Know Your Rights (KYR)

As a special gift for the absence of our usual KYR articles for the past 2 weeks, today I'll be talking about (or you can say "shaking the table") of a very interesting legal issue which more than 50% of Nigerians do not know about. I am referring to Nigeria's power sector which deals with everything about electricity in Nigeria. The power sector which deals with electricity supply in Nigeria has experienced several changes over the years including privatization and every Nigerian is familiar with the numerous distribution companies (or DisCos) we have had with 'NEPA' being perhaps the most popular of them all. Everybody uses electricity but have you ever asked yourself: 1) What is the nature of the (legal) relationship between you as a consumer, the electricity (distribution) company and the government? 2) What are the terms and conditions of this relationship? In other words, what are my rights and obligations as a consumer? If you have been faith...

#Know_Your_Rights The issue of torture and abuse of powers (especially by public officers including our law enforcement agents) is a recurring problem that needs immediate attention. To address this issue, I'll be doing a piece on a law most people don't even know about called the Anti-Torture Act. Now this Act starts by saying that the Government has a duty to protect the rights of all persons including suspects, detainees and prisoners, and to ensure the condemnation and prohibition of all forms of torture as prescribed by all relevant laws applicable in Nigeria. It then defines torture as any intentional act that causes mental and physical suffering/pain. Physical torture is further defined as any cruel/inhuman/degrading act that causes pain, exhaustion, disability or dysfunction of one or more parts of the body while mental torture is further defined as any cruel/inhuman/degrading act that affects or confuses the mind or undermines a person's dignity or mo...