| WAMAC Trains Journalists on Data-Driven and Investigative JournalismAmidst the difficulties created by the federal government’s cashless policy, Wadata Media and Advocacy Centre(WAMAC) in March successfully trained 36 journalists from 12 partner radio stations in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. |
The team with funding from MacArthur Foundation held the two-phased programme in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. |
| Fighting Corruption and Winning And so, after undergoing training, Prestige FM, one of WAMAC’s media partners received a complaint from Kontagora Local Government Area in Niger State about the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company AEDC. |
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| The Complaint, Actions and ResultThe power company was said to have been overbilling residents of Kontagora LGA without providing service to them. Their newly acquired training from WAMAC came in handy as the journalists from Prestige FM investigated the claim from a whistle-blower and discovered the claim to be true. Using their anti-corruption radio programmes in Pidgin English and Hausa – Whistle Blower and Kwarmato respectively, the journalists aired their investigations. |
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| The head office of the AEDC in Minna also got interested in this case about one of their regional offices produced by Prestige FM. The authorities, therefore, investigated the case as well and discovered the culprits. Two months later, the manager of AEDC realized that the regional office in Kontagora could not account for the monies collected. Some records of payments from customers got missing also. Eleven persons found to be responsible were discovered and fired as a result of the investigations. |
| Deep Dive Into Electricity Sector Unmasks Estimated Billing and Metering Corruption Wadata Media and Advocacy Centre in continuation of its accountability and anticorruption focused town hall meetings, THMs laid bare the corruption in the Electricity Distribution in some parts of Nigeria.Participants from the Media, Civil Society Organizations, Community-Based Organizations, Religious and Community leaders as well as the National Orientation Agency {NOA}, EFCC, ICPC, Market Women Association and People With Disabilities. |
| Among the conduits for corruption identified are overbilling and extortion of consumers by field officers who are mostly adhoc staff.Another is shifting official responsibilities to the consumers – communities or individuals investing in electricity infrastructures such as transformers, poles, wires etc. without any plan for refund. The THMs took place June and July 2023 at Akure, Ondo State, South West Nigeria and Ilorin, Kwara State, North Central Nigeria. |
| WAMAC in the News |
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Stakeholders advocate community journalism for post insurgency era Stakeholders Task Nigerians On Fight Against Corruption In Electricity Sector ‘Massive Corruption In Electricity Sector, Discos Defrauding Nigerians’ |
Quotes From THMs |
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