Vandalism, our headache - Lokoja PHCN

Komolafe Rasheed, Lagos

Fatima Ibrahim,
Minister of State for Energy (Power)THE Business Manager, Power Holding Company of Nigeria, Lokoja Zone, Kogi State, Engineer Taye Sama, has berated the nefarious activities of vandals which made the company to lose huge sum of money due to power outage.

He said this while speaking to the Nigerian Tribune in his office, recently. He said the immediate problem that confronted him on assumption office in 2006 was the vandalisation of 33KV line that led to total blackout in the state for two days.

It was the intervention of the Kogi State government that resulted into quick repair of the high power tension wire because the government bought 33KVA pot insulator and other materials needed.

Engineer Sama said that his administration used communal policing as a strategy for prevention of vandalisation of Power Holdings’ installations in the state since then which has been yielding positive result in that such occurrence had stopped completely.

He stressed that the company used publicity through the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in Lokoja to apologise to customers who were grieved by power outage which brought about understanding of the situation between the company and the customers.

US job loss worst in five years–Survey

Dick Cheney, US Vice PresidentPayrolls sink in February, fueling recession anxiety. Unemployment rate declines, but that's because there are fewer people in the workforce.

Employers made their deepest cut in staffing in almost five years in February, the United States Labour Department has reported.

There was a net loss of 63,000 jobs, which is the biggest decline since March 2003 and weaker than the revised 22,000 jobs lost in January. Economists had forecast a gain of 25,000 jobs. The weak report fueled already mounting recession fears and is likely to keep the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates further when it meets later this month. Job losses were widespread, reaching beyond the battered construction sector, which lost 39,000, and manufacturing, where job losses hit 52,000.

Temporary staffing firms cut nearly 28,000 from their payrolls, another warning sign of employers pulling back. Hotels cut about 4,000 jobs, a sign that discretionary consumer spending could be on the wane. Overall the private sector cut 101,000 jobs, with only a gain in government employment limiting losses.

"Job growth appears to have weakened across nearly every industry with the exception of health care and government," said Keith Hall, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which prepares the jobs report, testified Friday before a congressional committee. Hall would not give a forecast for hiring, but others said the latest report suggests more job losses likely lay ahead.

"Businesses have become too pessimistic about the outlook for the economy, and the capacity of the Bush Administration and Federal Reserve to manage it, to be adding new employees or replacing those that leave," said University of Maryland professor Peter Morici.

Despite the loss, the unemployment rate improved to 4.8 per cent from the 4.9 per cent reading in January. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate would rise to five per cent. A survey of households is used to estimate the unemployment rate, while a survey of employers that is considered to be more accurate sets the readings on the changes in payrolls. The unemployment rate fell because of an increase of 450,000 people whom the government no longer counts as being part of the labor force for a variety of factors,