Headline
Band A Customers Decry Extortion By Power Firms Amid Poor Supply

Following the approval of 240 per cent tariff increment for Band A customers by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, some power consumers in that category are complaining of severe extortion by the various electricity distribution companies in the country amidst worsening power supply.
NERC had on Wednesday announced the tariff increment for Band A power consumers from N68 to N225 per kilowatt-hour with immediate effect.
With the new tariff, the regulator said the subsidy on electricity had been withdrawn completely from the Band A consumers, who constitute about 15 per cent of the total number of power users across the country.
At a press briefing in Abuja on Friday, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, insisted that the Federal Government would continue with the new tariff regime for Band A consumers despite calls for its reversal.
He said this was because the government could no longer continue paying humongous sums as power subsidy, stressing that subsidy on electricity for 2024 would cost the government about N2.9tn.
READ ALSO: New Tariff: Discos Get Deadline To Refund Customers Wrongly Billed
But in a flurry of reactions to the development via their X handles on Saturday, some customers lamented that despite paying exorbitantly for electricity following the tariff hike, they were experiencing poor supply in their different neighbourhoods across the country.
This is just as some Nigerians in Bands B, C, D, and E alleged that they were now being made to pay N225/KWh by the Discos instead of their old tariffs after the distribution companies upgraded their payment platforms to reflect the Band A tariff increment.
An X user identified as Heybeedo @Fadodunabayomi, stated, “My environment was listed among Band A, but we have never used a 20-hour electricity supply per day. As I am typing, there has been no light since around 1am in the early hours of today (Saturday). Who will pay for the shortfall in their supply? A lot needs to be clarified.”
Kaduna-based Tariq Abdulazeez @tariqq2 wrote, “The Kaduna Disco has failed to comply with the new regulations thereby upgrading 80 per cent of its customers to band A. We barely get 8hrs power supply.”
READ ALSO: FULL LIST: Obasanjo Farm, 27 Feeders Downgraded From Band A To E Under IBEDC
@OlaosunSina posted, “IKEDC claims OPIC in Isheri-North belongs to Band A and immediately implemented N225 per KwH. N50,000 energy (VAT inclusive) purchased yesterday (Thursday) gave 207 KwH Units. Light was taken since 9.34am today (Friday) 5th April and as of 3.37pm yet to come. This is a pure SCAM!”
Vivo Val also tweeted, “Though I am on Band B, IKEDC gave me 82 units for N20,000.”
One Michael Ifeanyi posted on the platform, “Please NERC, ask Enugu Electricity Distribution Companies to downgrade Centenary Estate Enugu to band C we hardly enjoy 10 hours light. They are charging us for band A.”
One Bolaji @bolsaid said, “I am on Band A and have not had up to 20hrs supply in the last five days, from Easter Monday till now. NERCNG, FCCPC Nigeria,” while @Otyjonah wrote, “My environment is under Band A even though the Disco has refused to issue us a prepaid meter. I have seen power supply since 11pm on d 4th of April. Today is 6th and there is no single hour of light in almost 48hrs. Will I be made to pay for the darkness at the end of the month @NERCNG?”
READ ALSO: New Electricity Tariff: Full List Of Eko Electric 21 Band A Areas
Lere Ojedokun @doklere said, “There is so much secrecy and loopholes in the electricity ecosystem which investors and players exploit to milk electricity consumers. This is why we will continue to be at their mercy.”
Oluwakemi @tykeemon said, “Are there really any Band A users in Nigeria? Are we joking? I get less than eight hours of electricity supply daily and I have been fraudulently classified as a Band A user. @NERCNG, you are not a regulator but an accomplice to rip off.”
Isaac Emalunegbe said, “We in Calabar around the Akai Effa axis suffer from your Disco staff here. They will tell us we are in Band A and we get supple less than those in Band C and at the end of every month they will issue exorbitant bill. I was a victim in 2021.”
Headline
White House Slams Trump’s Nobel Prize Snub
The White House lashed out at the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday after it awarded the peace prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and overlooked US President Donald Trump.
“The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung said on X.
“President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives. He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.”
READ ALSO:White House Threatens Mass Firings Amid Stalled Shutdown Talks
Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, Trump had repeatedly insisted that he deserved the Nobel for his role in resolving numerous conflicts — a claim observers say is broadly exaggerated.
Trump restated his claim on the eve of the peace prize announcement, saying that his brokering of the first phase of a ceasefire in Gaza this week was the eighth war he had ended.
But he added on Thursday: “Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for that, I did it because I’ve saved a lot of lives.”
Nobel Prize experts in Oslo had insisted in the run-up to Friday’s announcement that Trump had no chance, noting that his “America First” policies run counter to the ideals of the Peace Prize as laid out in Alfred Nobel’s 1895 will creating the award.
AFP
Headline
Transgender Woman Jailed For Deceiving Man About Gender In UK
A British court has sentenced a transgender woman, Ciara Watkin, to 21 months in prison for deceiving a man into sexual activity by falsely claiming to be a biological female.
According to a BBC report on Friday, the victim told Durham Crown Court he would not have consented to the sexual encounter had he known Watkin was biologically male.
The court heard that Watkin, 21, from Thornaby in Stockton-on-Tees, was found guilty of sexual assault after jurors rejected her claim that the man “would have realised” her gender identity.
Recorder Peter Makepeace KC said he was “certain” the victim “fully believed from start to finish” that Watkin was a woman due to her “lies and deception.”
READ ALSO:NERC Transfers Regulation Of Electricity Market To Bayelsa
Watkin, who was born male and had used the name Ciara since childhood, had not undergone any medical transition or surgery, the BBC reported.
Both Watkin and the victim were 18 when they met on Snapchat, where she used a female cartoon character as her profile picture. They later met in person, leading to sexual contact. Prosecutor Paul Reid told the court that Watkin even claimed to be menstruating to stop the man from touching her below the waist.
When Watkin later confessed to being biologically male, the man said he was “physically sick” and immediately reported the matter to the police.
“He said he was shocked and upset about being deceived, adding that he felt ashamed, embarrassed, and had been ridiculed online due to Watkin’s actions and deception,” the report stated.
READ ALSO:Transgender Inmates Panic As Trump Orders Transfer To Men’s Prisons
The victim, who described himself as heterosexual, told the court he felt “part of his masculinity was taken away.”
Defence counsel Victoria Lamballe argued that Watkin’s actions were not “predatory or sadistic” but stemmed from “shame and a deep sense of discomfort” with her own body.
She said Watkin, who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, identified as female from primary school and had endured years of bullying.
“It is hardly surprising that Watkin built up a façade and presented almost as a caricature of herself to mask the inner turmoil she feels at having been born into the wrong body,” Lamballe said, adding that Watkin “simply wanted to be loved.”
READ ALSO:Transgender Inmates Panic As Trump Orders Transfer To Men’s Prisons
However, Recorder Makepeace ruled that the victim was “totally deceived,” saying Watkin had lied to “get away” with her deception and was aware the man would not have consented if he knew her biological sex.
The judge also criticised Watkin’s attitude during the trial, describing her as “flippant, disinterested, and bored,” showing “not a shred of remorse.”
He said, “At the heart of this case was your frustration at wanting sexual experiences with heterosexual males, which, by definition, you needed to deceive to achieve.”
Watkin will serve her sentence in a male prison, where authorities said protective measures would be taken to ensure her safety. She will also remain on the sex offenders register for 10 years and has been issued a lifetime restraining order preventing contact with the victim.
Detective Constable Martin Scotson of Cleveland Police said Watkin “purposely concealed her sex in order for the sexual activity to take place,” adding that he hoped the conviction would allow the victim to “move forward with his life.”
Headline
Burkina Rejects US Deportees, Calls Trump’s Proposal Indecent
Captain-Ibrahim-Traore
Burkina Faso, ruled by a junta hostile to the West, has refused to take in people kicked out of the United States, in a snub to one of President Donald Trump’s signature migration policies.
Since Trump’s return to the White House, his administration has made deporting people to third countries — often to nations they have no connection to — part of a sweeping immigration crackdown.
In Africa, Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda and South Sudan have all accepted people expelled from the United States in recent months. But late on Thursday, Burkina Faso’s foreign affairs minister said the west African country had refused Washington’s overtures.
READ ALSO:Junta-led Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger To Launch Common Passport
“Naturally, this proposal, which we considered indecent at the time, runs completely contrary to the principle of dignity,” Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore said on national television.
Hours earlier, the US embassy in the capital Ouagadougou announced the suspension of regular services for most visas for people living in Burkina Faso.
Instead, Burkinabe citizens will now have their services handled in Lome, the capital of neighbouring Togo.
“Is this a way to put pressure on us? Is this blackmail? Whatever it is… Burkina Faso is a place of dignity, a destination, not a place of expulsion,” Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore said.
READ ALSO:US Deportations ‘Profoundly Disturbing” — UN Official
Burkina Faso’s leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, styles himself as an anti-imperialist Pan-African strongman.
Since seizing power in a coup in September 2022, he has shunned former colonial master France and the wider West, forging closer ties with Russia instead.
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