Enyinnaya Nwafor, a son of former Abia State Deputy Governor, Dr. Chima Nwafor, was yesterday unveiled as the governorship candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) for the 2023 general elections.

He was presented to party members alongside his running mate, Dr. Chima Anyaso, by YPP national chairman, Bishop Amakiri, at the Ngwa High School Playground in Osisioma Local Government Area (LGA).

Nwafor, whose mother was a former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Commissioner Dame Nne Nwafor, is from Osisioma Local Government Area (LGA) of the state, while Anyaso is a former governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The Nation reports that the guber candidate, an engineer, is one of the aggrieved PDP gubernatorial aspirants that withdrew from the PDP gubernatorial primary held in Umuahia.

Others include Abia Deputy Governor, Ude Oko Chukwu and Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe among others that alleged the hijack of the three-man delegate list by the state government.

Nwafor promised massive infrastructural development, wealth creation and among others, stating that he had come to wipe away the tears of Abians.

At the event, the Chairman of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s Obingwa Local Government Area (LGA), Ibe Nwoke joined the YPP alongside some aides of the governor and other PDP officials of Ngwa extraction, including a pioneer PDP Chieftain, Chukwu Wachukwu.

Nwoke clinched the Obingwa/Ugwunagbo/Osisioma Federal Constituency ticket of the YPP for 2023, while Wachukwu picked the Abia Central Senatorial Seat ticket.

 

The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has sent additional 450 ex-agitators to facilities in the Niger Delta to learn the business of oil spill response, cleanup and remediation in line with the novel Train, Employ and Mentor (TEM) scheme introduced by its Interim Administrator, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd).

Apart from the training on oil spill cleanup, others were sent to acquire skills in solar engineering, plumbing, electrical installations, marine, metal and woodworks.

The development came a few days after the scheme sent 400 ex-agitators to various farms in the region to learn agro-based skills, increasing the number of delegates deployed for training within two weeks to 850.

Addressing the ex-agitators after the second batch of Basic Orientation Course (BOC) organised for them in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Dikio harped on the importance of wealth creation and employment generation in the region.

He urged the beneficiaries to take their training seriously to enable them to become employable, establish businesses and own companies that would help them cater for their families and contribute to the Niger Delta economy.

Dikio insisted that the era of crying over the lack of opportunities in the region was over and appealed to them to take advantage of the training to secure their future as entrepreneurs or employable individuals.

The amnesty boss stressed that there was no longer time to waste on frivolities promising that PAP under his leadership was in a hurry to make new millionaires and billionaires in the region.

Addressing them he said: “You’re going to be deployed to learn and then add your own knowledge and skill to making the environment of the region better. We want to clean up our environment not only for ourselves but for our children and grandchildren. I want to urge you to take the training seriously. Anything you’re doing, do it well and you will see the result.

“What you will become tomorrow is what you decide today. You can learn from the experiences of all those who have made it today. This training facility where you are is owned by a young man. He didn’t achieve it in one day, it took him years but he was focused and determined to succeed.”

A prominent ex-agitator, Pastor Nature Dumale Kieghe shared his experience with the beneficiaries, saying he became a success story because of his resolve not to go back to his old ways.

He said: “I was rejected by even my own family members because of my lifestyle. I was a lost child. No one could ever believe that I could be saved but here I am today with so much to show for turning around from my evil ways.

“I have travelled around the world, speaking to people about the dangers of engaging in destructive acts. You too can be like me if not better”.

The United Kingdom-based international charity, IA-Foundation has offered to assist the Edo State Government to take out-of-school children in the state back to classrooms.

The Chief Executive Officer of IA-Foundation, Mrs Ibironke Adeagbo, made the announcement in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja.

She was reacting to a recent pronouncement by the Governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki, that the state would prosecute parents and guardians, whose children and wards are out of school.

Obaseki, who made the pronouncement in a speech to mark the World Day Against Child Labour, commemorated globally on June 12, vowed that the Edo Government would not fail to prosecute parents and guardians of out-of-school children.

Adeagbo said also that IA-Foundation would take up payment of school fees of children whose parents were killed in the recent attack on a church in Owo, Ondo State.

“IA-Foundation will take care of the payment of the school fees and other related expenditures of the children who have become orphans, following the Owo attack until the completion of their secondary education,’’ she stated.

IA-Foundation, which has been at the forefront of promoting child rights in Nigeria, has been working assiduously to reduce the number of out-of-school in the West African country, which is home to 10.5 million out-of-school kids.

The group recently offered scholarships to 50 deprived children in Lagos State, to enable them to have access to education.

Adeagbo said that IA-Foundation had commenced collaborations with other UK charities to hold a confab in the British Parliament later this year, to bring international attention on the importance of giving education to the girl-child in Nigeria.

According to her, the confab with the theme: “The Educated Girl – Transformer of Nigeria’s Future’’, will underscore the need for the Federal Government to give needed attention to issues concerning the girl-child.

On the finding of one of the girls kidnapped by Jihadists eight years ago from the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State in the Northeast, Adeagbo said the development was heart-warming.

She said that every Nigerian child had an inalienable right to education, pleading with the Federal Government to put measures in place to eradicate abductions of Nigerian kids while in school.

The Nigerian Army found one of the kidnapped Chibok girls, identified as Mary Ngoshe with her son on June 14 at a village, called Ngoshe in Borno.

Some 276 school girls were abducted by jihadists in Chibok on April 14, 2014, in an incident that jolted Nigeria and the global community.

About 103 of the kidnapped girls were later rescued by Nigerian troops but others have remained unaccounted for since the incident.

Many other cases of abductions of school children have taken place in various communities in Northern Nigeria, the epi-centre of a bloody jihadist insurgency that started in 2009.

The Federal Government has been fighting back relentlessly to crush the jihadists, who are unrelenting in their push to enthrone a strict Islamic code in Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous nation.

The Catholic Bishop of Uyo Diocese, Most Rev. John Ayah, has warned politicians to desist from engaging youths as political thugs during elections.

He urged them to secure their future through provisions of job opportunities and investment in their education.

Ayah spoke at the weekend in Awka at the opening of the 148th National Executive Council Meeting of the Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria (CLCN) whose theme was “Upholding our Catholic Faith in a Turbulent Society: Issues and Concerns.”

He said citizens’ safety and security would be guaranteed if politicians stop using youths as thugs to play dangerous politics.

He said: “We are all worried about next year’s elections because politicians engage our youths as political thugs, using them to do horrible things.

“These youths are the ones who end up becoming kidnappers and they engage in criminality because when they finish these jobs for the politicians, they don’t settle them.

“The politicians do not send them to school or to learn a trade, and they are just discharged without any empowerment. They use the guns and other arms they had during the political era to terrorise the people in the society and criminality increases.

“The sad fact is that the children of these politicians are not even in the country. They are living comfortably in America and Europe. Their children will come back and be put in big positions of authority while the children of the used thugs will also follow the path of their fathers.”

While calling on Christians to intensify prayers for peaceful 2023 elections and security, the Prelate expressed confidence that God would deliver Nigeria from its numerous challenges.

Governor Chukwuma Soludo urged both the clerics and laity to continue demanding good governance, stressing that such remained the only way to stamp out corruption in Nigeria.

The Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Most Rev. Paulinus Ezeokafor called on Nigerians, especially Christians, to dedicate themselves to God and service to humanity.

The National President of the Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria, Mr Henry Yunkwap said the meeting was to discuss problems affecting the society and proffer solutions to move the Church and the nation forward.

Some chieftains of the Bayelsa State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have called on the citizens of the state to be patient and rally around Governor Douye Diri towards his administration’s goal of revamping the state.

They also slammed critics of the governor, saying they were political jobbers blinded by ignorance, self-centeredness, greed and inordinate ambitions.

The party leaders, under the auspices of Friends of Senator Douye Diri (FSDD), said the governor within two years in office had made giant strides in infrastructure, agriculture, governance, sports, and social life, among others.

Addressing reporters yesterday in Yenagoa, the state capital, the Chairman, FSDD, Chief Bodi Arerebo, appealed to the citizens of the state those who didn’t mean well to the state but to be patient with Diri and his good team.

He said their appeal for patience and understanding with Diri’s government was borne out of the fact that though the governor inherited a lot of accumulated debts in the state, the situation had not affected his performance and development-oriented goals.

He mentioned the commencement of multi-billion Naira Nembe-Brass Road, construction of Gloryland Drive, remodelling of the popular Tombia Roundabout, payment of workers’ salaries and pensioners as and when due and numerous other projects.

Arerebo said: “Governor Diri is God-send to Bayelsa State. His performance since he assumed power has spoken volumes that he means well to the state. Here is a governor who came to office and inherited a multitude of accumulated problems including debts.

“No doubt that some of the problems will take some time to solve; he is not resting on his laurels to ensure that the state becomes a reference point in the comity of states in Nigeria. He has been battling with the repayment of carried-over debts.

“If you have the opportunity to ask some of the people who are in government, they will open up a lot of things to you and then you will know Diri is really trying his best to unite the state, pay off debts owed contractors and others by previous administrations.

“The governor has also ensured that the projects he inherited from previous administrations are completed. It is noteworthy that mobilisation fees were not even paid by previous governments but in order to accelerate the development and progress of the state, he mobilised previous contractors to various abandoned project sites and today, most of them have been completed.”

The chieftain said: “Those people who are criticising Douye Diri should know that the governor came in and met a lot of problems, including humongous debts.

“There is no government that has done what Diri is doing in terms of social character, embracing everyone, previous leaders alike. But when previous leaders see you criticize them, they will be hunting you to kill but Diri is not a person like that.”

Arerebo also praised the Diri administration for reducing crime and criminality to the barest minimum, saying that because of the security architecture in place, Bayelsa is ranked as one of the safest states in the country.

The two factions of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State have ended their eight-year-old leadership tussle.

Following a leadership tussle between the former state Chairman, Chief Donatus Nwankpa, and a chieftain of the party, Chief Ikechi Emenike, the party has two factions in 2014.

In 2015, the Nwankpa-led faction presented Chief Anyim Nyerere as its governorship candidate against Emenike, who contested the governorship position under Dr Emmanuel Ndukwe as the factional chairman.

The party also presented two governorship candidates along with the two factional leaderships in 2019, with the former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Chief Uche Ogah, running against Emenike.

However, the two factions resolved to coalesce into one united APC after a closed-door reconciliation and unification meeting at the country home of a former member of the House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Atuma, on Saturday.

They resolved to bury their differences and work collectively for the party to take over Abia in 2023.

Addressing the leadership of the party from the 184 wards and 17 local government areas at the end of the meeting, Nwankpa and Emenike said the war was over.

According to Nwankpa, in politics, there is no permanent enemy but permanent interest.

“The common interest that binds us is our collective desire to create a better Abia and society. We fought and disagreed but never quarrelled,” he said.

“This is a new APC. We have interacted and everybody would have a sense of belonging. We are having a new rule of engagement and our desire is to take over Abia in 2023 to change the destiny of our people,” Nwankpa said.

He advised his following not to feel betrayed either by himself or his successor, Chief Obioma Acho, who recently defected to Labour Party or other party chieftains in his faction.

Emenike urged all the party faithful to embark on two to three days of fasting for God’s plan for Abia to come into manifestation in 2023.

He said God had already delivered Abia, adding: “What is left is for us to do our own part. Today is a special day in the history of Abia APC.

“Truth is constant. I shall continue to speak the truth. Speak the truth and the truth shall set you free. What I shall continue to disagree with is anything that is not legitimate and properly done,” he said.

The governorship hopeful said that “the primary task before the party is to win the governorship of the state.

“What unites us in APC is more important than what divides us. It is a shame that, in spite of this array of quality people here, some people are holding Abia hostage.

“Since all of us are interested in moving Abia forward, let us come together and work to achieve this goal,” he said.

Emenike thanked everybody that was instrumental in the reconciliation, adding that the peace in the party would be beneficial to all.

Dr Kingsley Ononogbu, the state Chairman of the party, expressed joy over the reconciliation and return of peace in the party.

Ononogbu promised that any agreements reached in the meeting would be respected.

The Imo State Government has declared that the state-controlled Vigilance Group was not responsible for the recent killing of three family members in Okporo, Orlu Local Government Area.

The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser to the Governor of Imo State, Mr Oguwike Nwachuku in Owerri deplored the allegation getting the rounds that the Vigilance Group carried out the killing.

He said it was ironic that members of the Vigilance Group being accused of the killing actually took the wounded to the hospital when they were informed of the attack.

He described as unfortunate and provocative the haste with which enemies of the state government rushed to the press to level accusations against it, apparently to score cheap political points.

Emelumba said while it is only the police that can make a  definite pronouncement on the perpetrators of the crime at the conclusion of an exhaustive investigation, the Imo Vigilance Group was not responsible at all.

“The Vigilance Group operates under the law, in fact, they work under the supervision of the police and therefore cannot engage in any extra-judicial killings,” Emelumba submitted.

He warned purveyors of such dangerous and fake news to desist from stoking the embers of crisis in the state.

He said: “Some of them said it was Imo Vigilance Group, others said it was Fulani militia, thus creating ethnic tension. I appeal that they should allow the police to do their job.”

He said contrary to the wild allegation of the opposition, the Vigilance Group was not set up to witch hunt anybody but to assist the security agencies to maintain law and order.

“They are not mad as to murder people in cold blood. For the avoidance of doubt, Imo Vigilance Group is not responsible for the Okporo killings. Mischief makers should stop linking them to the crime,” the Commissioner said.

The National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) said investigations into two oil leak incidents at the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) oilfields in Bayelsa State indicate they were caused by vandalism.

The two incidents occurred in Southern Ijaw and Ekeremor local government areas of the state.

The Director-General, NOSDRA, Mr Idris Musa, said yesterday that the agency concluded Joint Investigation Visits (JIVs) at the sites within the last one week.

He explained that a JIV to the six-inch Azuzuama-Tebidaba flow-line at Ikebiri in Southern Ijaw LGA operated by the NAOC was traced to third-party interference.

The director-general said the incident suspected to be the handiwork of oil thieves, occurred on June 13, 2022, while the JIV was conducted on June 14, 2022.

Musa, who said that an estimated volume of eight barrels of crude was discharged into the environment, noted: “Unknown person(s) installed a flange at 12 O’clock position on the pipeline.

“Area of impact was outside the company’s right of way and inside right of way, vegetation was impacted and repair was affected.”

According to Musa, the second incident occurred on NAOC’s 6-inch Tuomo-Ogboinbiri pipeline at Ayamasa in Ekeremor council area.

He noted: “At three different points, hacksaw cuts were observed at different positions on the pipeline. Also, wraps of different materials were used around the different cuts caused by unknown person (s).

“The second point was about 35 metres apart from the first point, while the third point was across a major river.”