The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency on Thursday, beefed up its presence around the Lekki, Lagos residence of the embattled Senator-elect for Ogun East Senatorial District, Buruji Kashamu, despite its promise on Wednesday to obey the court order, ordering the agency to vacate the place. A Federal High Court in Lagos had mandated the operatives of the agency to vacate Kashamu’s mansion on Oladipo Omotosho Street, Lagos. Another court judgment on Wednesday restrained the NDLEA and other security agencies in Nigeria from unlawfully arresting Kashamu and extraditing him to the United States over drug-related offences. Our correspondent, who was at the area as of 3.30pm on Thursday, observed that the number of the operatives had increased compared to the number of NDLEA officials that were on the ground on Wednesday. The operatives were fully on the alert while vehicular and human movement have been completely restricted on the street. Kashamu has been at loggerheads with the NDLEA over an order claimed by the latter to have been received from the United States Government, requesting extradition of the Peoples Democratic Party chieftain for drug-related offences The agency, in a statement by its spokesperson, Mitchell Ofoyeju, had on Wednesday, promised to obey the court order. The statement was however silent on when it would leave the residence.

A Federal High Court in Lagos has barred the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission from giving effect to its proposed increment in electricity tariff. Justice Mohammed Idris made the order on Thursday after a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Toluwani Adebiyi, moved an ex parte application to that effect. The Chairman of NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, had, at a recent press conference in Abuja, disclosed the plan by the commission to implement an upward review of electricity tariff payable by Nigerians. The proposed increment, Amadi said, was billed to commence from June 1,2015. But Adebiyi, who claimed that the proposed increment would “foist further hardship on Nigerians,” had appeared in court on Thursday with a motion ex parte, praying the court to stop it. Amadi, while canvassing argument before the court, contended that any increment in tarrif was unjustifiable in the face of poor or erratic supply of electricity by the distributing companies. According to the lawyer, if the proposed increment is allowed, most electricity companies will retain the N750 fixed charge. Justice Idris, after hearing the application, ordered that the status quo be maintained pending the determination of the substantive suit. The judge ordered the plaintiff to serve the motion on notice and other processes in the suit on the NERC. Justice Idris also granted leave to the applicant to serve the originating summons, the affidavit in support, list of exhibits and the written address on the defendant in Abuja, which is outside Lagos judicial division of the Federal High Court. The judge also adjourned the suit to June 11, 2015 for hearing. In the main suit, the plaintiff is seeking an order restraining the NERC from implementing any upward review of electricity tariff without a meaningful and significant improvement in power supply at least for 18 hours in a day in most communities in Nigerian.

Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources ( Upstream and Downstream ), currently investigating the lingering fuel scarcity in the country, has directed the Department of Petroleum Resources to seal-off any filling station hoarding the product. Chairman of the committee, Mr. Magnus Abe, told journalists in Abuja on Thursday that the long queues at filling stations across the country would soon disappear. He said the committee had approached the Lagos State Government and and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, to allow tanker drivers lift petroleum products in compliance with the resolutions agreed with the Senate joint committee and stakeholders in the oil industry. Abe added, “I have spoken with the Lagos State Commissioner for Transport and the chairman of NUPENG in Lagos and they’ve assured me that everybody is complying. “The situation will improve and it will continue to improve. There’s still a lot of panic buying going on but, as days go by, the queues would reduce.” The senator expressed satisfaction with the progress recorded since the truce was brokered among stakeholders in the oil sector by the committee. Abe said, “Nobody can say he’s satisfied with the present situation because as I would say, this is something that would happen again and again again except we have a drastic review and overhaul of the entire system and the entire scheme; this is not a permanent solution. “It’s a stop-gap measure to allow normalcy to return to the sector. It would be the responsibility of the incoming administration to look for a more permanent solution. “I’m very confident that normalcy will soon be restored and I urge Nigerians to give the system a chance to correct itself and those who have fuel do not necessarily need to do back to the filling stations to refill because there’s no scaring coming. “Those, who do not need to buy for their cars or jerry-cans to go and store at home because when you do that, you are contributing to the scarcity. “We have given very clear instructions to the DPR that anybody, who has stock and is not selling in the hours that we have agreed, should have their licences revoked and their facilities sealed-off. “I will get back to the DPR today to ensure that the nobody toys with that instruction. If anybody has information as to the contrary, that the filling stations are hoarding, they should contact DPR and they would be dealt with.”

There are indications that the current fuel scarcity may not abate unless the Federal Government pays the outstanding N200m reportedly being owed theOIL MARKETERS as subsidy claims.

TheOIL MARKETERS, who confirmed to our correspondent that they had stopped importation, said they could not continue with fuel importation as result of inadequate funds.

They spoke through the Executive Secretary, MajorOIL MARKETERS Association of Nigeria, Mr. Obafemi Olawore.

Olawore, along with the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, also denied the report that they were on strike.

He said they were still waiting for the Federal Government to call them to another roundtable on how to pay the N200bn fuel subsidy owed them.

Olawore said, “We are not on strike. People are just painting us the way they want. We are not importing because we don’t have the money to buy the products. The government has not invited us. The only thing we have heard is the resolution of the Senate on Thursday and I think that they are going to invite us soon.”

Out of N356.2bn subsidy the government reportedly owedOIL MARKETERS, the Ministry of Finance paid the sum of N156bn about two weeks ago.

With about five days to the handover of power to a new administration at the federal level, tanker drivers in the country have also stopped lifting fuel from the depots, leaving many filling stations without the product and others selling at exorbitant prices.

The General Secretary, NUPENG, Mr. Isaac Aberare, said tankers drivers would start lifting the product as soon as they received the directive to do so, insisting that they were not strike.

He said, “If there are products in the depots, we will go there and load. Remember that the Lagos State Government gave tankers drivers 48 hours to leave the road instead of clogging the whole road and making navigation difficult; we have complied with that instruction. Any time there are products, we will go and load.”

In its response to the lingering fuel scarcity in the country, the Senate on Thursday directed its Committee on Petroleum Resources (upstream and downstream) to commence a full investigation into the causes of the persistent fuel crisis.

The directive was made following a motion by the Deputy Senate Majority Leader, Senator Abdul Ningi.

Ningi said, “We need to know whether fuel scarcity has come to stay. We need to know whether it has become part of our lives. We need to plan.

“By planning and talking about it, we are now sensitising Nigerians to brace for the impending issue of fuel scarcity whether it is going to be here permanently or it is temporary.”