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Tag: Delta

  • Appeal Court orders tribunal to hear LP’s petition in Delta governorship dispute

    Appeal Court orders tribunal to hear LP’s petition in Delta governorship dispute

    The Court of Appeal in Abuja has ordered the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to hear, on merit, a petition filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate in the last election, Ken Pela, challenging the election of Sheriff Oborevwori of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    A three-member panel of the appellate court held, in a judgment on Thursday, August 31, that as against the finding of the tribunal, Pela and his party did not abandon their petition, marked: EPT/DL/GOV/01/2023.

    The court then ordered the petition back to the tribunal for hearing within the time stipulated in the Electoral Act.

    The judgment was on the appeal marked: CA/AS/EP/GOV/DL/04/2023, filed by Pela and his party against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and six others.

    LP’s Pela, who came third behind Oborevwori and Senator Ovie Omo-Agege of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had challenged the outcome of the election and prayed the tribunal to among others, void Oborevwori’s return as the winner.

    Read Also: Obi’s PCC Bayelsa coordinator dumps LP for PDP

    In a judgment on July 6, the tribunal, with Justice C. H. Achuchaogu as chairman, held that the petition was deemed abandoned on the grounds that the petitioners’ application for pre-hearing session was not properly filed.

    The tribunal proceeded to dismiss it l, holding among others, that “the petition was incompetent and a flagrant violation of Paragraph 18(1) of the 4th Schedule to the Electoral Act 2023.”

  • UPDATED: Police arrest 67 suspected homosexuals in Delta

    UPDATED: Police arrest 67 suspected homosexuals in Delta

    The police command in Delta has arrested 67 persons suspected to be homosexuals in Ekpan Community in Uvwie Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

    The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Wale Abass, said this when he addressed newsmen on Tuesday at the Ekpan Police Station.

    Represented, by the spokesperson for the command, DSP Bright Edafe, Abass said that the suspects were apprehended on Sunday by a crack team of police operatives attached to the Ekpan division.

    He said that the suspects were nabbed during a gay wedding which they tagged, “all white party” at a popular hotel off Refinery Road, Uvwie LGA.

    He vowed to prosecute the suspects in line with Nigeria’s anti-gay law which prohibited same-sex marriage in the country.

    “On Aug. 27 at about 9;00 p.m., the patrol team of the Ekpan Police Station, while on a patrol intercepted a male cross-dresser suspect who claimed to be an actor.

    Read Also: Kwara police CP declares man wanted over threat to lives of Isese adherents

    “Upon interrogation, he confessed that he is a member of a certain gay club and that he was on his way to join his fellow members for a gay marriage ceremony.

    “Acting on intelligence gathered, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Ekpan division, CSP Aliyu Shaba, raided the hotel where some suspected gay members were holding a gay marriage ceremony,” he said.

    Abass said that the suspects upon sighting the police took to their heels, saying however, that the operatives were able to apprehend 67 of them

    “Same sex marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013 kicked against gay in Nigeria. It is a grievous office.

    “We cannot copy the culture of the Western world and we must follow the rules of our land. Anti-gay law has been passed in Nigeria, no resident of the land has the right to go against the laws of the land.

    “I can guarantee that they will be charged to court. We are not taking it lightly. It is a clear case, though, they are still presumed innocent until proven otherwise by the competent court,” he said.

    The CP urged parents to monitor their wards closely in order to know the type of people they associated with.

    He said that the arrest and subsequent arraigning the suspects in court would served as a warning to others who may want to indulge in the illicit act.

    He said that items recovered at the venue included: one codeine bottle, three cups of refined Canadian loud, five sachets of SK, one sachet of tramadol, four tablets of molly drug, one crusher and gay marriage ceremonial dresses.

    Speaking, one of the suspect, Daniel Pius said he was a fashion designer and not a gay.

    “I am not a gay, I am a fashion designer, I do makeup and other things that relate to female attires,” he said.

    (NAN)

  • Troops destroy eight illegal refineries, 14 crude oil storage tanks in Delta

    Troops destroy eight illegal refineries, 14 crude oil storage tanks in Delta

    Troops of the 6 Division Nigerian Army have destroyed eight active ovens used for illegally refining stolen crude oil at Ogbokoko and Atu in Warri South Local Government Area (LGA) of Delta State.

    The troops also destroyed 14 storage reservoirs containing stolen crude oil estimated at 200,000 litres and 90,000 litres of locally refined Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) in the area.

    Army spokesperson, Brig.-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu disclosed in a statement yesterday that the illegal refining sites were destroyed during an anti-oil theft operation on Wednesday, August 23 in line with extant guidelines of Operation Delta Safe. 

    Nwachukwu said the thieves fled the scene on sighting the advancement of troops.

    “Investigation is ongoing to arrest the fleeing criminals,” he said.

    The army spokesperson urged the public to report any suspected act of sabotage or criminality to security agencies “to enhance ongoing operations to curb economic sabotage in the country.”

  • Oil thieves flee as troops destroy illegal refinery in Delta

    Oil thieves flee as troops destroy illegal refinery in Delta

    Troops of 6 Division, Nigerian Army destroyed eight active ovens used for refining of stolen crude oil around Ogbokoko and Atu in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta on Wednesday.

    The troops also destroyed 14 reservoirs containing an estimated 200,000 litres of stolen crude oil and 90,000 litres of diesel, Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, stated on Thursday in Abuja.

    He stated that the destruction was conducted in a swoop on the area by troops conducting anti-oil theft operations.

    Read Also: Ukraine says special operation troops landed in Crimea

    Nwachukwu added that the oil thieves fled upon sighting the advancement of troops.

    “The illegal refining site was destroyed in line with extant guidelines of `Operation Delta Safe’. Investigation is on-going to arrest the fleeing criminals.

    “Members of the public are implored to report any suspected act of sabotage or criminality to security agencies to enhance on-going operations to curb economic sabotage in the country,’’ Nwachukwu stated. (NAN)

  • Delta approves 19 tech schools

    Delta State Government has approved the establishment of 19 Technical and Vocational Colleges.

    The state already has six technical schools running in the three senatorial districts.

    The additional 19 will ensure that a technical school will be established in each of the state’s 25 local government areas.

    The Deputy Governor, Kingsley Otuaro, announced the new schools during the conference of the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN).

    Otuaro noted that preference is placed on technical and vocational colleges in the state to ensure the schools are upgraded and curriculum approved by the authority, adding that this will add value to the state in job creation.

    Otuaro said plans were in place by the government to organise an international conference to tackle the problem of oil spillage in communities affected by illegal oil bunkering in Delta State.

    Earlier, the President of APWEN, Mrs. Nnenna Agubata, said that the association had awarded scholarship to 81 female pupils from the six geo-political zones, including Bauchi, Edo, Ogun, Kano, Anambra, Kogi and Borno states, saying that the scholarship would run from primary school to university with a career in engineering sponsored by NNPC.

    Mrs Nnenna said APWEN is the umbrella body of female engineers, scientists, technologist and mathematicians in Nigeria with a mission to increase awareness that engineering is a career for girls.

    The highlight of the event was the presentation of awards to distinguished people in the engineering sector

  • Why Eastern ports are not viable, by NPA boss

    The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Hajia Hadiza Bala Usman has given fresh insight on why the nation’s eastern port has remained unviable for business.

    The NPA has two ports including the Western port which comprises Apapa and Tincan Island ports while the Eastern port is made up of Calabar, Delta and Port Harcourt, respectively.

    Speaking in an interview with The Nation, the NPA boss said a number of factors may be responsible for the general lull in business at the Eastern port.

    Specifically, she said the challenge with the eastern port is the issue of draft limitation. “As you are aware, our Calabar Port has a draft limitation. Hitherto, I inherited a Joint Venture for the Calabar Channel Management Dredge and that was a big issue that we had to cancel. It’s an ongoing investigation about an unverifiable dredging works. So we have started another process. But it translated into huge volumes to the extent that we are looking at spending about N45-50billion on dredging of Calabar Port.”

    Pressed further, she said, “Delta is also one of our Eastern Ports, and it has a limited draft because of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPPC) Pipelines that have been buried in that location. So in the last year, at the end of 2018, we got approval to dredge the Escravos Bay, which permitted a depth of about 7.5metres that would enable vessels to that side. So we can go deeper than that because of the NNPC pipelines that are buried there. We are discussing with the NNPPC and I remember saying to the GMD that let us start the process of relocating the pipelines. It may not happen in a year or two years or five years but we must understand that that location requires deeper depth and start the process of relocating the pipelines.”

    The Port Harcourt Port, she declared, “is in a bad state. We have commissioned a condition survey. They have submitted a report which will determine the totality of investment into that Port Harcourt Port because it has reached its limits in terms of utilisation. So the conditional survey had provided what is required. So we need to literally build new kits, new infrastructure, in that place. And when we look at what is expected of the vessels type that would come globally now, do you want to invest in this kind of port now when you can invest in deep seaports to enable you now reach where you want to go. Onne Port is in a good state. We have the attendant draft required and it’s a port that usually has a lot of oil and gas cargo and transactions so every other activity there is available, they have a private container terminal that is operating there. So this is the summary of what the Eastern Port entails right now.”

    She was however quick to add that “One of the other things that I forgot to mention about the Eastern Port is charge on insurance cost. The vessels that are coming to the Eastern Port for example, have to have war insurance for coming into the place because there are lots of piracy and even besides insurance, they have to pay money for private security. That is one issue that is responsible for the unviability of the Eastern Port as it relates to the shipping industry.”

    • Full text of interview on pages 10 & 11

  • Human trafficking: 20,000 Edo, Delta girls in Mali, says NAPTIP

    The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) said about 20,000 trafficked girls from Edo and Delta are currently in Mali for prostitution.

    Its Benin Zonal Commander, Nduka Nwanwenne, said this yesterday at Okpekpe, Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo, during the “I’m not for Sale” campaign in the area.

    Nwanwenne said though human trafficking was a global issue, recent statistics revealed that it was more prevalent in Edo and Delta.

    The zonal commander in charge of Edo and Delta, also said though there were other reasons for human trafficking, prostitution was the most common.

    He said since 2004 when NAPTIP was established in the state, about 50 ladies of Etsako extraction had been returned to Nigeria from other countries.

    Read Also: Woman arrested for forcing daughter into prostitution

    Nwanwenne added that an organ harvesting was the latest angle to human trafficking.

    He said in view of this, there was need for protection of the children and youths.

    The zonal commander, who also said human trafficking occurred internationally and locally, revealed that in the next few weeks, the agency would raid suspected hotels in the state where the act took place.

    He said the agency had beamed its searchlight on hotels in the zone for some time now and had a list of suspected ones.

    Meanwhile, Mrs Blessing Eshilama, the Ughwuede of Okpekpe and NAPTIP’s partner on the sensitisation programme, said that trafficking in women was a new form of slavery.

    Eshilama also said extant literature had shown that human trafficking in the country thrived  as a result of deep-rooted system failure.

    She stressed that there was urgent need to prevent human trafficking and sexual exploitation of youths and children, especially girls.

    “The life of every Okpekpe son and daughter matters; no Okpekpe indigene should fall for the tricks these human traffickers employ,” she said.

  • Teenager strangled to death in Delta

    An 18-year old girl, identified as Favour Ogheneyenrowho, has been reportedly strangled to death by suspected ritualists in Abraka, Ethiope-East council area of Delta State. The incident has thrown the community into serious tension.

    The Nation gathered that the victim’s pubic hairs were shaved off before, she was murdered and her remains kept in a “Ghana-must-Go” bag which was disposed at a dump site behind Ozoro park in the town. Witnesses said there were violent marks around her neck area, indicating that she was violently strangulated.

    Ogheneyenrowho hailed from Ughere in Abraka Community. Recounting the incident leading to the teenager’s demise, Maureen Sunday, her elder sister, told the police that Favour had received a call from a male at about 10 a.m, requesting that she met him at the Abraka Park.

    She, however, replied the caller that she was going to the market with her elder sister. Sunday added that on their way out of their residence located along Winners Road, a young man, whom she had never seen before (whom she believed was the same person that called her sister earlier), boarded a motorcycle that stopped at the junction and approached them.

    Read Also: DPO, girlfriend arrested over death of housemaid

    A short conversation ensued between them and her late sister, Favour, joined him on the bike and they rode off, even as she called after her to return early. Unfortunately, it was the shocking news of her sister, dead and tied with ropes in a sack that reached her the following day. When contacted, the Delta State Police Commissioner, Mr. Adeyinka Adeleke, explained that what had been discovered so far revealed that the killing of the victim was more of a murder case and not ritual killing.

    The police boss also revealed that the suspected killer, who is believed to be Favour’s boyfriend, has since been on the run, adding that the state police command was already on his trail. “The lady in question was with the sister and she had a call. When she wanted to leave, she told her sister that it’s her boyfriend that she wanted to go and see. After some time she disappeared, they did not see her.

    The next day they saw her body tied in a sack in a plantain/ banana plantation and her boyfriend runaway. So it is not a ritual, but a murder case. Signs on her body show that she was strangulated,” he explained.

  • Two suspected robbers mobbed to death in Delta

    Two suspected armed robbers were on Tuesday beaten to death by an angry mob in Abraka community, Ethiope East council area of Delta State.

    The suspects; Uchenna Ezekonyi, 27 years, and Mbachu Sunday, 30 years, were reportedly beaten to death after a failed robbery attack one Moses Emoghene.

    The deceased suspects, who are from from Oguta in Imo State, had snatched a polythene bag containing the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira (N250,000) from Emoghene, who had withdrawn the cash from the Zenith Bank branch in Abraka.

    Read Also: Police nab suspected robbers in Ondo

    Events went wrong for the suspects when Emoghene, who had drawn the cash on behalf of the parish priest of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, raised the alarm as he was being attacked by the duo.

    The mob that responded descended heavily on the suspects, beating them so badly that the two of them died before the rescuing policemen could get them to the hospital.

    When contacted, the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adeyinka Adeleke, confirmed the report, saying, “yes. It happened”.

  • Shell inspires, supports 6,659 youths in Bayelsa, Delta

    The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has produced 6,659 entrepreneurs in Bayelsa and Delta states through its enterprise development programme launched in 2003. SPDC’s General Manager, External Relations, Mr. Igo Weli, who spoke in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital during a graduation and award ceremony of a new set of beneficiaries said the programme was part of the company’s efforts to solve the problem of youth restiveness in the Niger Delta.

    Weli, who was represented at the colourful event by the SPDC’s External Relations Manager, Swamp West and EA Fields, Evans Krukrubo, said the scheme was instituted to provide alternative incomes to youths.

    He said: “The graduation and award ceremony of the southern swamp associated gas solution enterprise development programme is an initiative targeted at the 23 impacted communities of the Southern Swamp Associated Gas Solution (SSAGS) project in Bayelsa and Delta states.

    “The programme was aimed at inspiring and supporting youths to start their own businesses or expand existing ones. We do this by providing the beneficiaries the requisite training and start-up finance in the belief that legitimate alternative livelihood will enable young men and women to refuse the lure of vices.

    “This enterprise development programme is the flagship of our youth enterprise development programmes and was launched in Nigeria in 2003. The Shell Enterprise Development Programme has now produced 6,580 Niger Delta entrepreneurs, most of whom are employers of labour.

    Read Also: Shell spends N150m on Bonny youths’ capacity devt

    “Some of the beneficiaries are also given the opportunity to play in SPDCs supply chain as vendors and are provided with access to growth capital. With these new graduates, I am happy to announce that the number of Shell enterprise development programme beneficiaries has gone up by 79.

    “These beneficiaries from the SSAGS programme went through the entrepreneurship training, wrote business plans; pitched their business ideas and finally the 49 best performing beneficiaries have been selected”.

    Well said the SPDC injected N2.2 billion into the SSAGS area for community development as top-up funds for the Community Cluster Development Boards in Bayelsa and Delta states.

    He added: “This programme is one of the proof points of the foresight in setting up the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) model for project delivery to our host communities.

    “This model has proved quite successful as a vehicle for meeting the needs of the people as it engenders co-operations of benefiting communities to deliver the overarching goals of these projects, promoting sustainability, infrastructure and human capital development.

    “From 2013 to this year, SPDC paid the total of N2.2 billion as top-up funds to the eight impacted southern swamp associated gas solution GMoU cluster boards in Bayelsa and Delta states.

    “By this programme, youths of Bayelsa and Delta states are offered a bigger door of opportunities. This is the beginning of a journey that has the potential of launching any of the beneficiaries into international recognition and success. This has happened in other host communities. It can happen here”.

    Well further told the beneficiaries that they had taken first step to a fulfilling career in self-development and skills optimisation.

    “There are huge opportunities ahead of you. The road to becoming a successful entrepreneur is seldom smooth but if the journey is undertaken with the commitment and zeal it deserves, it can be very rewarding”, he said.

    At the ceremony, the 49 youths, who completed the enterprise development programme received start-up grants of N19. 60 million. The beneficiaries were also assisted by the company to register their businesses and to be given certificates of registration from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

    In his remarks, the Chairman of Iduwini Cluster Development Board, Macpherson Gold, appealed to the beneficiaries to maximise the opportunity offered them to become successful people.

    He said: “I commend SPDC for giving our youths the opportunity to contribute to the growth of our communities. Being self-employed and having source of income is very essential to making positive contributions to one’s community.”

    Also, the Executive Director, Centre for Information and Development, Mrs. Belema Obigwe explained that the beneficiaries received intensive training on business management and assigned to established entrepreneurs for mentorship. .

    She said 130 youths nominated for the scheme by their communities were shortlisted in April last year, adding that out of the number, 79 successfully completed the training while 49  of them passed the assessment tests conducted at the end of the scheme.

    Addressing the beneficiaries, she said: “This journey began in April last year. We went through the applications and the applicants were screened through various stages. We expect that the way you worked with us, the way you gave us your attention, we believe that what we have planted will germinate.

    “This is the beginning of the next phase. Please, continue in the same measure. As a result of your hard work, you are going to have some benefits. Just as the training was not easy, the journey is not easy as well.

    “By being here today, you have entered a contract with Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria. Shell is the sponsor and the initiator of the programme. Your clusters have nominated you to be here. You have entered into an agreement that you will do your best to give us the result for investing in you all”.

    Some of the beneficiaries praised the initiative and commended Shell for establishing the scheme.

    One of the beneficiaries, Robinson Erebi said the training was practical and beneficial.

    “We are grateful for this opportunity. I have tried and failed in businesses twice but in the course of this training, I discovered why I failed and now I am ready to get it done the right way.

    “We were trained in order to support our business ideas and Shell is also supporting us with a start-up capital. So, we are now out of the labour market and they have encouraged us to expand our businesses and to create more jobs,” Erebi said.