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ipNX Visits NCC, Commends the Commission for Efficient Regulatory Services
Nasiru Yusuf
Key members of the top echelon of the Management of ipNX, a licensee of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), were at the Commission yesterday for a courtesy visit.
KANO FOCUS reports that the delegation from ipNX, led by the Group Managing Director, Ejovi Aror, praised the Management of NCC for its superlative regulatory activities, describing the Commission’s actions as marked by efficiency and effectiveness.
Aror also hinted about the company’s plan to expand its operations in Nigeria, in a manner that will heighten the role of the telecom sector in the growth of the Nigerian economy.
The Group Managing Director of ipNX, also notified the Commission that the operation of the company has come to a critical juncture and ipNX is happy to migrate from the stage where it is now to a more strategic stage where it will play a greater role in the efforts to expand broadband infrastructures in Nigeria.
“Therefore, we are here to solicit your support for our plan to expand our businesses because we are at the threshold of closing a chapter and moving onto another, particularly in expanding broadband infrastructure which is critical to national development’, Aror stated with unmistakable optimism.
Aror also informed the management of NCC about some of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. The most central and significant of them, according to Aror, is the free Internet access to schools in Lagos and Oyo States.
Importantly, Aror emphasized ipNX readiness to extend such services to other parts of the country, particularly in schools, because of the importance of ICT to educational development.
Responding to the ipNX delegation, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, who was represented by the Commission’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management (ECSM), Adeleke Adewolu, thanked ipNX for the visit and for the testimony about how NCC’s regulatory activities have caused growth in leaps and bounds in the fortunes of the telecom ecosystem.
Adewolu declared that NCC is particularly gratified by the remarkable and quantifiable impact of Commission’s activities on the economy, including increase in the sectoral contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Adewolu promised that the encouraging words of ipNX’s delegation will spur the Commission to put in more efforts towards achieving its mandate.
Putting in context the trajectory of landmarks in the telecom sector, Adeleke recalled the history of the evolution of the telecom industry in Nigeria, declaring that Decree 75 of 1992 which established the Commission, was a great feat.
The NCC Executive Commissioner also said the courageous deregulation and liberalisation of the telecom sector by the Federal Government in the year 2000 was a masterstroke.
Adewolu said, that action triggered uncommon liberalization that caused a rare leap in the democratisation of access to telephone services, from a few hundred hitherto existing fixed lines in 1992 to over two hundred million subscriptions today.
Nudging ipNX to offer its best to the growth of the telecom sector, the ECSM stated that the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and the capacity of the Nigerian economy to survive the contagion have demonstrated the importance of the telecom sector because most social and economic activities simply migrated to online platforms.
“So we are delighted about your interest in expanding broadband infrastructure”, Adewolu said to underscore the importance and contribution of broadband infrastructure to human survival at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ECSM also informed the visitors that the Commission, with the supervision of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, is ready and willing to partner with stakeholders to accomplish the objectives of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030; and the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025.
Adewolu, reckoning the correlation between increase in broadband infrastructure and GDP of economies, asserted that the Management of NCC is all out to work with all stakeholders, including its licensed Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos), to expand broadband access, especially to the unserved and underserved areas of the country.
At the reception of ipNX delegation were other Management staff of the Commission including Usman Mamman, Deputy Director, Licensing and Authorisation; Afure Iloka, Special Assistant on Legal Matters to the EVC; Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan, Head Online Media, who represented Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, Director Public Affairs; Abubakar Kurfi, Assistant Director, Licensing and Authorisation; and Quassim Odunmbaku, the Special Assistant to the ECSM.
Aror, was accompanied on the visit to the Commission by the Group Executive Director, Commercials, ipNX, Bimpe Olaleye; Divisional CEO, ipNX Infrastructure Division, Uche Nnakenyi; and Tunde Olorunyomi, Financial Controller, ipNX.
Mukhtar Yahaya Usman
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has called for immediate redeployment of the Kano State Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner Abdu Zango from the state.
KANO FOCUS reports that the State APC Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas said this, when he presented a petition challenging the outcome of the March 18 governorship election at the state’s INEC office on Wednesday in Kano.
Abbas, represented by the state APC Legal Adviser, Abdul Fagge, said that INEC should have declared the election as inconclusive for some reasons.
“The REC manifestly affirmed the allegations of partisanship, favouritism and rigging against him when on March, 20 he connived with the Returning Officer to declare Abba Yusuf of the NNPP as the winner of the governorship election instead of declaring that the election was inconclusive,” he said.
He said that the number of voters in polling units where election was cancelled was 273,442, which was more than twice the margin of win between the two main contenders in the election which was 128,897.
‘’The REC and the Returning Officer thereby disenfranchised the 273,442 voters and acted contrary to the combined provisions of Section 24, 51 of the Electoral Act, 2022, Article 62 of the INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Election, 2022.
‘’There action was also contrary to items 4.2.16, Note 32 at page 84 and item 6 of the table at page 93 of the Manual for Election Officials, 2022.
“It is in view of the foregoing that we once again register our loss of confidence in the Kano REC and demand for his immediate redeployment in line with the dictates of the law, impartiality and respect for due process and the rule of law,’’ he said.
INEC had declared Abba Yusuf of NNPP as the winner of the election after polling 1,019,602 votes to defeat Yusuf Gawuna of the APC, who scored 892,705 votes.
Aminu Abdullahi
The Kano State Governor-elect, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, has urged his supporters and members of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) to embark on prayers for ingenuity and guidance for his leadership towards delivering the dividends of democracy.
KANO FOCUS reports that this is contained in a statement in Kano on Wednesday by Spokesperson of governor-elect Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa.
The prayers, Yusuf said, are sufficient as a show of solidarity and celebration of his victory at the polls on Saturday and not miles of trek by some of his enthusiasts in some quarters especially given the state of insecurity with banditry, kidnapping and terrorism threatening peaceful movement of people and goods across the length and breadth of the country.
Yusuf also pledged commitment to improved infrastructure and good welfare for the aged, civil servants and private sector among others in the state.
“The incoming Kano State Government will be committed to a greater future of the people with security, health, education, economic, infrastructure and good welfare for aged, civil servants and private sector among others”, he said.
Aminu Abdullahi
All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in the last Saturday gubernatorial election, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna on Tuesday rejected the declaration of Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party NNPP as the winner of the poll in Kano state.
KANO FOCUS reports that Gawuna in his first public appearance after the poll, spoke during a press conference by the party in the state capital.
The Deputy Governor who admitted that power comes from Almighty Allah, however said he aligned with the positions of the party which among others gave INEC 7 days ultimatum to declared the governorship poll inconclusive.
Gawuna who was in the company of party leaders, said it was astonishing that with the same election, 16 of the House of Assembly elections held same day and same conditions were declared inconclusive by INEC.
Meanwhile, the APC in Kano has rejected the announcement of Abba Kabir Yusif of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as winner of the just concluded governorship election in Kano calling for immediate review of the election result by the electoral umpire within seven days.
The APC chairman, who was represented by the party’s legal adviser, Abdul Adamu Fagge insists that the election should be declared inconclusive because the cancelled votes were greater than the margin between the first and the second parties of NNPP and APC respectively as provided by the Electoral Act.
Fagge said that there was no way the election could be declared conclusive with over 270,000 votes cancelled which a margin shows is bigger than the winner’s votes.
The party also drew attention to the cancellation of sixteen House of Assembly elections in the state, sighting violence as the reason, while the same votes were considered in collating the governorship election.
It expressed dismay saying the two elections took place same day, same time, same places and under the same circumstances.
Fagge said, “based on section 65 of the Electoral Laws 2022, we have written to INEC to revisit and cancel the hasty, wrong and selfish declaration of the NNPP as winner of the elections, and declared the conduct inconclusive”.
He said they have since written to INEC to within seven days revisit the elections based on the provisions of the Electoral laws and declare it Inconclusive.
The Legal Adviser explained that INEC Returning Officer, acted not on the only basis of the provisions of laws.
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