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Edo ACN:Mass defection looms in Edo ACN over primaries

Posted by 9jabook.com webmadam on January 17, 2011 at 12:01am

  Large-scale irregularities and imposition of candidates in the recent primaries for state and national assembly contestants by the Action Congress of Nigeria in Edo state may lead to mass defection of members to other parties, especially the People's Democratic Party, a leader of party in Esan Central, Matthew Emiohe, has said.

 

He called on the state governor to rescue the party from the impending calamity that awaited it if the crisis that trailed the congresses was not properly looked into.

"The so-called primary that was conducted in Edo State was flawed. Actually, there was no primary but imposition of candidates," Mr Emiohe said. "This is a departure from what the governor has been preaching, the one-man-one-vote was jettisoned. The PDP primaries were very transparent. The governor's one-man-one-vote is nonsense. The way it is now, I don't think that the ACN can win any election, if care is not taken. The imposition is across the state and everybody is annoyed. If they knew they were going to do imposition why did they allow people to spend their money campaigning?"

Mr Emiohe alleged that the primaries in ward 10 of his district was especially poorly conducted, just as he alleged that the governor's men wrote results for elections that never took place.

One of the contestants, Patrick Inobemhe, accused the state government and leaders of the party of undue interference in the primaries...

Upstanding PDP

Mr. Inobemhe, who was seeking nomination to the State House of Assembly, alleged that in a bid to install their supporters as candidates for the general election, party leaders and government officials resulted to using all forms of dubious methods to edge out other contestants.

Mr Inobemhe, who spoke with journalists on Sunday, regretted that the so-called primaries in Edo State was only carried out to deceive the people into believing that the principle of one-man-one-vote was been upheld.

He subsequently called INEC to investigate alleged cases of rigging in the Edo ACN primaries and disqualify any candidate who was not the people's choice.

"The PDP we have so much maligned in the past came up with one of the best primaries in the state, we expected the ACN to even do better, but what we are seeing is far from been what we expected," he said.

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Blackout looms as Shell prepares to shut gas plants on Saturday

Posted by 9jabook.com on February 18, 2010 at 7:30pm
Blackout looms as Shell prepares to shut gas plants on Saturday

Obinna Ezeobi, Abuja


Nigeria may be plunged into total darkness as from Saturday, as Shell Petroleum Development Company gives a notice of its plan to shut down three critical gas plants that supply dry gas to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria.


The company made this known in a letter dated February 10, 2010 and addressed to the Minister of Power, Dr. Lanre Babalola and his petroleum counterpart, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman.

SPDC notified the Federal Government that it might be compelled to shut down the Oben, Sapele and Utorogu gas plants on Saturday unless the stock of condensate, a by-product of gas blocking its pipelines, was evacuated.

This came just as the total power generation dipped to 2,400 megawatts on Tuesday, compounding the woes in the nation's electricity sector.

Shell is the biggest supplier of gas to the Nigerian Gas Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which in turn transmits the gas to PHCN and other gas customers....

The thermal power plants, which run on gas, contribute 70 per cent of the nation's electricity; hence shutting the three gas plants would result in near total darkness in the country.

Because the Trans-Forcados gas network, which is the bedrock for Oben, Sapele, and Ughelli Utorogu gas plants has been repeatedly compromised by militants, a decision was taken to divert the condensate to Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company, which would use some and sell the rest to Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company.

But with the refineries having not worked for a while owing to the vandalisation of the Channomi creek pipeline which supplies them with crude oil, the condensate was not used up, hence the need to find a new buyer who would move to the Warri refinery and lift the condensate.

SPDC explained in the letter that there were 437,000 barrels of condensate at the Warri refinery, which must be evacuated before it could continue producing and supplying dry gas, adding that it might be forced to shut down the plants as it would have nowhere else to evacuate the by-products to.

Oben and Sapele gas plants produce 3,000 barrels of condensate daily which must be evacuated daily and regularly for gas production to continue.

Our correspondent learnt that the matter had been brought to the attention of Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, who was said to have been brainstorming with officials of the power and oil sectors on how to avert the impending blackout.

On why power supply had deteriorated in the past weeks, the Special Adviser (Media) to the Minister of Power, Mr. Yakubu Lawal, told our correspondent that gas supply to thermal plants had dipped considerably, with five thermal plants heavily affected.

He said Egbin had the capacity to generate 1,000MW, but could only do 600MW currently due to gas constraints.

Other thermal plants, which were negatively affected included AES located within the Egbin precinct, Omotosho, Olorunsogo and Geregu.

He explained that Chevron Escravos 1 was supposed to supply 185million standard cubic feet of gas per day but was not making gas available at the moment just like the Chevron Escravos 2, which was expected to supply 300 million scfd.

Lawal said, "500 million scfd was supposed to come from Sapele but nothing at all is coming. Ughelli is also expected to supply 90 million scfd but is only bringing 30 million scfd.

He, however, explained that Ughelli was meant to be a dedicated line to Sapele power plant, which was undergoing some rehabilitation and could only utilise 30 million scfd.

He said that the 90 million scfd obtained from Oben was now under threat if the condensate produced by the plant was not evacuated

"Utorogu is expected to bring 360 million scfd, but we only get 300 million scfd," he added.

When the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Mohammed Barkindo, undertook a facility tour of the gas and power stations run by the SPDC last year, he had said that the Utorogu gas plant would increase production to 350 million scfd ahead of December 2009.

He said NNPC had initiated discussions with SPDC on the expansion programme of the plant, so as to ramp it up to 510 million scfd this year.

He said, "I have got firm reassurance on the recovery of the Trans-Forcados pipeline, which is the heart of the domestic supply system, accounting for nearly 900 million scfd of gas.

"The Trans-Forcados network is the bedrock for Oben, Sapele, Ughelli Utorogu and once that network is compromised, then we have significant challenges."



Natural gas condensate is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that are present as gaseous components in the raw natural gas produced from many natural gas fields. It condenses out of the raw gas if the temperature is reduced to below the hydrocarbon dew point temperature of the raw gas. The natural gas condensate is also referred to as simply condensate, or gas condensate, or sometimes natural gasoline because it contains hydrocarbons within the gasoline boiling range. Raw natural gas may come from any one of three types of gas wells:[1][2] Crude oil wells – Raw natural gas that comes from crude oil wells is called associated gas. This gas can exist separate from the crude oil in the underground formation, or dissolved in the crude oil. Dry gas wells – These wells typically produce only raw natural gas that does not contain any hydrocarbon liquids. Such gas is called non-associated gas. Condensate wells – These wells produce raw natural gas along with natural gas liquid. Such gas is also non-associated gas and often referred to as wet gas.
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Kingship tussle: Another bloody clash looms in Edo

Posted by Egbes Ogbeide on June 15, 2009 at 10:06pm
Uchechukwu Olisah, Benin City The leaders of Aviele community, near the warring South-Ibie town, both in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, have raised the alarm over the possibility of another bloody clash in the two towns following the recent mayhem occasioned by the kingship tussle in South-Ibie.The struggle for the Aidonogie stool of South-Ibie between two ruling houses in the town about four weeks ago left over 10 persons dead and about 25 houses burnt.To this end, the Aviele community leaders, under the aegis of The Concerned Aviele Leaders, urged the state government and other parties involved in the matter to uphold the rule of law so that peace could reign in the area.The leaders, who spoke at the weekend through a statement jointly signed by their representatives, Honourable Abdulateef Momodu and Alhaji Mashood Amendu, called on the state governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who they described as an apostle of the rule of law, to ensure that due process was followed in the resolution of the kingship tussle, bearing in mind the various court judgments on the matter.While reviewing the various legal cases so far decided over the Aidonogie stool, the Aviele community leaders expressed displeasure over the recent statement reportedly credited to one of the contenders to the throne who they said falsely accused the chairman of the local government area, Mr. Gani Audu, of involvement in the crisis.According to the group,“the protracted crisis of the clan headship of South-Ibie predates the ascension of Mallam Audu to the enviable position of the Executive Chairman of Etsako West Local Government Area.”
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