The Kano State House of Assembly has initiated moves to establish a new law that would empower the state government to create an Electricity Regulatory Agency aimed at addressing the persistent power supply challenges facing residents and revitalizing the state’s industries.

Presenting the bill during the Assembly’s plenary session on Monday, the Majority Leader, Hon. Lawan Husaini Dala, explained that the proposed agency would develop a comprehensive framework for managing Kano’s electricity market.

Dala further stated that the agency would be tasked with implementing modern strategies and diversifying power generation sources to meet the energy needs of Kano’s population.

He noted that the bill would also enable the agency to regulate electricity distribution, particularly to industries and businesses, with the goal of attracting greater investment into the state.

Speaking to Premier Radio, a local radio station on the matter, the Assembly’s Chief Press Secretary, Kamaluddeen Sani Shawai, said the establishment of the agency would mark a significant step towards Kano achieving energy self-sufficiency.

“Once the legislative process is completed, Kano State will be on the path to independently generating and managing its own electricity, reducing reliance on the national grid,” Shawai said.

The lawmakers have already intensified deliberations on the bill.

They believe the creation of the agency would pave the way for a stable, affordable, and more accessible electricity supply for Kano residents.

Kebbi State Governor, Dr. Nasir Idris, has firmly denied rumours suggesting he plans to defect from the All Progressives Congress (APC), declaring his loyalty to the party.

In a statement issued on Sunday by his Chief Press Secretary, Ahmed Idris, the governor described the speculation as “ridiculously malicious” and the handiwork of “uninteresting political comedians” trying to create instability.

Reacting to reports linking him to a coalition allegedly led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Governor Idris stated categorically, “I am made in APC, by APC, and for APC.

“For the avoidance of doubt, I am not a political prostitute. I will be the last person to leave my formidable and reliable party for any coalition, no matter who the architects are,” he added.

Idris, popularly known as Kauran Gwandu, emphasised that his focus remains firmly on delivering good governance to the people of Kebbi State and supporting the vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“If they tell you again that Kaura is likely to leave his APC, tell them I will be the last man standing,” he declared.

Reaffirming Kebbi State’s strong allegiance to the APC, Idris dismissed the defection rumours as nothing more than the dance of mad fellows in the marketplace.

He assured citizens that his administration remains committed to the welfare of the people and the continued growth of the state under the APC banner.

“I remain steadfast with the people of Kebbi State, and together, we will consolidate on the successes of the APC to deliver the dividends of democracy,” he concluded.

The 2023 Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Prince Adewole Adebayo has called on defectors to the party to strictly adhere to its Ideology and not to bring their shenanigans from their old parties.

Speaking on News Central breakfast show on Monday, monitored by our correspondent, Prince Adebayo said party structures across the thirty six states and Abuja have been sufficiently informed on how to educate the new members no matter their status in life.

He said the party welcomes all the new entrants, disclosing however, that “what we have managed to do is to define what our party stands for.

According to him, “That is why you have seen some of the reactions as people are joining our party, we welcome them and we tell them ideological issues and we also tell them all these shenanigans that you do in your party, don’t bring them here.

“We spend a lot of time educating our members. Do not suddenly get used to money you did not ask for or monies you did not work for.

“Do not start to learn a bad habit, start to set up fake structures,don’t start to do unlawful registration, don’t start to fragment yourselves, don’t start talking about ethnicity. So we keep educating our people.

“And if you go around the state, you will see a lot of tension because when they come and they say, ‘oh, we want to move into a bigger secretariat, we need to buy this and that’, people say, ‘no, that’s not what we need in this party’, may be you should keep your money to yourself.”

Continuing he said: “You saw that there was a press conference by all our state chairmen where they said, look, you guys who are coming newly should study our ideology, don’t try to impose anything on us. We don’t need anything from you, just join the party and start behaving well.

“We don’t want them to come and change us, we want to change them and we don’t want to be used for things that are not in the interest of the people.

“You remember in my speech which went viral last week on my wife’s 50th birthday, I said, if you have arrangements in your former political party, if you were a former supporter of President Tinubu and you had your conspiracy against the people and you promised your own reward for that and they didn’t give it to you, that is not the basis to come to the SDP, and if you come to the sdp, don’t tell us, we don’t want to know, we’re not interested in it.”

Asked if the policy of the current administration is yielding any result, he responded that:

“It is known that we are are opposed to President Tinubu vehemently on policy, We do not have a history with him,we have no understanding with him.

“When they won the election and they were offering us positions, we did not accept, we did not dramatize it, we just told them sorry keep your position to yourself, run your government, we will be here offering alternative policies.

“The same thing with the coalition we are talking with the people. What we are saying is if you plan something out there on how to wrest power, don’t come to us.

“If you want to wrest power for the benefit of the people, you can start talking to us on what you are going to do differently.

“Start talking to us about how you are going to show to the people that you are repentant and you are accountable for your past actions, past words, past mistakes, past misgovernance.”

“Once you do all of that, you can then join our party, grow in the structure and when we see that you have behaved very well, maybe not in this election, maybe in future election, we will start to feature you,” he explained