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Police Seek 21-Day Detention of Seun Kuti Claim ‘Assaulted’ Officer Now In Coma
The police have requested a remand order to detain Seun Kuti for 21 days after allegedly secretly arraigning him at the Yaba Magistrate Court without informing his lawyers.
During the proceedings at the Magistrate Court, police prosecutors claimed that the officer whom Seun Kuti allegedly assaulted was in a coma and receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital.
The Chief Magistrate, Mrs. Adeola Olatunbosun, announced that she was currently studying the case file and therefore put the court on recess.
A witness at the court revealed that the police accused Seun Kuti of not providing a statement, but his lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, countered this by stating that he was present when Seun wrote his statement.
The lawyer further disputed the police’s allegations, pointing out that they had previously stated publicly that the officer had trailed Seun Kuti and accepted money from him for car repairs.
It also emerged that a Deputy Commissioner of Police had met with the Magistrate before secretly bringing Seun Kuti to court without notifying his lawyer.
Earlier in the day, Seun Kuti and his legal team had already arrived at the court after learning about the police’s secret arraignment.
The police had moved him to the Yaba Magistrate Court without informing his lawyers, creating a sense of surprise and unease.
In a previous interaction with the police, Seun Kuti had refused to provide a statement, citing the investigation conducted by the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Benjamin Hundeyin, who had already published his findings in the media.
Through his lawyer, Seun Kuti expressed his intention to defend himself against Hundeyin’s published investigative report at the appropriate time and place.
Despite the efforts of Seun Kuti’s lawyer to secure bail, the police at the Lagos State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti, refused to grant it, claiming that their investigation was still ongoing. This denial came after the police’s failed attempt to coerce Seun Kuti into providing a statement that could implicate him in the alleged assault of the officer.
Seun Kuti’s arrest on Monday, following his voluntary visit to the state police command to cooperate with the investigation, was accompanied by the police’s public display of his arrest and handcuffing. He was taunted and mocked by hundreds of officers as he walked through the premises alongside his lawyer, Olumide-Fusika.
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NNPC JV Unveils New Crude Oil Grade ‘Nembe’, Commences Exports With 1,900 Barrels
Precious ADELOLA
The NNPC/Aiteo Joint venture has announced the introduction of Nembe Crude Oil Grade, a new crude oil grade into the international crude oil market.
The announcement of the Nembe Crude Oil Blend, produced by Aiteo, the Operator of the NNPC/Aiteo Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 Joint Venture (JV), was made at the ongoing Argus European Crude Conference in London, on Tuesday.
OML 29, an asset located onshore Nigeria, is operated by Aiteo Eastern Exploration & Production Ltd, Africa’s leading indigenous hydrocarbon producer, following a historic acquisition from Shell in 2014.
The Nembe Crude was previously blended with the popular Bonny Light grade and exported via the Bonny Oil & Gas Terminal.
The unique selling point of the Nembe Crude Oil grade with an API gravity was highlighted by both the Aiteo E & P and NNPC Limited Leadership at the Argus Conference in London.
The Nembe Crude Oil grade also has a low sulphur content and low carbon footprint due to flare gas elimination, fitting perfectly into the required spec of major buyers in Europe.
Two cargoes of 950,000 barrels each of the Nembe Crude Oil grade have since been exported to France and the Netherlands. With its attractive Assay of API 29 and low sulphur content, the Nembe Crude Oil grade commands a premium to the global Brent benchmark.
With the NNPC-Aiteo OML 29 JV back on-stream, Nigeria now boasts of an additional crude oil export of 2 Cargoes at 950,000 barrels each per month and 1.2 Bcf of export gas monthly.
This remarkable achievement signals the commencement of activities at Nigeria’s newest crude oil terminal, the Nembe Crude Oil Export Terminal (NCOET), which was licensed in line with the extant laws and Crude Oil Terminal establishment regulations.
The terminal was conceived as a Floating Storage and Offloading Vessel (FSO) with a storage capacity of two (2) Million Barrels and the ability to offload crude oil to any export tanker from AFRAMAX to Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC).
It has a loading capacity of 25,000 barrels per hour and will be exporting over 3.6 million barrels of Crude oil monthly at full scale of operation.
Currently, hydrocarbon production from OML 29, which was hitherto constrained due to evacuation challenges owing to the security issues around the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) corridor, has now been resolved through a collaborative and creative approach that led to the innovation of the Alternative Crude Oil Evacuation Solution.
The Argus European Crude Conference 2023 in London is a gathering of energy majors, refiners, NOCs, traders, financial institutions, and other representatives from across the global oil markets. The event also provides a critical opportunity for business leaders to connect, discuss, share and learn from one another.
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Nigeria Owes NNPCL US$3.1bn, As Subsidy Hits US$921.5m Monthly
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JUST IN: Tribunal Sacks Gov Uba Sani, Declares Election Invalid
Governor Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was removed from office on Thursday by the governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kaduna State.
The panel ruled that the state’s 2023 governorship election was invalid.
According to information gathered by Biztellers, the judges avoided the actual auditorium and instead communicated the decision via zoom.
It commanded the holding of new elections in seven wards across four local government units in the State.
Isa Ashiru, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party, and the PDP filed the petition.