Saraki's Trial Adjourned Until Wednesday - Channels Television

The trial of Nigeria’s  Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, on alleged falsification of assets at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) has been adjourned till Wednesday, April 6.During hearing on Tuesday the counsel to the Senate President, Mr Paul Usoro, had asked for an adjournment on the basis that an appeal had been entered before the appellate court. The defendant filed a motion of stay of proceedings which is before the Registrar of the court, he told the Tribunal.Mr Usoro said that the process of appeal had been transmitted to the CCT and the record of appeal was before the Tribunal.
He explained that the prayer for adjournment was to essentially allow the Court of Appeal to entertain and arrive at a decision in the appeal, which it had graciously fixed a clear date of April 26, 2016 to hear.
The Senate President’s counsel also requested that the case should be adjourned on the ground that he was appearing for the first time in he case and that he was not fully briefed of the matter. But the Prosecuting Counsel, Mr Rotimi Jacobs, opposed the application. According to him, the CCT had adjourned the matter for trial to commence and he was ready with his witnesses to commence trial.
He said that the defence was aware that what they had filed could not stop the proceedings. He said that the request for an adjournment was not based on the motion served on the prosecution but on an application of stay of proceedings pending before the Court of Appeal.After the counter comments, the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) ruled that it had jurisdiction in the case of alleged falsification of assets brought against Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.
The Tribunal said the natural thing to do was to proceed with the trial in spite of a request for an adjournment by counsel to the Senate President, Mr Usoro. It proceeded with the hearing, but after taking testimonies from some witnesses, the Tribunal adjourned its hearing till Wednesday, April 6.

How poor electricity is affecting telecom quality service

Since the advent of mobile telecommunications operators who deployed the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) technology about 16 years ago, one critical issue that has dominated Nigeria’s telecommunications space has been poor quality of service (QoS) occasioned by inadequate power supply.Despite the licencing and privatisation of electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) and Generating Companies (GENCOs) in the last few years to improve power supply, not much has improved in electricity such that telecom subscribers have to contend with mobile operators battling to provide their own electricity power.
Poor quality of service can be seen in the form of dropped calls, undelivered short message service (SMS), poor mobile internet service, infrastructure vandalisation, theft of diesel at base stations by hoodlums, etc.
According to the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), telecom subscribers in Nigeria lose an average of N730 billion annually to poor quality service. The ATCON said this could have been addressed if there was steady power supply from the mains so that telecom operators could connect their networks directly to the national grid as it is done on other countries. However, in Nigeria, mobile operators generate and distribute their own power supply for telecom services.
For instance, MTN Nigeria spends N30.5 billion annually on the purchase of diesel. This amount, experts said, could be used to build another 5,000 base stations which could have helped improve the quality of service in Nigeria and probably contribute to lower call rates.
A telecom expert said that Nigeria’s patchy power infrastructure has long been an obstacle for the country’s telecoms operators. In a country with about 25,000-30,000 Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and a need for about twice that number over the next 10 years, the power infrastructure challenge is especially nagging. As at 2012, MTN rolled out over 6,700 2G sites and over 1,600 3G sites bringing the total number of sites to over 7,000.Read More