The minister of power, Adebayo Adelabu, claims that “saboteurs and cartels” are impeding the national government’s attempts to establish a reliable supply of electricity.

Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja, Adelabu addressed the audience at a presentation titled “Confronting Nigeria’s Power Challenge as the Nation Migrates to a Multi-Tier Electricity Market.”

According to NAN, the programme was organised by the house of representatives committee on power.

“We have saboteurs, cartels, and those who prefer to perpetrate evil for their selfish interests to frustrate our efforts,” Adelabu said.

Adelabu said all efforts must be geared towards propelling the country to the league of productive nations, adding that Nigeria is looking at reserves that would eliminate incessant power collapses.

He said the federal government is also considering the liberalisation of the power sector.

“We also encourage the state government to invest in power generation in their states,” the minister said.

Adelabu said Abia is one of the states that has invested in power, disclosing that the federal executive council (FEC) has also granted Ekiti and Enugu the right to generate tariffs — meaning that the states would be responsible for power generation, transmission, supply, trading, and system operations.

The minister also expressed concern that a lot of investors did not come with their private equity, saying they had to borrow money from the bank to operate in the sector.

He, however, said with time, investors would be made to operate the right way for the benefit of the sector.

The politician also said the federal government is planning on deepening rural electrification in collaboration with the state governments.

On electricity projects, Adelabu said there are over 100 uncompleted power projects across the country.

He said the projects would not be energy-efficient without being completed.

Also speaking, Kola Adeshina, the group managing director of Sahara Power Group, expressed regret that Nigeria cannot supply electricity efficiently despite its abundant gas resources.

He said if electricity was not a priority in the budget provision, it would be difficult for the country to work, stressing that Nigeria has the resources to double its power generation.

“If the executive brings an appropriation bill before you (lawmakers) and the power sector is not number two after defence, then don’t allow it,” Adeshina said.

Adeshina urged the government to prioritise industrial areas in power distribution.

“After the industrial areas have had light during the day, we can shift power at night to residential areas because production takes place during the day,” he said.

“Let’s sequence our investment along the line of value-added. Nigerians are resilient, we are strong, and we have tenacity. Nigerians are tired of power collapse.”

On April 22, the minister had said the federal government would sell off five electricity distribution companies (DisCos) under the management of banks and Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) in the next three months to technical power operators.

He also said the ministry would prevail on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to revoke underperforming licenses and change the management board of the DisCos — if it becomes the solution.

Ola Olukoyede, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has revealed that the anti-graft agency has discovered another worse scheme other than crypto trading platform Binance and its system.

He said the agency has frozen about 300 accounts to ensure the safety of the foreign exchange market.

The scheme, popularly called the “P to P” peer- peer financial trading scheme, has reportedly operated outside the official banking and financial corridors and there was a looming disaster that could further crashed the Naira value that has continued to gain.

“There are people in this country doing worse than Binance,” he said, adding that over $15bn passed through one of the platforms in the last one year, outside the financial regulations.

Meanwhile, police authorities in Kenya have reportedly arrested Nadeem Anjarwalla, an executive of cryptocurrency platform Binance, who fled Nigeria some weeks ago.

Anjarwalla had escaped from custody in Nigeria following the Federal Government’s crackdown on the cryptocurrency platform in a bid to strengthen the naira.

While the Nigerian authorities later traced Anjarwalla to the East African nation, multiple reports say the Binance executive is now in the custody of the Kenyan police.

According to the reports, government sources in Kenya confirmed that the Binance chief is now in the custody of the country’s police.

Former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has opened up on his failure to appear before a federal high court in Abuja, says it’s due to fear of arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Recall that the EFCC sought to arraign Bello on 19 counts bordering on alleged money laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of funds to the tune of N80.2 billion.

Although the arraignment was initially scheduled for April 18, Bello was absent from court on the day.

At the resumed court session on Tuesday, Adeola Adedipe, a member of Bello’s legal team, said his client would have appeared in court but was worried about being taken into custody.

“The defendant wants to come to court but he is afraid that there is an order of arrest hanging on his head,” Adedipe said.

He asked the court to revoke the warrant of arrest issued on April 17 against the former governor.

Adedipe argued that the charge had not been served on his client as required by law at the time the warrant of arrest was made.

“As at the time the warrant was issued, the order for substituted service had not been made. That order was just made this morning,” he said.

“A warrant of arrest should not be hanging on his neck when we leave this court,” counsel to the defendant added.

However, Kemi Pinheiro, EFCC’s lawyer, argued that for the arrest warrant to be vacated, the former governor must be arraigned and take his plea.

Earlier, Emeka Nwite, presiding judge, made an order directing that the defendant should be served the charges by substituted means through his lawyers.

The court has fixed May 10 to rule on the application to vacate the warrant of arrest.