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Athletes already qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will need to be picked again by their respective National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to compete at the postponed Games in 2021.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced this on Thursday.

The IOC and Japanese government had succumbed to intense pressure from athletes and sports bodies around the world last week by agreeing to postpone the Games by a year to 2021.

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This was because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some 57 percent of the expected 11,000 athletes had already qualified for the Tokyo Games this year before qualification tournaments were scrapped as the virus spread in recent months.

Those athletes, the IOC said, would keep their qualification, but they have to be re-selected for next year by their NOCs again as they represented a country and not themselves.

“All of the qualifications that have been achieved by NOCs and individual athletes remain in place.

“Any athlete needs to be individually selected because they represent their NOC. In all sports, the NOC retains the right to select the athletes,” IOC sports director, Kit McConnell, said during a conference call.

McConnell said the IOC was also in talks with world football governing body FIFA.

He said this was to decide on the tournament next year, as only players aged under 23 are allowed to compete apart from a limited number of over-age players per team.

In many cases, several footballers will be above the age limit next year despite having qualified this year.

In several sports, there are specific age regulations, minimum or maximum, for health safety or to provide an age group as in men’s football with under-23.”

“We are in discussions with FIFA… We have to finalise that in the coming weeks.”

The IOC is also making efforts to make the athletes’ village available again after it was planned to be sold off as apartments after this year’s Games.

“The village is part of the priority.

“The village is the home away from home, a fantastic development. It is one of the very first tasks to re-secure this fantastic property.

“Yes, it is absolutely on that urgency list,” the IOC’s Olympic Games Executive Director Christopher Dubi said.

Dubi said those priority venues, including the dozens of sports venues, convention sites and thousands of hotel rooms, would need to be re-secured quickly.

“All of this has to be re-secured for one year later. It is a massive undertaking to get back to fundamentals,” he said.


Dubi added that the IOC planned to have finalised talks for those “priority” locations in a matter of weeks.

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