The Presidency has replied former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, saying Seyi Tinubu has a right to pursue legitimate business interests in any part of the world.

The Presidency stated this in a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga on Monday.

He stated, “Is it not amusing that the former Vice President, a man who openly said he formed Intels Nigeria with an Italian businessman when he was serving in the Nigeria Customs Service, a clear breach of extant public service regulations, is now the one accusing someone else of conflict of interest?

“When he was Vice President of Nigeria between 1999-2007, he maintained his business links with Intels that won major port concession deals.

“As Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation, he approved sales of over 145 State-owned enterprises to his known friends and associates and openly said during his failed campaign for the presidency last year that he would do the same, if elected.”

He said that contrary to Atiku’s claim that the Chagourys own the CDK, the Chairman of the company and its highest shareholder is respected General TY Danjuma (rtd).

He added that the Chagourys are minority shareholders in the company, adding only one member of the clan is on its five-man board.

“It is important to state clearly that Seyi Tinubu is a 38-year-old adult who has a right to do business and pursue his business interests in Nigeria and anywhere in the world within the limits of the law.

“The fact that his father is now the President of Nigeria does not disqualify Seyi from pursuing legitimate business interests.

“For the records, Seyi joined the Board of Directors of CDK in 2018, more than six years ago.

“He is representing the interest of an investor company, in which he has interest. He is not a board member because his father is a friend of the Chagourys.

“Information about owners and shareholders of CDK is a matter of public record that can be openly accessed from the website of the Corporate Affairs Commission and CDK’s.

“Atiku and his proxy did not need a little-known journal to recycle open-source information to make a fallacious argument.

“The Chairman of CDK and the highest shareholder of the company is respected General TY Danjuma (rtd).

“The Chagourys are minority shareholders in the company, and only one member of the clan is on its five-man board.

“We wonder how Seyi’s membership of the board of CDK conflicts with Hitech Construction Company’s work on Lagos-Calabar Coastal superhighway,” the statement read in part.”

Gbenga Oluwafemi, purportedly the landlord and alleged leader of the suspected gang renting out 86 apartments under Dolphin Estate Bridge, Ikoyi, has refuted claims of receiving N250,000 per annum as rent.

Oluwafemi, also known as “Mopol, in a viral video posted by News Central on its X handle late Sunday, stated that there’s no estate chairman in Dolphin Estate who wouldn’t recognise him.

In a telephone conversation with the agency, Mopol said, “No estate chairman in Dolphin Estate that will say he did not know me.

“Even there are some people in power here in Lagos State that live there that know me. They knew us very well.

“The demolished blue container there this morning had been there for about 15 years now.

“The previous government did it for us there. The person who did the container Festus Keyamo was passing by and asked us what we were doing there and our survival.

“We said we are security to the street lights here. He also asked how we cope when it is raining. It was then he promised us that he would look into it and that was when the container was constructed.”

He, however, denied collecting money from anyone as rent contrary to some residents’ claims and the evidence of payments seen.

“I have never refunded any money to anybody. I don’t think I’ve… If I am collecting N250,000 from anybody I will not be in that place again,” he said.

Arrest effort
The Lagos State Government had on Saturday disclosed that it had intensified its efforts to arrest suspected gang leaders who rented out the 86 apartments.

Meanwhile, a resident who simply identified himself as Sola in the five minutes and seventeen seconds video – named one man called “Mopol” as his landlord who collected N250,000 from him.

Another resident, Johnson Kenneth, noted that he had just made a N50,000 deposit before the government moved in.

Also, a December 2022 receipt with “OLUWAFEMI” as the letterhead and phone number, being payment for N150,000 for a room was retrieved from one of the residents.

KAI chief wades in
Earlier in the video, the Commander, Kick Against Indiscipline in Lagos State, Major Olaniyi Olatunbosun Cole (retd.) described the act on the government facility as nothing but a “sabotage.”

“All the sands put under the bridge for a kind of protection were excavated and they started putting structures. It was about 86 rooms.

“You can imagine someone removing sand meant for protection to a facility, a bridge, and erecting a structure there to collect money from the people. That is sabotage,” Cole said.

Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, last Wednesday said the government discovered 86 partitioned rooms, sized 10×10 and 12×10, under the bridge.

The Federal Government has decided to improve the domestic power supply by cutting the energy sales to cross-border in the Niger Republic, Niger Republic and Togo.

The electricity regulator, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) ordered a department within the Transmission Company of Nigeria, the System Operator (SO), to cap power supply to the three neigbhouring customers to six per cent.

NERC’s order, published on Friday, was dated April 29, 2024, and effective from May 1, 2024, was jointly signed by the commission’s Chairman, Sanusi Garba, and Vice Chairman, Musiliu Oseni.

The order also called on the system operator to place interim caps on capacities supplied to international customers for the next six months, minimising the impact on domestic supply obligations by Gencos.

The document stated that the system operator must develop and present a pro-rata load-shedding scheme to ensure equitable load allocation to all off-takers (Discos, international customers, and eligible customers) during generation drops or grid imbalances.

“The system operator will log and publish hourly readings, enforcing penalties for violations of grid instructions and contracted nominations. Maximum load allocation to international off-takers in each trading hour shall not exceed six per cent of the total available grid generation.”

It partly read, “The commission hereby orders as follows: The system operator shall develop and present to the commission for approval within seven days from the issuance of this order a pro-rata load-shedding scheme that ensures equitable adjustment to load allocation to all off-takers — Discos, international customers, and eligible customers — in the event of a drop in generation and other under-frequency related grid imbalances necessitating critical grid management.

“The system operator shall implement a framework to log and publish hourly readings and enforce necessary sanctions for violation of grid instructions and contracted nominations by off-takers in line with the grid code and market.

“The aggregate capacity that can be nominated by a generating plant to service international off-takers shall not be more than 10 per cent of its available generation capacity unless in exceptional circumstances a derogation is granted by the commission.“The system operator shall henceforth cease to recognise any capacity addition in bilateral transactions between a generator and an off-taker without the express approval of the commission,” it added.

It urged, “The system operator and TCN to immediately initiate and install integrated Internet of Things (IoT) meters at all off-take and delivery points of eligible customers, bilateral supplies, cross-border trades, and outgoing 33kV feeders of the Discos to provide real-time visibility of aggregate offtake by grid customers.

“The installation of and streaming of data from the IOT meters should be completed within three months from the date of this order.”