Category: South East

The 34 Artillery Brigade, Obinze and the Imo State Police Command yesterday denied report of a gun duel between their personnel in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

In a joint statement by the Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Michael Abattam and the acting Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Cpt. Joseph Akubo, the two security organisations urged the public to regard as false, a report making the rounds in some online media platforms of a gun duel between the personnel of the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police in Owerri.

“The malicious and falsely-fabricated report is the handiwork of criminals, who intend to create confusion and give an impression of a lack of synergy between the security agencies.

“The law enforcement and security agencies in Imo State will continue to synergise and bring to book criminals and halt their activities in the state.

No stone will be left unturned in ensuring that law-abiding citizens live in a conducive environment and carry out their daily routine without fear or intimidation by miscreants, who have constituted themselves into a nuisance and are bent on causing instability in the state.

“We, therefore, advise law-abiding citizens to ignore the illegal Monday sit- at-home call by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its affiliate, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), whose members have used falsehood and threat on law-abiding citizens.”

Fishermen from coastal communities across the eight local governments of Bayelsa State have cried out over pollution of rivers and destruction of aquatic lives through the activities of oil companies.

The people, who underwent a capacity building training in coastal environmental monitoring and advocacy at the weekend, claimed that oil spillages had crippled their sources of livelihood, fishing and farming.

At the training organised by a Niger Delta environmental advocacy group, the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), the fishermen said that when they went fishing, they usually found fishes floating dead on the waters and in the mangroves.

They appealed to the authorities to assist them by carrying out remediation and clean-up of the polluted rivers and seas, to enable them bounce back to the business sustaining them and their families.

The programme is coming amid ongoing oil and gas leaks at Aiteo’s oilfields in Nembe and Conoil oil blockage at Sangana in the neighbouring Brass Local Government.

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Addressing participants comprising fishermen, fisherwomen and those working in the fish processing value chain, the Leader, Fossil Politics, HOMEF, Mr. Cadmus Ateke-Enade, noted that pollution from oil leaks posed great danger to public health.

He said the environmental rights group aimed to strengthen the knowledge base of participants to engage in evidence-based monitoring of the environment by collecting data in an empirical way.

Ateke-Enade said that beyond health factors, the pollution from oil and gas was a threat to the traditional fishing occupation of coastal communities in the Niger Delta.

Ateke-Enade, who spoke about the overview and sources of pollution, enjoined the participants to share experience with participants from other communities to protect the environment. A resource person and foremost environmentalist, Mr. Alagoa Morris, who spoke about monitoring techniques, urged the participants to harness the potential on their smartphones, which are embedded with valuable features.

He noted that smartphones and other inexpensive devices had inbuilt capacity to indicate the precise location and coordinate pollution incident sites, which were required to give credibility to the report.

Morris said that the ongoing leak at Aiteo’s Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 was made public by a video footage shot by a fisherman, who shared the incident on the social media.

He hailed HOMEF for its advocacy for the environment by conducting the second training within the year in Bayelsa in addition to similar campaigns in other states of the Niger Delta.

He noted that the training was timely, as it coincided with two ongoing pollution in two adjoining local governments in Bayelsa State.

A participant from Koluama 1 in Southern Ijaw Local Government, Chief Arthur Frank, sharing his experience, mentioned the Funiwa fields where the rig blow-out of 2012 was still releasing gas bubbles intermittently.

The Chairman, United Fishing Union of Sangana, Mr. Ikonikumo Noel, lamented that the ongoing gas leak at Conoil’s facility near Sangana had crippled fishing, with oil workers evacuated from the platform.

“The leakage and pollution have poisoned the waters and made the environment too toxic for fishes to survive. We were forced to leave the waters. The company has evacuated oil workers and left the community to grapple with the situation,” he said.

Residents of Benin-Sapele Road in Edo State have protested the poor state of the road.

They said the road, a Federal Government highway, has been abandoned for three years, adding that it is the major way that connects Benin in Edo State with Warri in Delta State.

The protest, which has been on for the past five days, has worsened, as residents and commuters have blocked the road.

A source, who simply identified himself as Mr. Osas, said: “This protest has been on for the past five days. The road is bad, causing accidents. Trucks have killed several people in our community. Every week, we witness increase in the number of dead people on the road. The situation is getting out of hand. If the road is not fixed, we will not call off the protest.”

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Another resident, Raymond Okharu, said: “I’m a resident of Benin-Sapele Road. The road has become a nightmare to residents. Sometimes when we are going to office, we spend two to three hours and then coming back we spend close to four hours.

“We have agreed that we are going to be here till the Federal Government hears our cry. We have written several letters to the presidency. We have written to the minister of Works. On November 12, I wrote to the Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola. It was sent through DHL in Abuja and I tracked it to make sure it was signed for. Up till now we have not heard anything.”

Samuel Agbolao, a doctor, who lives on the road, said: “I work with the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH). I spend more than four hours to get to office from my house on Benin-Sapele Road. It is annoying. I’m tired of the situation.”

Former governor of Imo State Senator Rochas Okorocha has urged Inspector General of Police to investigate Governor Hope Uzodimma’s allegation that he is behind insecurity in the state.

Governor Hope Uzodimma had accused Senator Rochas Okorocha of being behind the ugly and worrisome Security Situation in Imo State.

The former governor on Saturday described Uzodimma’s statement as unguarded accusation.

Okorocha in a statement he released by his Special Adviser on media, Sam Onwuemeodo said “Okorocha had, out of genuine and patriotic Concern about  the Security Challenges of the State, which he governed for eight years and Orlu zone in particular, of which , he is the Senator, raised the issue at the Senate plenary.”

He added “Okorocha had called for the intervention of the Senate and other relevant bodies and persons, all in an effort to see how to end the lingering security problem in Imo.

“One had expected the Imo governor, to even Commend Okorocha for drawing the attention of the red chamber of the National Assembly to what has been going on in Imo, in terms of security challenges.

Instead of taking that path, the lmo  governor decided to take the route of abuses and propaganda against his brother Senator, who had governed the State before him and who is also the Senator of his Zone. He should have collaborated Okorocha’s fresh ideas on the floor of the Senate, on how to solve the Imo Security problem.

“The good news is that, Nigerians in general and Imo people in particular, know Okorocha and his history. He has the history of peace, harmony and unity. The history of uplifting life and building the Nation. The history of tolerance. He has Conviviality as a guide or principle.

“We would rather urge the Imo Governor to see every Imo man and woman as a Stakeholder in the Imo project. And carry everybody along to see how best, to bring out the long known peaceful State from the Current quagmire. This is not what Imo was known for. And all hands must be on deck, to get the problem solved. It does not require muscle-flexing. Or push me, I push you.

“Having said all these, it is our candid request, that the Inspector-General of Police  and other concerned security agencies,  should investigate the Imo governor’s accusation against Okorocha, with the aim  of finding out the truth or otherwise of this costly accusation. We would also delight that the outcome of their findings be made public, in due course.

“Okorocha governed Imo for eight years and ensured enviable peace, water-tight Security, bubbling and lively State and would not imagine or have any reason to dream of encouraging security collapse in his dear State. This is not possible and can never be possible.

The National Coordinator of Ijaw Mandate Group, under the People’s Democratic Party PDP, Hon. Dagidi Andaye, has alleged to have escaped assassination attempt by suspected gunmen at his residence in Iwhrekpokpor, Ughelli North local area of Delta state.

The assassination attempt came few days after the Ijaw group had endorsed Delta Central Senatorial District for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 2023 governorship at Mosogar, Ethiope West local government area of the state.

While narrating the incident to newsmen, at his Ughelli residence, Andaye said at the early hours of last Wednesday, at about 3am in the morning, he heard noises outside his compound, and when he peeped through the window, he saw some suspected gunmen about seven, trying to force their way into his house through the gate.

Andaye said when all attempts to have access to the house failed, that they started shooting sporadically at the gate, but were lucky over the intervention of the Ughelli Area Commander and other security agents who quickly responded to their calls and scared them away.

The group leader opined that he was suspicious that the failed attack could be connected to their previous supports and endorsement for the Urhobo 2023 governorship lobby group, DC-23 under the leadership of Chief Ighoyota Amori, adding that the whole drama came up when he started receiving threat calls, and friends advising him not to sleep in his home with his family.

Speaking further, Andaye said, “I believe strongly that the assassins were sympathisers of Ijaw nation for 2023 governorship, but they have failed. I want to tell the whole world that we are not scared of what has happened but it has rather emboldened me and my members of the group.

“The police is already on top of the issues and l know that the suspects will soon be arrested and their sponsors would be uncovered. We the members of the IMG are more of Ijaws than those sympathisers of Ijaw governorship ambition. The situation where if it is not you, it should not be any other person should be discouraged.

“The ljaw group under my leadership can no longer be deceived. We have long been deceived by people who claim to be contesting thereafter you see them doing something else, if not why didn’t these people support bonafide sons of Ijaw that contested in 2014.

“The same persons that told them then that Delta State is being governed on basis of senatorial district are the ones trying to disrupt the peaceful process. What has happened to that process that they are saying it is the turn of Ijaw Nation.

“Their ambition is a ploy to truncate the turn of Ijaw come 2031 Urhobo of Delta Central, 2023, which we all know at that time the younger generation would have grown to contest for in Delta South Senatorial district covering three major tribes of Itsekiri, Isoko and Ijaw, but since Itsekiri has had its first which produces Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, l think it will be turn of Ijaw and Isoko nations come 2031.”