INSTALL METERS OR STOP NEW TARIFF, NERC ORDERS DISCOS

Demands list of unmetered customers
WITH a tacit verdict that many of the distribution companies were violating the metering regulations, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has ordered concerned electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) to commence metering the consumers who have paid with immediate effect.
Giving them a 14-day ultimatum to submit a list of all customers who have paid for meters since January 2011,
NERC Chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi, in a letter to the chief executives of the companies, warned that “any DISCO that does not comply with this new directive will be barred from collecting the new electricity tariff.

2 MAJORS,13 SOLDIERS KILLED BY BOKO HARM BURIED AMIDST TEARS

Two Army Majors and thirteen soldiers killed by Boko Haram Terrorists in the North Eastern states of Borno, Yobe, as well as UNAMID operations in Darfur, Sudan, were yesterday given national burial at the National Military Cemetery in Abuja with President Goodluck Jonathan insisting that the nation will win the war on terror.
At the burial ceremony which took place at the National Military Cemetery, Abuja, scores of officers and men of the force, amidst grieving relatives of the gallant officers and men, Jonathan represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo described the death of the officers and soldiers as a sacrifice for the nation’s unity.

N’ASSEMBLY TAKES OVER RIVERS LEGISLATURE … DEMANDS REDEPLOYMENT OF STATE CP, MBU

The Senate passed a resolution on Thursday empowering it and the House of Representatives to take over the legislative functions of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
In the resolution which concurs with that of the House on July 10, the Senate also flayed the attempt by five anti-Rotimi Amaechi lawmakers to impeach the state Assembly Speaker, Otelemaba Amachree.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said after the decision that a meeting between the President of the Senate, David Mark, and the Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, would be held to draw up modalities for the running of the assembly.

NOBODY CAN FORCE ME OUT OF PDP – AMAECHI

Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, has said nobody can stampede him out of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The governor also said he did not have to tell President Goodluck Jonathan or anybody about his ambition before contesting any public office.
Amaechi, who said he had yet to declare his ambition to contest the Vice-Presidency in PDP, spoke in an interview monitored on the BBC programme, Hard Talks, on Thursday.
He said, “You see what you must know is that I believe in the rule of law. Let’s even assume, for the purpose of argument, that an ambition exists, nobody has the right to bring down a state just because an ambition exists.

SALAMI TENDERS RETIREMENT NOTICE •TO CONTINUE WITH CASE AGAINST NJC

THE suspended President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Isa Salami, has reportedly tendered his notification of retirement to the National Judicial Council (NJC).
He is retiring on October 15, 2013 when he would be 70.
He was suspended by the council on August 18, 2011 for misconduct.
A spilt majority vote reinstated him on May 10, 2012, but was kept out of office by series of pending litigation, including the one he instituted, which challenged his suspension by the court.
His case and others brought by former governors of Osun and Ekiti states, Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Segun Oni, respectively, were still pending in different courts.

FG TO ADOPT ASIAN TIGERS AS ECONOMIC MODELS

ABUJA — Federal Government may soon adopt the model of the Asian Tigers towards the economic transformation of the nation.
To actualise this goal, government may undertake a study of the contribution made by the diaspora of the Asian tigers towards the economic transformation of their different economies.
This was disclosed, yesterday, by President Goodluck Jonathan, who was represented by Vice-President Namadi Sambo, while declaring the 2013 Nigeria Diaspora Day open.
President Jonathan further stated that the success of countries like India, China, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines, which have strategically worked with their citizens in the diaspora to accelerate national development, remains a model for the nation to understudy.

TENSION AHEAD OF 2015 DISTURBING —JONATHAN

President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday vowed to use his influence as the President of the country and as the leader of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to end what he described as “political excesses” currently characterising the nation’s polity.
He said his intervention had become necessary because politicians’ excesses were unnecessarily overheating the polity ahead of the 2015 general elections.
A statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, quoted Jonathan as making the pledge during a closed-doors meeting he had with a delegation of the Nigerian Bar Association, led by its President, Mr. Okey Wali (SAN), and three of his predecessors, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

LAGOS STILL WORKING!

As he drove through some parts of Lagos State a couple of months back (obviously on his way out of town), the Governor of Rivers State, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, despite orchestrated distractions by agents of destabilisation, was awed by the sudden construction site that Lagos has become. Amaechi, who drove himself, had gone through some back routes, in an attempt to beat the traffic that the ongoing construction had brought about. He then retorted, unconsciously though: “Fashola is really doing well…wow!”