NJI to Tackle Lingering Energy Disputes

The National Judicial Institute (NJI) in response to the endless power sector crisis in the country and in fulfillment of part of its statutory mandate to train judges and justices of courts in Nigeria, has announced plans to begin intensive capacity building programmes for judicial officers.The institute noted that the initiative would provide the needed panacea in the current tussle in the energy sector of the country, especially as it relates to litigations emanating from the energy policies in the power sector. According to the institute, germane to this policy is the current crisis bedevilling the power sector privatisation, which had pitted the privatised energy firms against consumers on the 40 per cent tariff increase, which led to the current industrial crisis with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the forefront. “The NJI in collaboration with the International Institute For Petroleum, Energy Law and Policy (IIPELP) will be organising the second judges workshop on April 5 and 6, 2016 with special focus on ‘Emerging Legal and Policy Reform Issues in the Petroleum and Power Sectors of Nigeria’. “It is hoped that this workshop will aid the judges and justices in the adjudication and resolution of the lingering disputes in the two sectors and bring the needed peaceful co-existence amongst the contending parties,” the institute noted. To ensure an effective workshop, two major energy firms - Messrs Dele Oye & Associates and George Etomi & Partners - have been retained to act as the workshop organisers and facilitators by the organisers. The capacity building programme scheduled to take place at the Andrew Otutu Obaseki Auditorium, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, will also help to acquaint judges in the country with new developments in the power and petroleum sectors of the economy as these sectors go through present day advancement in the country. While Dele Oye has been appointed as the conference manager for the exercise, the two law firms, George Etomi and Partners along with Dele Oye and Co are co-facilitating the workshop. The Administrator of the NJI, Justice RPI Bozimo, in a letter obtained by THISDAY confirmed the approval of the workshop by the institute stressing that the initiative would be beneficial to judicial officers in the country.