The Nation Newspaper

Category: Niger Delta

  • Day Ugborodo men, women rejected their leaders

    Day Ugborodo men, women rejected their leaders

    There was palpable tension in Warri, Sapele, Benin City and even Lagos and other towns inhabited by Itsekiri indigenes in the run-up to the gathering of thousands of Ugborodo indigenes from all over the world. The venue was the famous Ikpere Hall at Ode-Ugborodo, the traditional headquarters of Ugborodo community perched on the tips of the Atlantic Ocean in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.

    It was tagged the ‘Mother of all Gatherings’ by some, while others simply said it was the last frontier in the battle to reclaim the oil-rich community from wicked leaders, whose supremacy tussle over the Ugborodo Governing Board, an arm of the influential Ugborodo Trust, had caused so much deaths and suffering.

    On one side of the divide is David Tonwe, a former councillor, former chairman of Warri South West Local Government Area and one-time chair of the Governing Board. His counterpart is Chief Thomas Ereyitomi, his former deputy who won an election into the highest position in the council. Both men, rich in their own rights, have been recurring decimals in the history of the community over the years and they backed by various leaders for various diverse reasons.

    The rivalry between the two groups had led to several deaths and destruction of property which some accounts put at about a billion naira in the past years. The tempo in the bloody beat reached its crescendo on January 4, 2013, when a section in the crisis invaded the town. The incident led to several deaths and wanton destruction of property.

    The fuel for the latest insurgence was the battle by the two sides to reposition for the control of the $16billion Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in the community. The composition of a 21-member committee to interface with the Federal Government had seen both sides flexing their muscles.

    Prior to the gathering of Saturday, February 1, a faction in the crisis had raised the alarm over alleged plan to scuttle the peace deal of the state government. A statement signed by 10 elders, led by Pa Wynne Agba, a former Secretary of the Council of Elders and Sandys Omadeli Uvwoh, among others, alleged that the Tonwe/Dr Alex Ideh faction had concluded plan single-handedly nominate members.

    They insisted that the move was against the decision of the peace committee headed by the Secretary to Delta State Government, Comrade Ovouzorie Macaulay, that each group nominates 10 members each.

    “However, information available to us indicates that the Dr. Alex Ideh/David Tonwe faction in collaboration with some elders in their faction, have concluded plans to hold a meeting in Ode-Ugborodo on Saturday, Febuary 1, 2014, for the purpose of constituting the entire

    21-member Ogidigben (Ugborodo) EPZ Interface Committee envisaged by the peace committee.

    “This is contrary to the directive of the peace committee in Asaba on January 19, 2014, accepted by both factions,” Pa Wynne added.

    The peace deal brokered by the government was against the backdrop of the January bloodbath and fever-pitch tension as the project drew nearer. President Jonathan had waded in and asked the state governor to rein in the crisis before it spiralled out of control. On his own the governor had also made several efforts, but distrust and suspicion over his intention had kept the Tonwe group out of it.

    The Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse II, visited Governor Uduaghan after the bloodbath and chose Austin Oborogbeyi to chair the 21-committee, leaving 20 that was shared 10/10 among the factions. But even as the Olu was announcing his choice, the community leaders including Pa JOS Ayomike, had slammed the monarch. They particularly criticised his silence over the invasion and death of Ugborodo people.

    It was against this fluid background that hundreds of elders, youths, women and children started streaming from the various communities into Arunton, enroute to Ode-Ugborodo venue of the meeting.

    They came from all over the world – from the state, all over Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Joseph Ayomike, founder of Agura Hotel, one of the foremost hotels in Abuja, Mr Maxwell Okoro, a former Director of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Ete Harriman-Ayida, Moses Ajijala, Edward Okoturo, Patrick Metseagharun and Solomon Iyinboh.

    David Tonwe, Joseph Uwawa and Michael Lodge, the youth leader, were there too, but Tonwe’s counterpart, Thomas Ereyitomi, Ayirimi Emami, Isaac Botosan and other prominent members of that faction were conspicuous by their absence.

    The atmosphere was tensed. Highly charged community youths stood on the beach – there is no jetty – awaiting the arrival of guests. They insisted that all the guests disembarked on the beach, as they (youths) usually do, and make the long journey through Arunton through the sandy path to the Ikpere hall located at the end of the community.

    This reporter was one of those who made that long journey. On the way, he passed the Eghare-Aja Wellington Ojogor, Mama Ayuwe and other prominent leaders of the community. Weighed down by age, Eghare Ojogor’s steps were shorter and visibly more painful. But he made the journey.

    At the town hall, already seated was the Olaja-Orori Benson ‘Dube’ Omadeli, dressed in impeccable white long sleeve traditional shirt over a red ‘single’ wrapper. On his head he tied his customary headgear – a somewhat off-colour peach/purple damask headscarf.

    The spiritual head did not enter the town hall. He sat under a canopy mounted outside at a vantage position from where he could see through the sea of people to the podium where Eghare Ojogor and other leaders sat. His face was deadpan.

    When the meeting started, Omadeli sprang to life; his voice rang out, cutting through the crowd and reaching the podium and the throng of people either standing or seating outside the hall. He told them that the purpose of the meeting was to deliberate on happenings in the community over the past weeks, including his arrest and allegation of illegal bunkering and attempted murder levelled against him and the trio of Michael Lodge (aka Ukpede), Joseph Uwawa (Logbemi) and Churchill Omadeli.

    In moving speech punctuate by the shout of ‘heart of God move them, hand of God move them’ and chants of ‘end of our sufferings’, the Olaja-Orori, showed his apparent ease with the Itsekiri language as he expressed the gratitude of the Ugborodo people to the Federal Government for the proposed EPZ.

    He said, “We are here for the progress of the EPZ; whatever assistance we can offer, we will. We have been tagged troublemakers, but we are not. We must comport ourselves like trained and educated people.”

    The meeting reached boiling point when the issue of the acquisition of land for the project came up for debate. They were vehement in the expression of displeasure over the handling of the project thus far and condemnation of the performance of the Trust.

    Speakers, including Ayon Gbesin Asin, Wilson Akperi, Boyo Iyinboh, Anunu Uwawa, Michael Rowaino, Oludewa Oritsedumi, Anderson Ebiekutan and Moses Ajijala said the leadership of the Trust over the years had betrayed their trusts.

    Akperi was particularly aggrieved that while the communities of their Ijaw counterparts were fast developing because of proper management of their resources, Ugborodo community was decaying.

    “As the Ijaws are empowered that is how our Itsekiri sons and daughters are also empowered. But look at our communities; look at the hall where we are holding this meeting today!”

    For his part, Iyinboh said, “Our (Ugborodo) enemies are within us. We have been too patient when we know our fund is being looted and did not chase out our oppressors. Our people must benefit from the goodness in our land.”

    Anunu Uwawa lamented that some of the leaders who were in position to share the benefits reportedly told those who got the jobs slots allotted to the community that “The job is not for them to buy cars or build houses, but to feed themselves. This means they want to keep the people in perpetual slavery, where they live from hand to mouth.”

    As various leaders from Ijalla, Atunton, Ogidigben, Madangho and Ajudaibo spoke, they were greeted with cries of ‘Uya otanren ooo”. And by the time the microphone returned to the Agbebijo it was clear that a no-confidence vote would succeed against Tonwe and Ereyitomi.

    When Omadeli asked what to do with the failed leaders, the crowd was unanimous in their shout of “away with them”.

    Consequently, the Olaja-Orori pronounced the sack of the two factional leaders and dissolved every other structure in the community. He said neither Tonwe nor Ereyitomi or any other individual, group and institution were competent to speak on behalf of the community or represent it whatever capacity.

    “The traditional leadership structure of Ugborodo as encapsulated in the offices of Olaja-Orori, Eghare-Aja and the Registered Trustee has henceforth been given full mandate to handle all issues affecting the Ugborodo Community; including issues relating to the siting of the EPZ in Ugborodo.

    “Furthermore, the Assembly called on governments, agencies, companies and the general public to henceforth discountenance any correspondence, publication and meeting that are not entered into and signed by the trio of the Olaja Orori, Dube Omadeli, Eghare Wellington Ojogor and the Registered Trustee of the Community’ Trust, Pa Eworitse Tsebi,” he added.

    He warned that all communications on the letterhead of the community would only the signed by the listed trio and advised government agencies, companies and other bodies operating in the area to be mindful of the antics of “impostors who would want to use the letterhead to hoodwink them.”

    In his response, Tonwe, promised to abide by the resolution of the assembly. “The owners of the community say they do not want any faction again; they have dissolved all factions and taken over the leadership of the community.”

    Not unexpectedly, Thomas Ereyitomi, in his reaction described the outcome of the assembly as null and void. He said his group knew the plot and purpose of the meeting, stressing that was what informed the press conference of two days earlier.

    He said, “The decision of that meeting cannot be binding because it was a sectional meeting. They are only trying to give it a semblance of generality by calling it whatever name they choose. It is like us holding our own meeting and saying anything. We cannot say it is a meeting of the entire Ugborodo. That is not done.

    “If they say there is no faction, then they should be able to say what has led to the crisis in the community. Besides, those who attended the meeting partook in the peace meeting where the decision to nominate 10 members each was taken, they cannot attend the meeting and then go back and say the decision is not binding on them,” Ereyitomi said in a telephone chat with our reporter.

     

  • ‘Death sentence has failed to curb societal ills’

    A member of International Research Council of the Ancient Mystical Orderof the Rosea Crucis (AMORC), Fr. Johnson Ikube, has said the use of capital punishment has failed to control growing crime rate in the society.

    Fr. Ikubu, in a lecture he delivered at a public lecture organised by AMORC in Effurun, Delta State, said “no man has the power to take the life of another man.”

    He said those who carry out death sentences are equally guilty of murder.

    “Society has failed to correct crime through capital punishment. The more people are executed, the more hardened criminals are becoming. It has not been able to stop crime in the world.

    “So rather than solve the crime situation in the world, it has increased the rate of crime in the world as criminals are becoming more wicked because they know that when they are caught they will be killed. Capital punishment cannot stop crime,” Ikube said.

    He said crimes could only be stopped if people are taught to develop deep love for their neighbours.

    He also preached tolerance among the people, saying that human beings have different understanding of different situations and that people should be able to tolerate others around them.

    Fr. Ikube attributed the growing crime rate in the world to people’s failure to be their brother’s keeper. He said people attach much importance to material wealth, instead of brotherly love.

    “I have gone to many places in Nigeria and I have asked this question all the time and I keep getting the same answer. Any time I ask people why they are poor, they keep saying they are poor because they do not have money. I have never heard anybody tell me that he is poor because he lacks mental intelligence. God has provided us with all that we need to make money. All that we need to do is to take the first step.”

    He also said that people are poor because they choose to use their God-given gift to make themselves relevant in the society, noting that poverty is of the mind.

    Similarly, he slammed religious leaders for world crises, stating that God has no religion and that religion was about man and God and man’s own way of understanding God.

    Furthermore, he said that unless the crisis of religiosity was abandoned for spirituality, there would be no peace in the world, adding that men must seek God with clean hands.

  • Endless repairs of Bayelsa House of Assembly complex

    All is not well with the Kombowei Benson-led Bayelsa State House of Assembly. The leadership of the current Bayelsa State House of Assembly appears not to understand the body language of the executive arm of the government led by Governor Seriake Dickson.

    The Speaker, Mr. Kombowei Benson, and the principal officers of the House have yet to comprehend the fact that the restoration principles and guidelines of the Dickson’s administration forbid paying lip service to public projects.

    It harps on quick execution of certain projects especially public buildings as a paradigm shift from the past culture of abandonment and neglect.

    For example, political office holders were in the past fond of allowing public projects to suffer neglect. A simple public building project could take many years to complete.

    Such fate befell the library project, the Ijaw House which was later completed by Dickson after about eight years; the five-star tower hotel and the 500-bed hospital now reduced to 300 beds.

    As the past government overlooked projects of public interests, private projects belonging to politicians especially skyscraper-like houses were pursued with vigour, completed and inaugurated in record time.

    However, the current administration has shown a significant departure from the past. Within two years of Dickson’s administration, many beautiful public buildings dot all nooks and crannies of the state.

    Traditional Rulers Council’s complex, police officers’s mess, governor’s and deputy governor’s lodges and many other finished buildings. Others are almost at the verge of completion.

    But people are bemused at the condition of the oil-rich state House of Assembly which is located along Amarata Road close to Onopa in Yenagoa. Every infrastructure that makes up the complex is in a deplorable condition.

    Visitors to Yenagoa will notice that the sickness of the legislative house begins from its signboard. It is archaic and betrays modernity. The fence including the two entrances to the complex shows signs of neglect with their walls washed off. It is indeed decrepit sight.

    Behind the assembly chamber is an expansive building which houses the offices of the speaker, principal members of the house and other lawmakers. The building gives an eloquent testimony of years of neglect and abandonment. It seems as if it has not been repainted since it was constructed. In fact, the building has always begged for maintenance as its fixtures and fittings have either collapsed or are in bad taste.

    “There is nothing honourable about this place occupied by these people who call themselves honourable gentlemen. I am sure that none of their houses look like this. It is a shame”, a passerby who refused to disclose his name muttered.

    Perhaps, no assembly complex either within the region or in other parts of the country is in such superannuated and antiquated condition especially in this modern time. Signs that all has gone worse emerged recently when the assembly postponed its sitting till further notice owing to its faulty generator.

    The generator, it was learnt, was engulfed by fire while some persons were trying to activate it for a plenary recently. An employee of the complex who pleaded anonymity said lack of electricity compelled the lawmakers to suspend their sitting till further notice.

    Informed by the waned glory of the complex, Benson initiated a project of renovating the structures in the complex beginning with the chambers.

    Benson had in December 2012 disclosed that Dickson approved N30 million to commence work on the renovation of the complex.

    Benson had, however, said the money and promised to send to a fresh memo to the governor for more funds. He said the renovation was initiated to provide conducive working environment for the staff and lawmakers.

    According to the speaker, the renovation would create more space at the press and public galleries, including other apartments in the complex. “I will stop at nothing, until a very conducive work environment has been provided for members and staff of the legislature”, he had said.

    But over one year after the project was inaugurated, Benson is stuck with it. Renovating only the chambers has been a horrendous task. People had expected that since the chamber was invaluable for smooth legislative business, the project of renovating it should have been swift.

    But in utter disappointment, the lawmakers have been without their chamber for over a year. To allow for quick execution of the project, the lawmakers had embarked on a protracted recess. They, however, resumed after the long holiday to see that the construction was far from completion.

    In May 2013, Benson paid an unscheduled visit to the site of the project. He observed that the work was slow and gave more explanations why the project was initiated. “The roof of the old complex was at the verge of caving in with several leakages during rainfall, due to years of neglect,” he said.

    He urged the contractor handling the renovation to expedite action.

    But about seven months after such reassurances, the project has continued in a snail-paced fashion. The development compelled the lawmakers to relocate to a hall in the administrative building behind the chamber. It was at the improvise chamber that the Governor of the state, Mr. Seriake Dickson, presented the state’s 2014 budget to the lawmakers.

    The Special Assistant to the Speaker on Media and Publicity, Piriye Kiyaramo, attributed the delay in completing the renovation to the slow pace of work by the workers and the nature of the project.

     

     

  • An Ijaw youth’s lamentation

    An Ijaw youth’s lamentation

    Forget my name, which gives away my ethnic stock. For this moment, I am Ijaw and will speak like one and hope I am convincing enough. You can call me Oronto. And if you choose you can add Douglas after my adopted first name. This is my story:

    For the first thirteen years of my life, I knew nothing like fast-moving cars. Houses, in my own definition, were nothing palatial. They were just somewhere to put our heads. Luxury was eating plenty of sea foods. We knew nothing of exotic holidays. For us in the creeks, holidays meant helping our mothers hawk. And school was where we went without shoes. Life, indeed, was beautiful.

    But it all began to change for me when an uncle came and said it was time I had a change of environment. And to Port Harcourt he brought me. I was shocked to see storey buildings. I marveled at fast-moving cars. I was flabbergasted by the architectural masterpieces they call homes. For days, I could not sleep in the room my uncle, who had no children at that time, gave me in his three-bedroom apartment. The room was too good for what I had been used to.

    I got along with time. Courtesy of my uncle, I went to secondary school and university. My brilliance was there for all to see, but it was not good enough to get me a job. It was while searching for a job that I got involved in ethnic politics. I became a member of the Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC), a body formed to champion the cause of the youth from my ethnic stock.

    It was not long after I became part of IYC that one of us from Ijawland, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who was deputy to former Governor Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha and deputy to the late Umar Musa Yar’Adua, was catapulted by fate to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It was a dream I am sure many of us from Ijawland and even Southsouth never really thought could become a reality. It was just a matter of being at the right place at the right time. If not, we will still be waiting till His kingdom comes to smell the Presidency of this nation, whose three main ethnic groups, Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo (to a little extent), determine the fate of the rest of us.

    It was celebration time for us in Ijawland. It was an opportunity we were sure would take a long time before coming again. So, when it was time for the 2011 elections, we rallied behind our brother to get elected. Though our brother has not officially indicated interest in seeking a second term of office, we are already warming up and ready to do battle with anyone who wants to throw spanner in the works.

    Unfortunately, we are also doing battles with ourselves in Ijawland. Since last October, the IYC has become polarised. Efforts to mend the fences have proved abortive. The two parts are holding tenaciously to their positions and I am afraid we may not get it before the 2015 election whistle is blown. It is more painful that this is happening at a time our brother needs us more. The enemies our brother had in 2011 were ones we were able to defeat with less stress. I am afraid we may not have that kind of luxury this time around. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the vehicle which drove our brother to Aso Rock, is in bad shape. Five of the governors elected on its platform, 35 members of the House of Representatives and 11 senators have defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), which has control of the Southwest, some chunk of the North and two states in our Southsouth. You can appreciate my fears. This is not the time for us to be disunited and it is not a time for some of us to just threaten others that our brother must be re-elected. We must understand that this is a democratic government. What we are going to have in 2015 is election and not selection. So, we have to put our house in order, convince other regions to support us and then hope for victory. Threats cannot do it. We can’t go it alone. We also can’t convince anybody when we too are divided.

    What pains me the more is that our elders have also lost our respect. Their attempt to mediate has been rejected. We have even dragged the court into our matter. It is supposed to be a family affair, which we should resolve in the house. Now we have called the court to help solve a quarrel between brothers.

    I see violence looming. Already, opposing sides are issuing threats. While one is planning to take to the streets to protest the dissolution of the IYC executive, another is planning to also take to the same streets to settle the matter with fists and weapons.

    Now that the elders have been unable to calm frayed nerves, maybe it is time our brother intervened. Brother Ebele cannot keep quiet any longer. But I can understand his dilemma. With the way Hurricane APC is bulldozing everywhere, the president’s hands must be full indeed.

    I beg all of us to stop this in-fighting and reflect on our situation. Let’s look at our Niger Delta. So blessed. Yet so cursed. We have all the oil and still our people ranked among some of the poorest in the world. Some of the most prosperous companies in the world operate on our land, yet prosperity is far from us. At times, I wonder if some evil spirits are not after us, ready at every excuse to confuse us and make us stay in the backwater forever. I reject it in Jesus’ name like the Christians are wont to say.

    We must really watch it. Unity will help us in this trying time. I also beg whoever is hiding undercover to fuel the IYC crisis to stop it now. All we need is unity. Our organisation is not a political party. So, politicians should leave us alone. I also beg some of our brothers to stop threatening to cripple the country if our brother does not win a second term. We should work for it and not scare our way into it.

    Opening our mouth wide and talking as if we have the monopoly of violence will not help us. It will only worsen our situation. There are youths in the North, whose capacity for violence is the sort that has shocked many, even beyond our shores. They are ready to die in order to kill. We have not reached that level. So, we need to be careful about issuing threats.

  • Alhaji Asari-Dokubo: What manner of a man!

    It is almost becoming a fact that ex-militant, self-acclaimed freedom fighter, founder of a ‘university’, father and husband, Alhaji Muhahid Asari-Dokubo, does not know how to say good things. These days when he opens his mouth, nothing dignifying comes out of it. For a man, who beats his chest to say he owns a university in Benin Republic, it is disturbing in the sense that it makes men of good conscience wonder what sort of knowledge his varsity imparts on the students.

    Asari-Dokubo, in his latest verbal violence, threatened that the country would be made ungovernable if his brother, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, does not get re-elected in 2015. There is no better way to describe the statement other than in these words: reckless, irresponsible and condemnable. What gave Asari-Dokubo the confidence to issue threats? What he has preached is anarchy and nothing else. He should remember that Jonathan once said his ambition is not worth anyone’s blood. He should be told that anyone, no matter how big, is more important than his country.

    He said Jonathan ‘must complete the mandatory constitutionally-allowable two terms of eight years’ or the militants will make Nigeria ungovernable. He was even inciting the North.

    It means nothing to Asari-Dokubo that aside the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which President Jonathan belongs, there are other political parties, the most formidable being the All Progressives Congress (APC). For the next election, the PDP will most likely field Jonathan. The APC will field another candidate. If APC’s stride continues, the party will become more formidable and stand the chance of thrashing Jonathan. He overstretched his luck by even trying to dictate to political parties to field only Southsouth candidates for the presidency in 2015. Is Asari-Dokubo saying the APC should not field its candidate? That certainly will not be democracy anymore.

    It must also be pointed out that Dokubo-Asari came out as a man who loves speaking from both sides of the mouth in his National Mirror interview. In one breath, he threatened vessels would not be allowed to ply Niger Delta’s waterways, among other economic sabotage activities, if Jonathan does not get re-elected, in another he said Jonathan was leading the country astray and that his aides were making things worse for him. Common sense would have dictated that if Asari-Dokubo feels Jonathan and his aides are not helping the country, they deserve to be shown the exit out of power. But the ethnic champion in Asari-Dokubo made him declare that despite Jonathan’s shortcomings, he must still lead Nigeria. Or is it the prospect of his pipeline contract being re-considered that made him speak from both sides of the mouth?

    Well, our last word to Asari-Dokubo, no man has the monopoly of violence. And violence usually begets violence and the country and its people will be the worse for it. And we are sure when that happens, you will run to Benin Republic, where Jonathan recently saved you from their police, or elsewhere, leaving the poor, which you pretend to speak for, alone. All alone.

     

  • Why JTF can’t stop oil theft

    Why JTF can’t stop oil theft

    The Joint Task Force (JTF) has the mandate to end oil theft in the Niger Delta. Can it realise this mandate? The odds seem to be against it, writes Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa

    THE Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Pulo Shield, is confronted with dearth of operational tools, decayed security hard wares and logistics deficiencies, Niger Delta Report has learnt.

    It was also gathered that the outfit whose new mandate is to eradicate economic sabotage in the Niger Delta, is fond of going cap in hand to oil multinationals and other wealthy stakeholders.

    “This outfit is seriously under-funded. We don’t have the requirements to fight endemic economic sabotage. We are simply scratching the surface,” a source, who craved anonymity for fear of victimisation, said.

    It was gathered that such deficiencies were the reason behind JTF’s inability to own houseboats and establish bases in areas notorious for oil theft in the region.

    It was also gathered that JTF is heavily indebted to some firms which loaned houseboats to the outfit in the past.

    The source disclosed that the handicap nature of the outfit compelled a Non-Governmental Organisations to come to its aide last year at Igbomotoro in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State.

    “Igbomotoro is the hotbed of economic crime in the region. It has turned to a community business. I can tell you that almost everybody in the area is into the business of illegal bunkering and illicit refining of petroleum products. Because of the entrenched nature of this problem, JTF is supposed to establish a permanent base in the area.

    “But we don’t have a houseboat and the logistics to move to the area. That was why an NGO last year rented two houseboats for us. The NGO was sympathetic of our problems and gave us the two boats.

    “They also provided welfare for our troops who were deployed in the area. For over eight months, the NGO maintained the houseboats and our personnel”, he said.

    He, however, said trouble started when the NGO could no longer fund the operation.

    He said: “The NGO said it had no money to fund the operation any more. That was why the strategy collapsed. JTF could not take over the funding. The soldiers deployed in the houseboat became hungry for food and thirsty for water. The operation died and the soldiers were recalled. The NGO has also evacuated the houseboat.

    “During the operation, a lot of milestone was achieved. The area became calm. But immediately after the operation, the community folks returned to the illegal business in hundred folds”.

    The source who failed to name the NGO, explained that the intervention came during the reign of the immediate past JTF Commander, Major-General Bata Debiro adding that the operation contributed immensely to the success story of Debiro.

    It was learnt that the venomous return to illegal oil bunkering, illicit refineries and oil theft activities in Igbomotoro informed JTF to conduct special operations involving other security agencies in the area recently.

    The source decried the rot in the system and said most of the operational assets including gunboats were outdated and could no longer perform their roles.

    He said the few gunboats available in the fleet of the command were fond of breaking down and endangering the lives of soldiers during operations.

    “The operational vessels are inadequate. Some are in state of disrepair while others are outdated. They are always disappointing soldiers during operation.

    “Besides, going on patrol is always difficult and rare because of lack of logistics. Most times, JTF depends on oil companies to fuel their patrol boats.

    “They are just deceiving us. The government can’t be said to be fighting economic sabotage without equipping JTF. How can they fight this menace without acquiring houseboats and modern speedboats? How can they cope without establishing bases in notorious areas?

    “It is not possible. As l am talking to you, oil theft is well-entrenched. It is going on minute by minute. It has turned to the business of many communities. There is also regular compromise of standards among some people in uniforms.

    “The truth is that we cannot operate on water without platforms. It is even unfortunate that JTF is owing millions of Naira for platforms it hired for operations in the past. The operatives are also inadequate and those working are operating under harsh condition”.

    Debiro has while rendering his stewardship before his retirement acknowledge that the outfit was faced with many challenges.

    He said: “In spite of the difficult environment it operates, the JTF has recorded modest successes, although still confronted with a handful of challenges and constraints.

    “These challenges include inadequate maritime platforms, insufficient operational vehicles, lack of some essential kits, and insufficient manpower, among others.

    “The Task Force is, however, optimistic that most of these challenges will soon be addressed through the efforts of the Chief of Defence Staff, Defence Headquarters and the National Economic Council (NEC) Intervention Plan initiated by the President.

    “While the Task Force remains highly committed to achieving its mandate, its ability to operate optimally will no doubt be enhanced if some of the challenges confronting it are addressed.”

     

  • At last Ibeno Bridge

    At last Ibeno Bridge

    After 10 years of anticipation and N10.4billion down the line, the 600-metre Ibeno bridge across the Qua Iboe River in Akwa Ibom State is now ready.

    For the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), it is a significant milestone as it sets the tone for the kind of mega projects that will make the required impact on the lives of the people of Nigeria’s oil-bearing region.

    The official commissioning of the star project at this time is also momentous since the achievement is going to be recorded at a time new members of the NDDC board have just rolled up their sleeves for serious action. The timing couldn’t have been more auspicious.More so, as it signals a confirmation of the inaugural statement of the board’s chairman, Senator BasseyEwa-Henshawthat: “we will execute what I have personably termed legacy projects that will try and turn around the image of the NDDC.”

    It is no wonder that the first official assignment of the new Managing Director of the commission, Bassey  Dan-Abia, outside the NDDC headquarters was a visit to the Ibeno bridge which is beckoning for Presidential inauguration. The delighted NDDC boss said that it was the good fortune of the new board to deliver the mega-bridge, and the adjoining 6.87-kilometre Iko-Atabrikang-Opolom-IwuoAchang road. An equally elated member of the board representing AkwaIbom State, EtimInyang Jnr, who accompanied the chief executive, said he couldn’t agree more.

    This official confirmation that something remarkable has taken place in the Ibeno landscape, the main oil-producing area of the state, did not come as a surprise because members of the Senate Committee on the Niger Delta had already sounded the trumpet when they inspected the bridge last year. The Senators were unanimous in giving thumbs up for the project, which incidentally was executed by Nigerian engineers.Senator James Manager, chairman of the committee said it was one project which he would want President Jonathan to commission as soon as possible. He said: “We, the Senators are happy and we have seen that the communities around here are happy too. This is a landmark project and it is very unique.”

    So, it was more or less putting the icing on the cake when the NDDC boss re-affirmed the conclusions of the Senators as he and his team of NDDC officials took a brisk walk across the new bridge.Beaming with smiles, he said: “I am satisfied with what I have seen. I am particularly impressed by the fact that it was done by an indigenous contractor.”

    He noted that the road and bridge had provided a major link between IwuoAchang and Okoroutip communities, which were hitherto overwhelmed by a swampy terrain. However, to get the full benefit of the mega-project, he said: “we need to embark on the second phase which will take off a lot of load from the very busyEket – IkotAbasi Road. If it was not provided for in the 2013 budget of the commission, we will do something about it.”

    The supervising engineer for the project, Mr. EtimEyoette, told the Managing Director that the design for the second phase had already been done. He also said that work was progressing at another 36-kilometre Ikoro-Ntafra-Opolom road with 8 bridges to link up the Ibenobridge after the second phase would have been done. He said that the road would shorten the distance for those travelling from Ibeno to Port Harcourt, as they would no longer need to pass through Eket.Currently, work is in progress at the Ikoro-Opolom connecting road. The consultant for the project, Engr.Etop Province, said that about 70 per cent of the road would pass through swampy terrain, adding, however, that they were prepared to tackle the challenges. He noted that the rains start early and end late in the area, leaving them with a very little window to effectively carry out earth work.

    The site engineer, AnnieteUmoh, said that they have so far cleared and filled about one kilometre and have started pilling for the first of the 8 bridges on the road. He appealed to the NDDC to deal with the issue of compensation so that the communities on the road alignment would not have cause to delay the project.

    Another road being constructed by the NDDC to add value to the Ibenobridge and connect the Qua Iboe Terminal is the Eket-Ibeno Road.Unfortunately, the contractor engaged by the NDDC to build the road did not live up to expectations after several years. This led to the termination of the contract at the request of the AkwaIbom State Government. Since the road is a major artery to operational sites of Mobil in Eket, the NDDC is now partnering with the state government and the oil company to ensure that the road was ready in 24 months.

    Thus, on July 4, 2013,Governor GodswillAkpabio,formally flagged off the construction of Eket-Ibeno Road as a dual carriageway.The 20-kilometre road awarded to Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) Nigeria Limited has four bridgesand provides easy access to Qua Iboe Terminal and other Mobil facilities in the area.

    The governor, thanked the NDDC for initiating the project in the first place.He also gave kudos to ExxonMobil for its readiness to partner with the state government and the NDDCin the construction of the road.He said: “I am not here to play politics, but to do a serious business.  We are not taking over the job from NDDC. We are assisting it. I feel that we can remove potholes from Eket-Ibeno Road by constructing a new one. After this, I’ll commence the remodeling and beautification of Eket urban. This area produces the money that the entire country is using”.

    Both the Eket-Ibeno Road and the Ibeno Bridge are strategic projects considering that Ibeno is the operational base of ExxonMobil which is the second largest producer of crude oil in Nigeria after Shell.Again, the Ibeno side of the bridge gives easy access to creeks and natural habitats in the area, as well as opening the Ibeno Beach for tourists.

    The Paramount Ruler of Ibeno, OwongEffiongAchianga, has every reason to feel on top of the world. Excitement was written all over him during the ceremony to mark the commencement of dualisation work on the Eket-Ibeno Road. He was also full of gratitude to the NDDC and the contractor for completing theIbenoBridge. He said that several communities which had been cut off from civilization would now heave a sigh of relief.

    Similarly, a representative of the Ibeno community, Hon. EnyimaInyang, said that they were delighted that the first phase of the Iko-Atabrikang-Opolom-IwuoAchang Road had been completed. He appealed to the NDDC to quickly initiate action towards extending the road to reach many other communities in the area. He said that the ultimate aim would be to connect communities in two Local Government Areas of AkwaIbom that had all this while been separated by the Qua Iboe River. “Our hope is that the road and the bridge would connect Iko, Rikang, Akata, Opolom, Ikot-Enwang, Okoroutip and Iwochang communities with about 24 others. If that happens, it would have linked all the communities to modernity, while enhancing our economic fortunes,” he said.

    Inyang and other community leaders while asking for the extension of the road built for them, did not forget to show appreciation to the contractor who executed the project. They attributed the success of the contractor to the full cooperation extended to them by the communities in the area.

    A representative of the contracting firm,Viche Nigeria ltd.,Engr. Samuel Eruohi, confirmed that they enjoyed a good relationship with the communities. He said that they were eagerly waiting to hand over the project to NDDC. Obviously feeling good about the performance of his company, he said: “The IbenoBridge is the longest built by a Nigerian contractor in the Niger Delta region.”

    Eruohi said their success in building the bridge was a testimony to the ability of indigenous engineers to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their expatriate counterparts. According to him, local engineers and contractors have all it takes to assist the NDDC in fulfilling its mandate of rapidly developing the oil-producing region of the country, adding that the project did not only bring physical development but was also used to train the youths in the surrounding communities in metal works, carpentry and other technical skills.

    Giving an insight into the challenges encountered in the course of executing the project, the chairman of Viche Nigeria Ltd, Chief Tony Chukwu, said the company had to cast the beams for the bridge about 5 kilometers away from the project site, leaving no alternative than to transport them in barges. He added that the company also had to travel 40 kilometers away to dredge sharp sand to fill the swamp. “We also had to contend with violent sea waves all through, to bring the project to a 100 per cent completion,” he said.

  • Amaechi…Rebel with a cause

    Amaechi…Rebel with a cause

    When the Presidency decided to take on Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, it perhaps did not bargain for what it is getting. Amaechi has proved to be a fighter. His appearance at the Bori rally of the Save Rivers Movement (SRM) has further confirmed his image as ‘a rebel with a cause’, writes Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

    The battleline was long drawn between the pro-Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s Save Rivers Movement (SRM) and the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), which has as grand patron, the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike.

    GDI leaders and members have been moving round the 23 local government areas of Rivers State with full police protection and without attack by militants, unlike the rallies of the SRM.

    Wike insisted that the GDI leaders were moving round the state for thanksgiving and inauguration of the wards and LGAs’ executives of the GDI, as well as sensitising the members of the socio-political organisation and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to support President Goodluck Jonathan, whenever he declares to seek re-election.

    The Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Chief Tony Okocha, who doubles as the Political Adviser to Amaechi, who is the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), insisted that Wike was busy with his 2015 governorship campaign and using President Goodluck Jonathan as a smokescreen.

    Okocha stated that Wike is too desperate to be the next governor of Rivers state, in spite of being an Ikwerre like Amaechi. The NGF chairman is from Ubima in Ikwerre LGA, while the minister of state for education hails from Rumueprikom in Obio/Akpor council.

    The Rivers political crisis actually commenced when the youthful Rivers governor declared that it would not be proper for another Ikwerre person to succeed him, having been the Speaker of the Rivers House of Assembly for eight years (1999 – 2007) and to be governor for eight years in 2015.

    Amaechi prefers somebody from another ethnic group or senatorial district to succeed him in 2015, which the supervising minister of education was not comfortable with.

    Wike is a former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and doubled as the Director-General of Amaechi Campaign Organisation in 2011, before the Rivers governor recommended him to President Jonathan for appointment as a minister, which he (Wike) denied in a recent interview in his newly-built mansion, behind the seat of power in the Rivers state capital, when his friends and associates organised for him a surprise birthday party.

    The Supervising Minister of Education is a two-term Chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area and an ex-National President of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON).

    Amaechi told journalists in Port Harcourt that he facilitated the re-election of Wike as Obio/Akpor LG council chairman, declaring that his people rejected him for second term for poor performance, arrogance and lack of respect for elders, but the governor said he personally intervened and had to plead with the people to allow him.

    The NGF chairman maintained that the minister of state for education betrayed him, in spite of his contributions to his political career, especially when President Jonathan rejected his (Wike’s) ministerial nomination, for not being well known to him the President), with Amaechi still vouching for him (Wike).

    Wike, however, insisted that he got the ministerial appointment on merit and not based on Amaechi’s nomination or efforts, wondering why as the governor’s Chief of Staff and Director-General of his campaign organisation, he could be made just a Minister of State, instead of a substantive minister, if the governor was that influential.

    He said Amaechi should be grateful to him, for fully supporting him to be the Rivers governor on October 26, 2007, after the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court the previous day, which sacked his cousin, Sir Celestine Omehia.

    He noted that with the ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo declaring that Amaechi’s governorship candidature had K-leg, at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt in early 2007, while presenting PDP’s flags to other governorship candidates; it became obvious that the ex-speaker must fight hard to regain his stolen mandate.

    Trouble started brewing when Okocha (chief of staff); the President of the SRM, Charles Aholu, a legal practitioner; and the group’s Coordinator, Igo Aguma, a former member of the House of Representatives from Rivers state; began a week earlier to announce on many radio and television stations, including newspaper advertisements, that Obio/Akpor LG rally of SRM would hold on January 12.

    Since Wike is from Obio/Akpor LGA, political watchers were actually envisaging crisis, for the minister of state for education to prove that he is still in charge of the politics of the council and to impress President Jonathan and his wife, Dame Patience, an indigene of Okrika, headquarters of Okrika LGA of Rivers state.

    On January 11, the canopies, chairs, tables and podium had been arranged at the playground of the Rivers State College of Arts and Science, Rumuola, Port Harcourt, to avoid any hitch during the elaborate SRM inauguration for Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the following day.

    As early as 4 am, policemen, on the orders of Mbu, invaded with Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), many patrol vehicles and battle-ready personnel, the Rivers College of Arts and Science and upturned the canopies, chairs, tables and podium, dispersing with teargas and gunshots, the people who were putting finishing touches to the arrangements.

    Okocha and the representative of the Rivers South-east Senatorial District, Magnus Ngei Abe, were contacted by their associates on the ground and they quickly moved to the venue of the rally, with the dualised road already barricaded by the police and teargas canisters still being shot, but they were undeterred.

    Overzealous policemen, however, shot twice on the chest with rubber bullets, Abe, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), while the chief of staff was also injured by the policemen on the leg and still unable to walk very well, with worshippers and passersby having heavy dose of teargas and disturbing noise of sporadic gunshots on the Sunday.

    The pro-Amaechi’s rally was later relocated to the Civic Centre at Rumuigbo, Port Harcourt, on the dualised and ever-busy Ikwerre Road, with policemen again taking over the new venue and scattering the white plastic chairs, with passersby forced to raise their hands.

    In order to show their displeasure over the action of the policemen, youths in Rumuigbo made bonfires on Ikwerre Road, especially at Obi Wali Road Junction, which was littered with broken bottles, stones and other missiles, but policemen later cleared them.

    Amaechi was billed to attend the SRM’s disrupted rally at the Rivers College of Arts and Science or the Civic Centre at Rumuigbo.

    Abe, 49, from Bera-Ogoni in Gokana Local Government Area, who is an ex-Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), is still recuperating in a London hospital.

    Rivers Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ahmad Mohammad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), however, claimed that members of a rival group (GDI/PDP) invaded the Rivers College of Arts and Science, while engaging the SRM members in a supremacy battle and policemen decided to disperse them with teargas, to prevent the breakdown of law and order, which the chief of staff described as false and misleading.

    Okocha said: “About few minutes past 12 am on Sunday (January 12), I received a call from somebody, highly placed, informing me that the Rivers Commissioner of Police (Mbu) had been reached by the Supervising Minister for Education, Nyesom Wike, and that he had accepted a huge sum of money to dislodge our people and I could not place it.

    “SRM is an organisation that insists that Rivers State must be saved, out to salvage the state from political buccaneers, who want to put Rivers State into their pockets. That is what we are doing. We are in the business of sensitising our people from LGA to LGA.

    “You are aware of a group called the GDI. The members go through all the LGAs with convoys of police, giving them all kinds of protection, including the Commissioner of Police (Mbu). He (CP) is always in the convoys, providing security for them and ensuring that all the things they do in the LGAs are trouble free.”

    The supervising minister of education, in his reaction, stated that persons dragging his name to the police’s action should be ignored and that the SRM’s rallies were not enough proof of the popularity of Amaechi or to win elections in the Niger Delta state.

    Wike was earlier the same January 12 at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, to receive Dame Patience Jonathan, who was travelling to Bayelsa State.

    A former Petroleum Minister, Prof. Tam David-West (from Buguma-Kalabari, the headquarters of Asari-Toru Local Government Area ), expressed worry over the worsening political climate in his Rivers state, while condemning the shooting of Abe, whom he described as a complete gentleman, whom he said never deserved the treatment he got from the police.

    The lawyer to the SRM, Ken Atsuwete, a renowned human rights activist, insisted that the police were informed in writing of the group’s rallies in Obio/Akpor and Khana LGAs, while hinting that the Bori rally would go on as planned, on January 19, which became worse.

    Militants backed by policemen, amid sporadic gunshots, on January 19, disrupted the pro-Amaechi’s SRM rally again at Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoni land and the seat of Khana Local Government Area of Rivers state.

    The Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), George Feyii, an Ogoni; Okocha and many allies of Amaechi narrowly escape death, with their vehicles riddled with bullets and some were vandalised.

    Two persons were feared shot dead by the rampaging militants, who started shooting from 4 am and took over the venue of the SRM rally at the playground of the All Saints’ Anglican Church, Bori, not far from the Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori-Ogoni.

    The NGF chairman, who planned to attend the SRM’s January 19 disrupted rally at Bori, later in an interview at the Government House, Port Harcourt, after inspecting the shot and vandalised vehicles, declared that President Jonathan’s government was worse than the regime of the late dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha.

    The Rivers governor also accused that Federal Government of desperation over the 2015 elections, declaring that President Jonathan wanted to win at all costs, even if all the human beings die.

    Amaechi insisted that the disrupted Bori rally of the SRM must be repeated on Saturday, January 25, while declaring that he would attend and available to be shot.

    Some Rivers commissioners, Amaechi’s allies, top Rivers government officials, leaders and supporters of the SRM had to scale the high fence and run into the bush to prevent being shot by the rampaging militants, with their vehicles abandoned and vandalised, while Bori people and students scampered to safety.

    Police, however, gave protection to the rally by the GDI at Degema, the headquarters of Degema Local Government Area on the same January 19.

    The Rivers PDP, through its Spokesman, Pastor Jerry Needam, accused the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) of resorting to violence.

    The Rivers police spokesman claimed that the pro-Amaechi group (SRM) did not apply for police protection, while Wike’s GDI leaders applied for police protection and was granted, stating that the shooting at Bori was being investigated.

    Aguma and Atsuwete, however, described Muhammad (PPRO) as a liar, insisting that the SRM notified the police of the Bori rally and applied for police protection, since obtaining police permit is illegal, as confirmed by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana.

    The SRM rally was fixed for 2 pm on January 19, with the canopies, chairs, tables and podium arranged and the chief of staff was in Bori on January 18, to ensure hitch-free arrangement, but upturned by the militants, who turned the venue into a theatre of war.

    The Channels Television was billed to transmit the rally live, but its Mercedes Benz Outside Broadcasting (OB) van (Lagos FST 928 BX) and a Toyota Hiace bus, with registration number: Lagos: AGL 250 AP, were vandalised, while the organisation also lost an expensive camera, with the crew members, who were setting the OB van, losing valuable items and cash to the attackers.

    Some of the vandalised and shot vehicles are: Toyota Fortuner, with registration number: Rivers KRK 396 BX and two Toyota Landcruiser V8, with registration numbers: Rivers ES 353 PHC and Lagos AAA 448 AA.

    Other shot and vandalised vehicles are Lexus LX 570, with registration number: Rivers KNM 815 AA, Brilliance salon car, with Abuja ABC 830 AL as registration number, Toyota Tundra: Abuja ABJ 587 AE and Chevrolet Avalanche: Lagos EH 193 LSR.

    Besides the divisional police headquarters, Bori has police area command, while there is MOPOL 56 at nearby Saakpenwa-Ogoni, but all the security personnel looked the other way, while the attackers, who were sponsored by desperate politicians, were having a field day.

    After the masked militants had visited thrice with guns and machetes, the All Saints’ Anglican Church, venue of the January 19 rally of SRM and left, policemen later barricaded the main Hospital Road that leads to Kono Waterside and sealed off the expansive premises.

    Amaechi said: “When they say President Obasanjo (Olusegun) is lying about snipers and one thousand names, they say Nigerian Police have no rubber bullets. From where did the rubber bullets come? Is it one of the snipers that shot at Magnus (Abe)? Could it be that they were aiming it at me? For the first time, I will want to expose myself. I will be there (Bori’s rally). I will be there on Saturday (January 25), let them come and shoot.

    “There is serious danger for democracy. What you are seeing here (in Rivers State) is close to what Abacha was doing. This is an Abacha’s government. Tell me the difference. Lives were being lost, people were being shot. Journalists were being arrested. This is worse, because even governors were not arrested under Abacha, but as a governor, hmmnn!

    “Officers of the Rivers State Police Command met at the Police Officers’ Mess and Mbu declared war against the Rivers State Government and Rivers people. That he is determined to ensure that they are not protected and he warned them (policemen) in advance not to come to protect anybody at the rally.

    “The implication of that is that he (Mbu) knew there was going to be an attack and he must have been part of the process of the attack. If not, when the people started shooting, what did the police do.”

    The NGF chairman also stated that the rampaging militants would have killed the journalists, who covered the rally, but managed to escape from the gunshots at Bori.

    Amaechi said: “Is President (Jonathan) saying he has lost control of Mbu? He cannot remove Mbu. He cannot tell Mbu what to do or is it that Mr. President had directed Mbu to kill me and kill others?”

    True to his earlier promise, Amaechi attended the rescheduled rally of the SRM in Bori-Ogoni on January 25, and as usual, did not spare the Federal Government, President Jonathan and Mbu.

    The Rivers governor stated that the militants his administration chased away with the military were now back in the state, fuelled by the Rivers police commissioner and his “cohorts” in Abuja.

    Amaechi spoke amid tight security provided by the police, at the same venue (the playground of the All Saints’ Anglican Church, Bori) where the hired militants were a week earlier shooting sporadically, with the rescheduled rally well-attended and the inauguration of the Khana LGA chapter with 19 wards, of the SRM, performed by Aguma.

    The NGF chairman, who attended the SRM rally for the first time, was accompanied by the representative of the Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro constituency of Rivers state in the House of Representatives, Dakuku Peterside.

    Shops, business outfits and corporate organisations in Bori were shut on January 25 by apprehensive persons, who envisaged a repeat of the violence of January 19. It was gathered that some militants still shot sporadically in Bori in the early hours of January 25, but were repelled by the police.

    The Rivers chapter of the PDP, through Pastor Jerry Needam, the Special Adviser, Media to the state Chairman, Chief Felix Obuah, however, urged Amaechi to do the right things at all times and save himself of avoidable embarrassment.

    Mbu had earlier insisted that he remained a professional police officer, not taking sides and not a politician. In spite of the calls for Mbu’s redeployment for acting like a politician, by the NGF chairman and separate resolutions last year by the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, said the Rivers police commissioner had been told to be a professional police officer.

    Abubakar is now under intense pressure to redeploy Mbu, especially with the call on President Jonathan by the members of the National Assembly to remove him (IGP), who has (Abubakar) been summoned by the senators to come and explain his roles in the Rivers crisis.

    Amaechi said in Bori on January 25: “I always tell my Priest that the Bible is a very versatile book. There is nothing you are looking for in the Bible that you will not see. Bible enjoins all of us to be peaceful. The same Bible says the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent taketh it by force.

    “I do not want to come back to Ogoni to hear that you were shattered. I do not want you to take the law into your own hands, but I want you to make sure that nobody shoots at you. They (gun-wielding militants) are all human beings. They are not ghosts. They are neither angels nor devil. They are human beings like you. If a man slaps you and gets away with it, tomorrow, he will come back.

    “I will allow members of the SRM to continue with their rallies. Anything that requires the law, they must comply with the law. I do not have to be part of the rallies. The only reason why I came to today’s (January 25) rally is because I need to prove to you, not to Nigerians, that you should not run away from violence.

    “You do not go to war carrying white handkerchiefs. If a man is carrying AK-47, you will carry machine gun. Then, he will say let us talk peace. As much as possible, I will not support violence, but I do not want you dead. Stay alive, because if you die, nobody will vote for us. I wish you God’s blessings and I will assure you, I will stand by you.”

    The NGF chairman also berated the Rivers Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, an indigene of Cross River State, who has put in 30 years into the police service, for taking sides and not acting like a professional police officer, but a politician.

    Amaechi said: “PDP claims to be the biggest party in Nigeria. APC is the fastest growing party in Nigeria. Then, there was no ACN, no CPC, only PDP in Rivers State. Now, they have seen another party, why are they afraid? Why are they fighting? Why are they shooting? Why are they using policemen? They should allow voting to take place.

    “Let me start by apologising to you, on behalf of Mbu and those who came here (Bori) to shoot guns last Sunday (January 19). From here, I will go to the hospital to see one of the persons they shot. Mbu said nobody was shot. I am going there to see the person myself.

    “As the Governor of Rivers state, I am governor for every Local Government Area. Nobody can stop me from coming to Khana Local Government. Not even those children that issued press statement, threatening and they said they would shoot me and I said ‘let me come and be shot’.

    “This (January 25) morning, many persons called me and said ‘do not go (to Bori)’ and I told them to give me reasons why I should not go. I should send over 3,000 persons to Bori, for them to be shot and I will not be there to be shot. Will that be fair? If they are going to shoot you, they should shoot me first.

    “I want to thank the IGP. I had to call him and I told IGP that I would be going to Khana LG and I thank him for sending security. I reassure him that Rivers people are peace loving.

    “Mbu said he did very well in Oyo State. I have spoken with the Governor of Oyo State (Abiola Ajimobi) and he said Mbu did not do well. Whatever he was doing there was a smaller scale. Why he is doing a larger scale here is because there are very important people in Abuja that are fuelling him. He is making me say it in public. Mbu cannot say he has done well. He has done nothing.”

    The Rivers governor also berated an ex-militant General, Solomon Ndigbara, aka Osama Bin Laden, an Ogoni, whom he said was behind the shootings of January 19 in Bori.

  • Itsekiri youths will not succumb to blackmail, says INYC President

    Itsekiri youths will not succumb to blackmail, says INYC President

    The President of Itsekiri National Youth Council, (INYC), David Tonwe spoke has vowed that the apex body of Itsekiri youth groups will not be cowed by blackmail and propaganda in its quest to reposition for the good of the Itsekiri people.

    Tonwe, a former Warri South West Local Government Area chairman and factional leader in the Ugborodo Community crisis, when the leadership of various Itsekiri youth groups paid him and INYC leaders a courtesy visit last weekend.

    The visit was in reaction to an advertorial in a national daily, which claimed that the tenure of his executive had elapsed.

    He described the authors of the document as “fifth columnist” and warned that the Itsekiri Nation and INYC were not for sale at any price.

    Earlier, the leaders of Iwere Development Association (IDA), Warri Social, National Association of Itsekiri Graduates (NAIG) and the National Association of Itsekiri Students (NAIS) had dissociated themselves from the advertorial, stressing that those who purportedly signed it on their behalf did so without due consultation.

    The Secretary of IDA, Comrade Weyinmi Agbateyiniro, in his remarks, described the advertorial as disturbing but assured that the signatories and their sponsors do not belong to any of the INYC sub groups: NAIG, NAIS, IDA

    Agbateyiniro said the INYC under the leadership of Tonwe had done a lot in improving the lots of Itsekiri youths and commended it for its effort in ensuring that their kinsmen benefited from the Federal Government amnesty programme.

    Speaking in the same vein, National President of NAIG, Comrade Alero Tenumah, Chairman Board of Trustees of Warri Social, Comrade Sonny Bodor as well as the National President of NAIS, corroborated the views of Comrade Agbateyiniro and pledged their unalloyed support to Hon. Tonwe’s leadership.

    Sonny Bodor thereafter moved for a confidence vote of the Tonwe-led executive of INYC. The vote was seconded by Tenumah and unanimously accepted by all members of the various youth groups that attended the meeting.

    Earlier, the Legal Adviser of the INYC, Mr. Robinson Ariyo, faulted the call for the dissolution of the INYC leadership under Tonwe remarking that the call betrayed the ignorance of the masterminds about the constitution of the group.

    Ariyo said the executive was duly constituted in line with the constitution of the INYC and said the sponsors of the said advertorial ought to had  understood the working organ of the council before taking any action

    “It is interesting that people aspiring to lead a group do not seem to understand the constitution. People cannot just wake up from the wrong side of their beds and decide that an executive should be dissolved.

    “The action betrayed a total ignorance of the constitution of the INYC, which is duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC),” he added.

    The Secretary of the INYC, Isaac Dorsu, said the advertorial was not unconnected with the Ugborodo leadership crisis, but maintained that the umbrella body of Itsekiri youths group was greater than any single community.

    He said: “The INYC draws membership from over 100 Itsekiri communities and the INYC is bigger than Ugborodo. The crisis in Ugborodo should not be mixed with INYC. People should not be misinformed.”

    While appealing for calm, he said the group was working with the relevant organs in the Itsekiri nation to resolve the lingering crisis in Ugborodo.

    He commended the leadership of their maturity in handling the matter and urged them to continue to be decorous and civil in running their affairs.

    Various Itsekiri leaders, including Gbubemi Abigor, INYC PRO, Lucky Pessu, Wealth Erebo and Mike Odeli, were present at the occasion.

     

     

  • 2015: ‘There’s need to revisit tripod agreement in Akwa Ibom’

    2015: ‘There’s need to revisit tripod agreement in Akwa Ibom’

     Michael Onofiok, an Oron man, is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. He spoke with Kazeem Ibrahym on his governorship ambition

    What is your assessment of Governor Godswill Akpabio’s government since assumption of office?

    I will honestly as I have always been saying give Governor Godswill Akpabio my honest comment because before he came into office during the electioneering campaign, he has promised the state that he would deliver on infrastructure which exactly what he is been doing. He has given us some good roads in the state and also did some other projects though not really having impact on the entire welfare of the people. We are happy that at least we have had a governor who has been able to rekindles hope and confidence of the people of Akwa Ibom state.

    Which particular area do you think the governor should have touched the more but he failed to do so?

    Very unfortunately, somebody like me who is a Mariner that has been in the Marine Industry for over 2 decades, authoritatively I can tell you that the economy of the very advanced nation started from the sea and are still being sustained by the proceeds coming from the sea. Like in America, Britain, and continental Europe and even in South Africa. All these countries rely on the proceeds from Maritime sector. That is where the job is. That is where you have enormous employment. The benefit of the sector is internal. That is the area where Akwa Ibom State Government has not really gone into and if you look at the inland water ways of Akwa Ibom state, look at our coast lines and look at our offshore limits, we have the best potential in this country and even the continent.

    Looking at Lagos state, a very close example, Akwa Ibom state may generate or may be due monthly say between N25billion to N30billion from the Federation Account and it takes about about N6billion to N8billion higher than Lagos state but Lagos state makes ten times the amount from the Maritime sector. So you can see that even in the jobs analysis of today and the economic growth of all the states, you will see that it is only six states within the country that the poverty level or job employment level is below six to seven per cent. Lagos state is one of them. This has been made possible because of the huge investment that has gone into the Maritime.

    Like we have the potential of Maritime in Akwa Ibom state, I believe that 30 to 40 per cent of development of the federal inland water ways that we have here, we should be able to generate between 50, 000 to 60, 000 jobs that is developing only the inland water ways. We are not even talking about offshore limit, we are not talking about the coast line, also not talking about the controversial Ibaka Deep Sea Port. We are just looking at where exclusive rights can be given to the citizen which is our own inland water ways. This is the only state in the country where all the estuarine and inland waters empty into almost all the communities where we could develop inland port, fish processing terminals for both local and international markets. We could develop our inland ports for ship repairers and small craft building. All these things generate a lot of jobs for our teeming youths and the entire populace. That is the area I think the Akwa Ibom state government has not done well because such area has been completely abandoned. Also I have made suggestions, I have been writing things on the Maritime, made suggestions in the print media and even in the social media, even writing memos to government that somebody somewhere will be able to make use of it but it is very unfortunate that nobody has been able to do that probably may be because I am outside. This is area that the government should look into. They should invest aggressively in the maritime sector.

    Why the controversial Ibaka Deep Sea port if am to go by your words?

    The Ibaka Deep Seaport was muted in the 70’s but because of lack of political and economic will, that place has been abandoned as it is today. In a growing economies like us today, we don’t need a specialized seaport. A specialized sea port can be tolerated in an environment where maritime has been part of the developmental strategy of government. Where Maritime makes part of the budget of government, here we are, we are developing. We need to create jobs, we need to put people into skills. We need to develop maritime and the marine sector, so that kind of specialized seaport is not needed here. We need a general cargo seaport. That is the thing that we need otherwise I will say that probably specialized seaport can be taken to a place like Lagos state. They already have about two seaports which are all general cargo ports and then we have some private jetties in Lagos state and Port Harcourt, I think what we need right now is to give them a specialized seaport which is meant for expedition for military training and some other very specialized maritime professional training. That is going to limit a lot of activities that would have come on to reach the common man on the street.

    Another reason is that Ibaka Deep sea is been very controversial in the sense that every successive government that come in from the federal to the state have always seen the seaport as a very lofty project to embark upon and considering the very natural nature of the beach. Series of studies have carried out about the beach in the late 60’s and 70’s. Even the last research that was done by the World Bank, the report is not different with what was done during the military days. Even in the days of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, that place has always been found to be the best beach that has the best potential for a deep seaport. Deep seaport in the sense of the benefit that are accruable but I don’t know the fear that other states that are also littoral states are having. Probably their fear is that the moment the deep seaport is functional in Ibaka it will mean more tariffs and it will divert traffic and a lot of logistics will be taken away from them but that is not the issue because we are talking about a country and not Akwa Ibom state. In Akwa Ibom state here, we don’t have enough skills. We don’t even have people to work in that sector. So you may find out that the completion of the deep seaport you may have all Nigerians coming to work there. Probably in Akwa Ibom state now, you can only find semi-skilled people in the maritime sector. That is another reason which I think the political will is lacking.

    A lot of people who have know me in the Maritime field have been calling me believing that I will use my good office to channel my memos to government to see to the completion of Ibaka deep seaport. A lot of questions have been raised about the project, I answers questions on that project everyday. When Mr. President met with the Federal Executive Council, the report on Ibaka deep seaport was considered as a matter of priority sometime last year. The President rose from the meeting and appointed a committee to look into Ibaka deep seaport and give him report. On hearing that, we were at peace infact we went to sleep because we thought it was a war at last won. The President showed goodwill by instituting this committee to look into the Ibaka deep seaport matter. The committee went into work and in no time the report was given to him. The Chairman of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Governor of Akwa Ibom state Chief Godswill Akpabio because of the report had to meet to discuss after that there was a policy statement that at last the Ibaka deep seaport project will take off in earnest. The governor in his speech said he has handed over documents, the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), the land acquisition document, the layout and everything because we thought it was going to be on equity funding even at that level we were satisfied because all we needed to see was to get the project functional. It won’t only give the locals sense of belonging because these are people with bottled up anger yearning for any form of development or government presence.

    That is the position of Akwa Ibom state because we hardly get anything from the Federal Government for some years now. We had thought with the project Mr. President will be given a good mark but to my greatest dismay that committee report I don’t know I wouldn’t say it was jettisoned but they suspended action that report. The next thing I heard was that a deep seaport is going on in Bayelsa state. So the deep sea port in Bayelsa is under construction. It may have passed 40 to 50 per cent now but Ibaka deepsea port which is supposed to be a gate way to the maritime and industrial world of the South South has been abandoned then only a few months back instead of also coming back to look at Ibaka deep seaport project to see what we can do about it, the government also gave approval for a deep seaport to be constructed in Lagos state. So how many deep seaports do we have there? We already have a tin can island port, a snake island port which had served as a marine and international gateway to the west. The Ibaka deep seaport is supposed to serve as a maritime gateway to the south. Instead of doing that I see government paying attention to other states that have these things already so they left the Ibaka deep seaport at a very controversial stage that is why I keep using the words controversial because it has always been there, they have always talked about it but nothing has been done.

    Oro Nation seems not to be moving at the same level with other ethnic groups in the state in terms of development, what do think is wrong?

    It is rather very sad because questions like these should’ve come up at all about Oro Nation. Oron road begins from actual Oron beach up to Aba. It is one straight road and this has been a major trade routes of the region. Before the creation of Akwa Ibom state in 1987, Oro Nation has always been there playing major role in terms of the economy, in terms of social value to Cross River state. We were never relegated, we were never humiliated, we were never abandoned or rejected when we were in the then Cross River. Things were moving very fast despite the very natural demarcation between Oron and Cross River State, which is the water because it is only when you cross the channel you can get to Cross River State. Everybody saw the economic value and nobody was talking about Oron Nation in terms of per capital, in terms of population. The government is looking at the economic value of Oron Nation as a whole.

    If we look into the actual document when Akwa Ibom State was created during the regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (Retd), three major ethnic groups are identified in that document. There are other sub groups like Eket, Ibeno, Ikot Abasi, just like we have Uruk Anam and Ikono people. These are all sub groups within Akwa Ibom state but three major ethnic groups which actually gave birth to or occasioned that word which is often used as tripod. Before Akpan Isemin of blessed memory became the governor of Akwa Ibom state, the stakeholders and our fathers sat down and had an agreement. This agreement was friendly, it was not an agreement which was based on the delineation of government. It was not an agreement which was based on senatorial district. The agreement was solely based on ethnic nationalities. The reason why the Oron Nation accepted that agreement and consented to it is that naturally we are from here and we know that there also Ibibio people in Eket Senatorial District, also Ibibios in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District and we also have core Ibibios in Uyo Senatorial District and we naturally agreed that this state belonged to us, let us work out an acceptable formula which will enable us to live in harmony and peace. We accepted that the Ibibios are many, they can have the first shot of the governorship. We gave our consent to them and that was agreed that the Ibibios should take the first shot followed by the Annang and Oron. That was why Akpan Isemin of blessed memory was given the first shot. Akpan Isemin’s regime was short-lived by the military coup but we also sat down because we saw that they were not allowed to complete their tenure because of the military coup, we virtually agreed that the Ibibios can go back and complete their tenure through former Governor Victor Attah that did full eight years. We gave him the moral backing. We supported him with everything that Attah needed to work with in office. That was why when leaving office, he went to Ikot Ekpene and made that pronouncement that power must rotate and power would move to Ikot Ekpene senatorial district and he went further to say that I mean, Annang speaking area of Ikot Ekpene senatorial district because he is aware of the Ikono, Ini and the Oruk people in the Ikot Ekpene senatorial district. These are Ibibios; that was why he emphasized the Annang speaking area and everybody agreed. There was no rancour. The whole state supported the Annang people of Ikot Ekpene senatorial district and that saw the emergence of the present governor but all of a sudden we are now hearing politics of a senatorial district instead of giving it to Oron ethnic nationality. They are now talking of senatorial district knowing that in Eket senatorial district we have five local government areas; out of which 12 are Ibibios.