The Nation Newspaper

Category: Southeast report

  • Tragedy as woman dies in concubine’s matrimonial home in Imo 

    Tragedy as woman dies in concubine’s matrimonial home in Imo 

    Our Reporter

     

    TRAGEDY struck on Thursday in Owerri, the Imo State capital as an unidentified lady reportedly died in the matrimonial home of her concubine.

    The incident which occurred at MCC Road area of the state capital caused panic in the area.

    A source who preferred anonymity told journalists that the man brought her mistress to his matrimonial home after taking his wife and children to the village for the new year celebration.

    The source said: “The man took his family to the village, came back and took his mistress to a function. They attended a function together before going to his house. “

    “The mistress died later in the man’s house in the midnight.

    “The man has been arrested with the corpse evacuated.”

    The police spokesperson in the state, Orlando Ikeokwu, confirmed the incident.

    He said that investigation had commenced, with the view of revealing the cause of the death.

  • Ugwuanyi preaches peace, inaugurates panel on Oruku crisis

    Ugwuanyi preaches peace, inaugurates panel on Oruku crisis

    Innocent Duru

     

    ENUGU State governor,  Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has urged the people of Oruku Community in Nkanu East Local Government Area to stay the course of peace, which his administration has strived to entrench and nurture in the state.

    Ugwuanyi’s peace call followed the recent crisis that erupted in Oruku, which led to the killing of the traditional ruler of the community, late Igwe Emmanuel Chidiebere Mba.

    Speaking during the inauguration of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry constituted by his administration to investigate and ascertain the remote and immediate causes of the crisis, Ugwuanyi said that the government and people of the state received the sad news of the incident with a rude shock.

    Members of the newly inaugurated Commission, headed by Justice Harold Eya, are HRH Igwe Amb. Lawrence Agubuzu, Prof. Den Chris Onah, Barr. Anthony Ogbu, Dr. Mrs. Chinwe Onah, Dr. Godwin Anigbo (Secretary) and Barr. Paschal Okoloagu (Counsel for the Commission).

    The governor  disclosed that the state government in the wake of the crisis swiftly directed deployment of security operatives to Oruku Community to stem the mayhem and forestall further loss of lives and destruction of property.

    Read Also: Ugwuanyi, Diri, Abiodun salute Christians at Christmas

    Reiterating his administration’s commitment to the security and welfare of the people, which is the primary purpose of government as enshrined in the constitution of Nigeria, Ugwuanyi acknowledged the efforts of the Chairman of Nkanu East LGA as well as the sincere concern shown by all the traditional rulers in the council area towards the restoration of peace in Oruku.

    The terms of reference of the panel constituted by Gov. Ugwuanyi, pursuant to Section 4(1) of the Commission of Inquiry Law, Cap. 24, Revised Laws of Enugu State 2004, include to ascertain the number of persons killed or injured, identify persons, group or institutions who either by acts or omissions were directly or indirectly involved in, or sponsored the crisis, and investigate any other matter(s) that may come to the knowledge of the Panel in the course of the inquiry, not covered in these terms of reference.

  • We will resist attempts to desecrate IYC, other institutions, says Egbesu

    We will resist attempts to desecrate IYC, other institutions, says Egbesu

    Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt     

     

    IJAW religious organisation, the Sacred Order of Egbesu Brotherhood, has warned against attempts by desperate politicians to rubbish respected Ijaw institutions, especially the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide.

    Rising from their meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Friday, members and leaders of the brotherhood, described the office of the IYC president as consecrated and called on all stakeholders to respect any person occupying the office.

    The leader of Egbesu Brotherhood, Apostle Bodmas Kemepadei, pledged the organisation’s allegiance to all Ijaw traditional stools and the leader of the IYC, Peter Timothy Igbifa.

    Bodmas said: “We wish to recall the memory of Ijaw youths to the painstaking sacrifices of our fathers during the formative days of the IYC. The IYC is a product of Egbesu and it is a sacred institution to us. The office of the President is a consecrated seat and as Ijaw people we will defend that office with honour.

    “The President of the IYC is the commander-in-chief of all Ijaw youths. Any attempt to disparage, demean, desecrate, usurp or treat that office with total disregard by anyone or group of persons will be met with stiff resistance.

    “We once again remind Ijaw people that the current president is a product of sleepless nights and collective resolve of Ijaw people after years of disunity, and so usurpers will not be tolerated to thwart this efforts”.

    Bodmas called on aggrieved persons to employ internal mechanisms to resolve conflicts in IYC and stop ridiculing the image of the council and trying to publicly demean the office of the council’s president  for their pecuniary gains.

    He said: “The office of the IYC president is sacred. The International Oil Companies (IOCs), the Federal Government and all other institutions should bear in mind that the words of the president of IYC are power. He commands authority and respect. If he commands, Ijaw nation follows. The political leaders, agencies, ministries, must show respect to the president of council.”

  • Anambra monarch dies seven days after Obiano lifted his suspension

    Anambra monarch dies seven days after Obiano lifted his suspension

    Nwanosike Onu, Awka 

     

    ONE of the first class traditional rulers in Anambra State, whose suspension was lifted seven days ago,  Igwe Nkeli Nzekwe Kelly  is reportedly dead.

    He was the traditional ruler of Igbariam, Anambra East Local Government Area. He was over 70 years old.

    He was among the 13 monarchs suspended on August 2020 for travelling to Abuja to see President Muhammadu Buhari without permission from the Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano.

    The suspension was lifted at the wee  hour of December 31st 2020, by the governor.

    Nzekwe Kelly, was also, Chairman, Board of Trustees of the splinter Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide General Assembly

    Before his sudden death on January 7, he had celebrated his 30th ofala festival on January 4.

    While confirming his demise to The Nation yesterday, one of the traditional rulers, who pleaded anonymity, said it was a sad situation

    Also, one of the  community leaders from Igbariam, said that other details  about Nkelly ‘s demise would be announced in due course by concerned authority, warning  that he should not be quoted

  • ‘Anambra tired of comic governance’

    ‘Anambra tired of comic governance’

    Emma Elekwa, Onitsha

     

    THE Anambra G-24, a group of faithful within the Anambra State All Progressives Congress (APC), has pledged its readiness entrench an APC-led government in 2022.

    The body said it was tired with the comic and directionless governance, where state affairs are piloted from night clubs.

    A statement on Thursday by its Coordinator, Igboeli Napoleon, said the group was formed by the need to ensure a paradigm shift in Anambra politics, and change the narrative of governance.

    Read Also: Truck driver kills pedestrian in Anambra

    It explained that the meeting centred on party growth, unity and the determination to ensure fairness and equity played out in the party primaries.

    The statement reads: “The major preoccupation of the G-24 is to flip Anambra to the APC in 2021. To do that, the group will embark on aggressive membership drive as the party’s membership registration starts on January 25.

    “The G-24 will work to ensure the APC fields a popular, competent and innovative candidate to make the job of mobilising Ndi Anambra to vote for the APC easier. We all know that the people are tired of the comic and directionless governance. We need to take back our state and bring the APC governance template to Anambra.”

    Deputy State Coordinator Michael Okoye described the group’s assignment as straightforward, insisting that only credible and competent candidate, who emerges through a free and transparent primary, would give APC victory in the poll.

     

  • Court orders release of Anambra community leader

    Court orders release of Anambra community leader

     Emma Elekwa, Onitsha

     

    JUSTICE M.N. Okonkwo of the Anambra State High Court has ordered the release of a community leader, Elder Emma Nwasor, of Obunasator, Nibo, Awka South Local Government Area, from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) custody.

    Nwasor was arrested on December 16, 2020, at a bank.

    His lawyer, Mike Ikegbunam, raised the alarm five days after Nwasor’s arrest. He insisted that Nwasor was granted bail but the EFCC claimed the Army tool him to Abuja.

    Ikegbunam approached the court to seek Nwasor’s release, and an interim injunction restraining EFCC and its officials from further harassment or arrest.

    Read Also: Anambra CP to 21 promoted officers: up your games

    Applicants in the matter are Emma Nwasor and six other leaders of Obunasator community, while the respondents are the Inspector General of Police (IG), Commissioner of Police, EFCC chairman, Zonal head of EFCC and seven others.

    Ikegbunam said: “Though I didn’t receive any petition by EFCC as reason for my client’s arrest, but he earlier told me they were investigating huge sums of money that came into his account and how he spent it. As a community leader, his account is mostly used to execute projects in the town.”

    Justice Okonkwo, in his judgment, said: “The interim order is hereby made restraining the respondents, their officers and agents, privies or whoever, from arresting, threatening to arrest or detaining, continuing to harass or intimidate the applicant in respect of the issue that gave rise to this application.

    “The respondents are hereby ordered to release the first applicant on bail or alternatively produce him in court in the next adjourned date to show cause why he should not be admitted to bail.”

  • Community begs Obiano to recognise monarch

    Community begs Obiano to recognise monarch

     Emma Elekwa, Onitsha

     

    THE Ogbunka Community in Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State have raised alarm over plots by certain persons to compel Governor Willie Obiano to issue certificate of recognition to in imposter.

    They appealed to the governor to issue the certificate to Forster Ihejiofor who was unanimously nominated and elected as Igwe of Ogbunka.

    In a 13-point appeal letter by the President-General Ogbunka Development Union (ODU), Chief Emmanuel Okoro, and over 233 indigenes, the people said recognising anyone else as the monarch would plunge the peaceful town into crisis. They maintained that they deserved the right to pick their monarch.

    The statement reads: “As a peaceful community, we plead with Governor Willie Obiano not to issue certificate of recognition to any person who parades himself as the traditional ruler. Ogbunka community prides itself as a peaceful community, and we want Governor Obiano to help us sustain this peaceful coexistence.

    “This appeal is necessary given the fact that the imposter has been boasting that the governor has already written his certificate of recognition. He is also boasting that the Catholic and Anglican churches are pushing his cause.

    Read Also: Between Obiano and ‘little’ Luli

    “Ogbunka has existed harmoniously irrespective of religious affiliation, and selecting the traditional ruler should not be different from the way we have been doing our things as brothers.

    “However, if anybody is in doubt of our collective resolve in picking Ihejiofor as our Igwe-elect, the governor can send observers to conduct fresh election using the option A-4, as a repeat of the election will help determine the popular candidate among the aspirants.

    “We thank Governor Obiano for his ingenuity and prowess in the administration of justice, and we hope Ogbunka will get her own justice.”

     

  • Court strikes out suit by surveillance contractors

    Court strikes out suit by surveillance contractors

     Simon Utebor, Yenagoa

     

    A BAYELSA State High Court on Thursday struck out 12 suits by surveillance contractors engaged at the Nembe Creek oilfields operated by Aiteo Eastern Exploration Limited.

    The surveillance contractors, who are members of the firm’s host communities at Opu-Nembe, sued Aiteo for alleged breach of contract.

    The claimants – Nicholas Ebiye, Johnson Theophilus, and 10 others – filed the suit to seek legal redress over perceived injustice and malicious punishment meted to the Opu-Nembe surveillance contractors by Aiteo.

    Justice L.M. Boufini, in a ruling on the suit to strike out the case for lack of jurisdiction due to an arbitration clause in the lapsed 2015 contract, agreed that arbitration should be the primary mechanism for resolving any dispute from the contract.

    The judge held that the arbitration clause in the contract did not oust the court jurisdiction, but since both parties had agreed to adopt arbitration, he could not entertain the case at the first instance until the arbitration option was exhausted.

    Read Also: Gas pipeline explodes in Port Harcourt  

    He said: “I have listened carefully to submissions by lawyers for both parties, and it is clear that what is before me is to determine whether the arbitration clause in the contract entered by both parties can oust the jurisdiction of this court to entertain this suit…

    “The wording of this clause is key such that if the covenant is framed such that there will be no cause of action until after an arbitration, then the parties must arbitrate before seeking remedy in court.

    “In the instant case, article 12.1 of the contract states that any dispute arising from this contract that cannot be amicably resolved shall be referred to and finally be resolved by arbitration.”

    He said in the circumstance, arbitration is a condition precedent to any court action and subsequently struck out the case.

    Aiteo, an indigenous firm, acquired the OML 29, from Shell Petroleum Development Company in 2015. The divestment by Shell transferred its equity and interest in OML 29 and transferred its interest, including the 97 kilometre Nembe Creek Trunk Line that transports crude Bonny export terminal for $1.7 billion dollars, to Aiteo.

  • Coalition warns against intimidating Akpabio, NDDC administrator

    Coalition warns against intimidating Akpabio, NDDC administrator

    Bassey Anthony, Uyo and Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt

     

    NIGER Delta Conscience Coalition (NDCC) has admonished Ijaw youths against intimidating appointees from Akwa Ibom State heading the Niger Delta affairs.

    The group specifically warned that no harm should come to the Niger Delta Minister Godswill Akpabio, and interim administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Effiong Akwa.

    President of NDCC Aniefiok Obot, who addressed a news conference in Uyo yesterday, said the antagonism expressed by Ijaw youths against Akwa’s appointment was ‘uncalled for, sectional, divisive and unacceptable’.

    The group said it would not watch certain groups, sections and communities in other Niger Delta states ‘harass’ Akpabio and Akwa and other appointees from Akwa Ibom.

    He said: “This group takes exception to the entitlement attitude displayed by certain groups, sections and communities against and towards our appointed representatives in running the Niger Delta, whether it is at the centre or at the regional level of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    “The voiceless and faceless orchestrators of anarchy towards Akpabio and Akwa should either desist or think twice because sometimes the lion that would consume the deer may not even be the one that roars.

    “We are watching events keenly, and no harm should come to the persons and offices of both men through these orchestrated protest or their faceless sponsors.”

    The group pledged its unalloyed support to the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, and urged all Niger Delta people to align with Akpabio and Akwa to move the region forward.

    The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Akpakip Oro Special Chapter (Eastern Zone), has congratulated Akwa on his appointment as Sole Administrator of the NDDC.

    The group described Akwa’s appointment as well deserved, and praised President Muhammadu Buhari for giving such responsibility to a member of the council.

    A statement by Vice Chairman Christian Okponung, and Secretary Samuel Edem, said Akwa’s appointment was in recognition of his dedication and meritorious service to the country.

    Read Also: N/Delta students oppose IYC’s protest against NDDC boss

    It reads: “The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), Akpakip Oro Special Chapter (Eastern Zone), congratulates our own son and member of the council, Effiong Akwa, as the Sole Administrator of the NDDC. We also thank President Buhari for the well-deserved appointment.”

    An Akwa Ibom-based activist, Steve Ntukekpo, has urged the Federal Government to tighten security around Akwa.

    Ntukekpo, in a statement yesterday, said Akwa should be protected from danger which may emanate from threats by those opposed to his appointment.

    According to him, the recent orgy of protests against Akwa, and invasion of the Ministry of Delta Affairs Secretariat in Abuja, by the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), was distasteful and against the spirit and unity of the Niger Delta.

    He said: “…the so called protest is laced in the garbs of small-mindedness, micro-ethnic blindness, and reckless sense of entitlement from a sect which is a fraction in the Niger Delta mix.

    “It also portrays the fact that those who partook in that kangaroo ‘chasing out’ do not have any inkling of what constitutes the Niger Delta, but blindly acting out scripts of their sponsors whose illegal racketeering had been halted with Akpabio’s sincere intentions to clear the Augean stables of corruption and funds diversion in the Niger Delta affairs.”

  • ‘Port Harcourt DisCo didn’t sack workers’

    ‘Port Harcourt DisCo didn’t sack workers’

    Agency Reporter

    The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) has denied rumours that it sacked some workers from its offices in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers states on December 30, 2020.

    Acting Manager (Corporate Communications) Mrs. Chioma Aninwe refuted the assertion in a statement on Wednesday.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) had threatened to take action following the alleged sack of its members.

    The union described the sack as an injustice, and accused PHED management of failing to abide by a 2020 agreement.

    But Aninwe said PHED did not sack any worker. She described SSAEAC’s position as misleading and a misinformation.

    She said: “Contrary to the misinformation being circulated, PHED management had already paid the full terminal benefits to optimised staff. The company commits to upholding the values of its Condition of Service, and as such, all concerned staff at the time of this release would have had their accounts credited.

    “Aside this, PHED has earmarked a large number of staff who have distinguished themselves for promotion before the end of first quarter of 2021.”

    The PHED spokesperson said the Condition of Service between the distribution company, SSAEAC and the other unions was testament of the importance the current management attached to staff welfare.

    According to her, the management is determined to change the narrative by improving staff welfare and delivering quality service to customers.

    “In 2020, PHED embarked on organisational repositioning to deliver first class services to customers in line with its vision of becoming the number one distribution company in Nigeria. To achieve this, we launched a series of initiatives, including engagement of over 400 workers. We also resolved staff profile by a mix of early retirement and staff optimisation…”