Port Harcourt Mundial

By Paul Williams In spite an increasing rise in voter apathy and worry over future elections in Nigeria, leading election monitoring group, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), says it is committed to promoting a culture of free, fair and credible polls in the country. This, according to TMG’s South South zonal coordinator, Amb. Sylvester Okoduwa, will translate to the organization boosting its participation in the coming off-cycle elections in Edo State and others, and ensuring more observers are put in the field to monitor and report on the conduct of the polls. Okoduwa’s comments came against the backdrop of elections into the state offices of the TMG in Rivers State. In keenly contested elections, conducted by the zonal coordinator, Amb. Okoduwa, and zonal treasurer, Amb. Christie Iwezor, at the offices of the Everest Nwankwo Esq-led Anpez Center for Environment and Development in Port Harcourt on Monday, Nathaniel Akporuvweku Esq was re-elected to a second term as Rivers Stat...

By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa There is rising panic in Okpoama kingdom of Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State following a deadly gas leak from the oil well belonging to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the NNPC. The gas leakage, which occured along the Bendick+Kiri axis of the kingdom has been spewing oil and gas into the environment from a well's Christmas tree. The oil well, located in OML 66 and known in the records as ‘Kurogbagba 1,’ was said to have been leaking for the past five days spreading oil into the creeks. A threaning hissing sound, from the intense pressure forcing the oil and gas out of the wellhead, could be heard from over a kilometre and has forced fishermen out of their settlement for fear of fire outbreak. The head of the fishermen in Bendick Kiri, Mr Monday Okon, who hails from Akwa Ibom State, confirmed that everybody has left because of the smell of the gas and oil and also for fear of fire outbreak. A former chairman o...

By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa Stakeholders and ex-militant leaders, under the aegis of the Movement for the Sustainable Development of the Niger Delta (MSDND), have written to President Bola Tinubu and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to rejig the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) and officially remove the interim administrator, Maj. Gen. Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd), so as to ensure “effective and proper delivery of it's security mandate to the region.” The group also pointed out that the interim administrator’s tenure had elapsed since the May 29, 2023, adding that “therefore he is supposed not to continue to remain in that office.” According to the stakeholders and ex-militant leaders, “it is sad and retrogressive for the present administration to review policies, rejig structures and appoint substantive heads of other institutions, boards and organisations without considering the rot, fraud and maladministration ongoing at the Presidential Amnesty Programme to deserve imme...

… Embattled Party Chairman owes Journalists, Accuses NUJ of Supporting Gov Diri By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa There is rising mistrust and crisis of confidence withing the fold of the All Progressive Congress (APC) campaign council over alleged cases of short payments and misappropriation of funds. Sources confirmed that the party’s state chairman, Barr. Dennis Otiotio, who is at the center of the controversy, is accused of underpaying various party committees and party chieftains for campaign mobilisation. A close source also claimed that the campaign mobilisation fund, which had been 80 per cent released to the party chairman, Barr. Otiotio, was not paid to the committees. It was gathered that the former deputy governor, Rt. Hon. Peremobowei Ebebi was also a victim of the underpayment by the party chairman. Ebebi, who was reportedly angered by the alleged withholding of some parts of his Local Government Council campaign funds, allegedly nearly exchange blows with the party chairman at th...

… Health Commissioner Promises Govt Intervention in PHCs By Paul Williams “Oil-producing communities are key to Nigeria's economic development. By bearing the brunt of oil extraction - loss of diversity and other natural productive assets, they should benefit from strategic infrastructural developments to compensate for manifest and latent consequences of oil exploration.” “Contrastingly,” according to the chief executive officer of Connected Development (CODE), Hamzat Lawal, “this is not so.” An attempt, therefore, to take stock of social infrastructure in oil-producing communities in Rivers State, with a view to determining their felt-needs for policy intervention, thus formed the backdrop of a project tagged ‘Empowering Oil-Producing Communities (EMOC),' initiated by CODE, with support from the Ford Foundation. Taking a survey of social infrastructures schools, PHCs (primary health centres) and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) facilities in the communities, EMOC also...

By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa Umbrella body of Ijaw youths, the Ijaw Youth Council, has said it is compelled as leaders of the Ijaw nation to issue a press release “due to certain actions deliberately taken against the Ijaws in the Nigerian State by the President Bola Tinubu led Federal Government of Nigeria.” A statement signed by Amb Binebai Yerin Princewill, spokesman of the organisation and made available to journalists, said the “Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, an umbrella body covering all Ijaw Youths in Nigeria and across the world have read on the pages of newspapers and other broadcast outlets in Nigeria weeks ago the purported sack of Ijaw sons and daughters in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited over alleged cooked and manipulated story of retirement. “This forceful retirement of Ijaws in NNPCL is something that we will resist with the last drop of our blood. We see this as an attempt to exclude the Ijaws from the scheme of things and a well hatched plot to only ...

By Ehichioya Ezomon "He who is begged or pleaded with is king," is an adage that the average Edo person doesn't take for granted, mostly if the act for which forgiveness is sought is committed publicly - such that the aggrieved feels slighted and injured - and the mollification is also displayed openly. Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki aptly symbolically assumes a kingly position lately, as he exhibits the spirit of divine, to forgive Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu, who'd "erred" by aspiring to succeed Obaseki in 2024. It's Shaibu's inalienable right to aspire to be governor in an off-season election in September 2024, to round-off Obaseki's eight-year tenure in November 2024. But Obaseki reckoned the act as in bad faith and taste. To Obaseki, who'd dealt with his acclaimed political godfather and predecessor in office, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole - culminating in the now Senator for Edo North being sacked by the courts as national chairman ...

By Pius Dukor As corruption indices continue to increase in the award of contracts across the country, with companies deliberately refusing to execute contract according to terms, the regustrar- general, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Alhaji Garba Abubakar, has said moves by the commission to ensure the use of the Beneficial Ownership register will improve transparency and accountability as well as reduce corruption in the award of contracts. Alhaji Garba Abubakar, represented by Mr. Justin Nidia Biraol, director, Compliance, maintained that the use of beneficial ownership register will fight corruption and anti- terrorism, noting that step is provided by Company and Allied Matter CAMA, especially section 119. He stated that the Corporate Affairs Commission is empowered by CAMA section 868 to define who is a rightful owner of a company. Abubakar explained that the workshop is supported by the Word Bank, USAID, CISLAC, Oasis Management Company Ltd and Palladium to ensure that ...