Daily Watch – National security tussle intensifies, Courts halt INEC’s deregistration

Data from the Advisory Power Team in the Office of Nigeria’s Vice President showed that the country’s power sector lost about ₦19.15 billion in 10 days to constraints from the insufficient gas supply, distribution, and transmission infrastructure. The breakdown of the losses, which were recorded to 14 February, showed that the sector lost an estimated N1.96 billion on 14 February; ₦2.01 billion on 13 February; ₦2 billion on 12 February; N1.95 billion on 11 February; ₦2.15 billion on 10 February, and ₦1.95 billion on 9 February. According to the APT, 3,314 MW was not generated due to the unavailability of gas; 188.6MW was not generated due to the unavailability of transmission infrastructure, while 579.2MW was not generated due to the high frequency resulting from the unavailability of distribution infrastructure. The average energy that was not generated on Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday was due to unavailability of transmission, distribution infrastructure and water management. The system operator put the country’s installed generation capacity at 12,910.40MW; available capacity at 7,652.60MW; transmission wheeling capacity at 8,100MW and the peak generation ever attained at 5,375MW.

The Federal High Court in Abuja halted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from deregistering 33 political parties on Monday, pending the determination of a suit brought by the parties. Justice Anwuli Chikere ruled on the interlocutory injunction by the parties, saying that INEC, the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice failed to counter the application by the applicants. She added that the affected political parties had a legal right which must be protected. Although, the suit filed last year by the parties, INEC went ahead on February 6 to deregister 74 parties. Justice Chikere adjourned the matter till February 27 for hearing in the substantive suit.

Gunmen in military fatigues and masks have killed 22 people in a village at the heart of a separatist insurgency in western Cameroon, shooting women and children and burning others in their homes, the United Nations said on Monday. Cameroon’s army has since 2017 been fighting English-speaking militias seeking to form a breakaway state called Ambazonia amid the cocoa farms and forests of west Cameroon. As fighting has intensified, so have abuses by both sides, witnesses and rights groups say. The fighting is the gravest threat to stability in the oil- and cocoa-producing country since President Paul Biya took power nearly 40 years ago. It was not yet clear who was responsible for Friday’s attack in Ntumbo in the northwest region of Cameroon near the Nigerian border. In a statement, separatists blamed the army. In its own statement, the army denied wrongdoing. James Nunan, an official with the U.N. humanitarian coordination agency OCHA said that 14 of the dead were children, some of whom were under five. At least 600 people fled, he said. Nearly 8,000 Cameroon refugees fled to eastern and southern Nigeria in the first two weeks of February, the United Nations refugee agency said, adding to the more than half a million people who have already left.

Nigeria’s national security adviser, Babagana Monguno, has issued a warning memo to all service chiefs to desist from taking further directives from President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari. Monguno had accused Abba Kyari of undue interference on matters bordering on national security. According to Premium Times, Monguno said Kyari’s directives to service chiefs were sometimes issued without the knowledge or approval of the president, a practice he alleges has added to the government’s failure to contain insecurity. The retired major-general had said in the letter on 9 December 2019 that the Chief of Staff is not a presiding head of security, neither is he sworn to an oath of defending the country. He added that Kyari as presiding over meetings with service chiefs and heads of security organisations as well as ambassadors and high commissioners to the exclusion of the NSA and/or supervising ministers constitute a violation of the Constitution and directly undermine the authority of President. Monguno’s letter comes as insecurity returns to centre stage as a major cause for worry among Nigerians, with recent attacks linked to bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers and insurgents across the country.