Headlines
Abuja Disco denies soliciting for payments before repairing electrical faults

Oladimeji Ige
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) says it does not ask for payment before carrying out repairs of electrical faults or replacing faulty transformers.
AEDC’s General Manager, Corporate Communications, Mr Oyebode Fadipe, made this disclosure on Sunday.
He was reacting to report in some quarters that the company collected money from customers before repairs were carried out on faulty transformers.
Fadipe said: “we don’t ask customers to pay before their fault is cleared or before we release a transformer to any community.
“I won’t say we have not heard that kind of complaint.
“What we have seen most of the time is that those that they call the electricity committee use all kinds of tricks to collect money, at times they call it facility fees.
“Because they know that electricity is so essential, they try to tie it around electricity. But it is an unfortunate incidence; we don’t ask customers to pay,” he said.
According to him ,10 customers may ask for transformers and AEDC may not be able to attend to all of them at the same time.
“But that is not to say we ask them to go and make payments or do anything of such before we give them transformers,’’ he said.
Fadipe said that once the electrical materials were available, AEDC would give them out to the customers.
He said that people must realise the fact that AEDC’s business remained to sell electricity and the more electricity we sold, the better for us.
He said that AEDC was in business because of their customers, adding that the company was also in business for the purpose of doing business.
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Economy
Buhari, Jonathan, Obasanjo, Babangida, Abdusalami, Osinbajo, Atiku, others to spend N13.8billon from N27.5 trillion 2024 budget

The Eyewitness Reporter
The Federal government has earmarked the sum of N13.8 billion in the 2024 budget as the cost of upkeep of
former presidents, vice presidents, heads of state, Chiefs of General Staff, retired heads of service, permanent secretaries, and retired heads of government agencies and parastatals.
The beneficiaries include former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, ex-vice-presidents Atiku Abubakar, Namadi Sambo and Prof Yemi Osinbajo.
Also expected to benefit from the windfall are ex-military Heads of State, General Yakubu Gowon and General Abdusalami Abubakar, as well as a former dictator and self-styled military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, and a former Chief of General Staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (retd.).
Also, N1tn was provisioned for the public service wage adjustment for government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (including arrears of promotion and salary increases, and payment of severance benefits and minimum wage-related adjustments).
A breakdown shows that the entitlements of former presidents/heads of state and vice presidents/chief of general staff will cost N2.3bn. At the same time, N10.5bn is proposed as benefits for retired heads of service, permanent secretaries and professors.
The payment of severance benefits to retired heads of government agencies and parastatals is proposed to cost N1bn.
Other allocations include N65bn for the Presidential Amnesty Programme for the reintegration of transformed ex-militants; N1bn for the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Energy; and N108bn for unnamed special projects.
The government is also proposing the sum of N40bn to offset electricity debts owed to power distribution companies by all MDAs.
President Bola Tinubu unveiled the N27.5 trillion budget estimates for the 2024 fiscal year.
The budget was presented to a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, where it is currently undergoing scrutiny and deliberation for final approval.
In his presentation, he declared, “The 2024 Appropriation has been themed the Budget of Renewed Hope.
The proposed budget seeks to achieve job-rich economic growth, macro-economic stability, a better investment environment, enhanced human capital development, as well as poverty reduction and greater access to social security.
Customs
News Alert: Wale Adeniyi revives CG conference, holds 2023 edition December 13-15 in Lagos.

Headlines
Ukraine blocks Russia’s reelection bid at IMO council elections

The outcome is another blow for Russia after it failed in its bid to return to the UN’s top human rights body in October, in an election seen as a key test of Western efforts to keep Moscow isolated.
Last year, Moscow also failed to win enough votes for re-election to the UN aviation agency’s governing council.
The London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO) is responsible for regulating the safety and security of international shipping and preventing pollution and comprises 175 member state countries.
Russia has been a member since 1958 and has been consistently re-elected to the IMO Council.
With voting on Friday, 40 countries were elected by secret ballot to the IMO Council, which supervises the work of the body.
In October, Russia said the IMO was departing from its impartial role due to “external pressure” which it said was impacting the fair treatment of all member countries.
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