Federal High Court orders Senate to reinstate Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to continue her legislative duties, ruling that her 6-month suspension is excessive and in default of Section 14(2) of the Senate’s Privileges Act. 

However, the court also found Senator Natasha guilty of contempt for commenting on social media while the case was ongoing and ordered her to apologize in two national dailies and on Facebook, and to pay a fine of N5 million to the federal government within seven days.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has denied responsibility for the power outage in several parts of Abuja.

Its denial counters claims by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), that blamed the outage in areas such as Dilic Hotel, Prime Plaza, Exclusive Stores, Gilmore, Takwa Crescent, and Former Zartech in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on a “technical fault” from the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

This is contained in a statement on Thursday by Ndidi Mbah, spokesperson for TCN.

The statement reads; “The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) informs the public that the power outage affecting Dilic Hotel, Prime Plaza, Exclusive Stores, PENCOM, AMCON, Gilmore, Takwa Crescent, Former Zartech, and its environ is not due to at technical fault from TCN, contrary to Abuja Distribution Company (AEDC)’s claim,” Mbah said.

“TCN’s feeders serving these areas are not in any way experiencing outages. For emphasis, TCN’s feeders serving these areas are functioning normally, contrary to AEDC’s claim.”

The claims and counter claims now put residents in confusion as to the cause of the power outage.

Director General, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Segun Ajayi-Kadiri, sees the price of fuel coming down to N800.

Ekwutosblog reported recently that Dangote Petroleum Refinery slashed its ex-depot price for Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol, to N840 per litre.

The reduction represents a N40 decrease from the previous rate of N880 per litre.

This happened a few days after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, increased the pump price of petrolto N925 per litre in Lagos.

This decrease is also coming a week after Dangote Refinery increased the ex-depot petrol price to N880 per litre

Speaking in an interview with Channels Television, Ajayi-Kadiri said that it was a welcome development, adding that price of the product would further decrease to N800 with the modalities being put in place by Dangote Refineries.

“You cannot blame anyone for producing and ensuring effective delivery,” he said.

When asked to share his thoughts from a manufacturer’s point of view on what he sees about the long term effect, he added, “So if I may use what the Gen Z is called ‘Joy is coming’, that’s what I see.

“The long term is going to be better. I see the price coming down to 800 and that’s what manufacturers want.

“I just told you now that last year, we spent as much as 1.1 trillion in terms of providing alternatives, apart from the fact that even the quality of the products is not guaranteed.

“So in the near future, I continue to see continued reduction in the price of diesel.

“I also see a situation where other players will be encouraged to come into the field, because that is what it takes. I don’t think that we should use sentiment to dissuade any investor from improving the life and well being of the people.