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  • Keka, others celebrate APC chieftain Emami

    Keka, others celebrate APC chieftain Emami

    Eulogies are pouring in foremost All Progressive Congress (APC) chieftain in Delta State, businessman and philanthropist, Chief Ayirimi Emami who turns 49 on Friday.

    Grassroots politician and development advocate, Mr Erefoluwa Keka described Chief Emami as “a bulwark of the Itsekiri nation, a foremost protector and projector of the Itsekiri history, traditional heritage.”

    Keka particularly enthused the APC chieftain’s “courage and patriotism to Iwere nation, your philanthropy and determination are unmatched. These virtues will continue to propel you to greater heights, despite the antics and ingratitude of others.”

    Read Also: Provision of basic amenities, other conveniences’ll banish oil theft – Emami

    He said Emami has excelled in business and politics, stating that “your larger-than-life image has daunted many. I pray that God will continue to lift you higher as you march on as the face of a conquering matador of Warri Kingdom.”

    Keka described Chief Emami as a prominent politician and business magnate ” always ready to advance the career of talented and hardworking people, irrespective of their tribe, religious and political affiliations.”      

    According to Keka, the ingratitude of individuals whom Chief Emami has helped over the years has not deterred him from exploring ways of serving Itsekiri Nation positively and growing the membership of All Progressives Congress in Warri South, Warri South-West and Warri North Local Government Areas of Delta state.                                              

    While praying to God to sustain His grace on Chief Emami, ” to enable him to maintain the tempo of his steady progress in business and politics”, Keka, expressed optimism that God will continually bless the APC Chieftain with sound health and longevity.

  • Provision of basic amenities, other conveniences’ll banish oil theft – Emami

    Provision of basic amenities, other conveniences’ll banish oil theft – Emami

    A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State Chief Ayiri Emami has said provision of basic social amenities and other conveniences for Niger Delta communities will end oil theft and pipelines vandalism faster.

    The Warri Chief, who is also a big player in the oil and gas sector, gave the view while speaking to journalists at the State House, after meeting with President Bola Tinubu on a number of issues affecting his homeland in Warri.

    The Itsekiri Chief has said that oil theft has drastically reduced to about 80 percent as a result of the efforts of the communities in the state.

    Asked how the oil producing communities are collaborating with the Federal Government to nip oil theft in the bud, he said that the efforts of relevant stakeholders in the area has contributed to the drastic reduction of oil theft.

    “Currently I know from Delta I can speak around Delta state that the issue of oil theft is drastically going down, it has reduced to about 80% to 90% because the company handling the job at the moment and some of us are involved and the job is being handled properly. 

     “To some extent, we’re doing good in Delta and some of these communities, the actors are being carried along. But we still want them to do more. Not just giving contracts these people need good road, good water, electricity, good hospital. 

    “Once those things are in place in those environment, you won’t believe you go to somewhere like Escravos the shore problem… So we need to sit down with the PIA, we need to sit down to see what we can do.

    “I don’t I think fighting all these criminality issues without putting in proper infrastructure, will work, it won’t work. But telling the President you need to do this as in view of some of us coming out to agitate strongly to tell our brothers that there is no need to go into breaking of pipelines. 

    “But we just need to do that, we just need to fix the communities because that is the place that lays the golden eggs but if you go to that place it is like hell. I really do my things in different way, I go with protests. I will not encourage anybody to go and break federal government facility or to go and break pipe. 

    “Once you do that the federal government will use that same money that they want to use to develop the place, they will use it to go and fix the pipe first. So Penny wise, Pound foolish,” he said.

    Read Also: Development of Itsekiri communities to begin soon – Emami

    Explaining why he visited the President, Chief Emami said: “Sometime last year if you recall, in September, I was here (State House) to see Mr. President, there were some issues I brought before him and those issues were part of his promises during the campaign. So he said when he comes back from America, he will definitely call me to come back here. that’s why I’m here. 

    “One of those issues have to do with the road from Warri to Escravos, He made promises that once he is being elected, if we vote for him, he is going to ensure that that road is being constructed, so I came here with the Minister for Niger Delta so that they can put heads together on how that road can be constructed for us in which he gave a nod. 

    “He asked the Minister to go and put up his memo and come back on how they can go about it. This is one of the issues. The other issues have to do with politics, personal issues, it has to do with the immediate environment in our area. 

    “You know, the Warri port has been an issue till date. And I made complaint to him about the pipe that is giving problem at bar mouth. So he said he is going to get across to the GMD (Group Chief Executive Officer) So that they will sit, look at it on how they can relocate the pipe so that proper dredging can be carried out for vessel to flow into Warri. So those are basically the issues why I came to see him.”

    Asked whether he discussed Koko Port and other things with him, he said that the issues of Koko and Warri ports were discussed with President Tinubu.

    He said: “Definitely once you talk about Warri port, you will definitely talk about Koko port, Sapele port but once that pipe is been sorted out because that’s where the problem is. If you don’t relocate those pipes no matter the amount of dragging the sweeping, you’ll be doing, it will still remain the problem and the marketers around that area, those of us that have facilities around the area, we have suffered a lot. 

    “So, he needs to see what they can do and he has promised that he is going to call the Minister for petroleum and see what they can do immediately with the GMD.”

  • Plateau/Kaduna killings: Northern govs laud Tinubu for steps to curb recurrence

    Plateau/Kaduna killings: Northern govs laud Tinubu for steps to curb recurrence

    The Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF) has lauded President Bola Tinubu for making moves to get to the roots of the security crises in Plateau and Kaduna states, with the aim of preventing future occurrences.

    The chairman of the forum and Gombe state governor, Inuwa Yahaya, who gave the kudos, speaking in Hausa Language, on behalf of the body on Thursday, also thanked the President for providing support survivors and victims of various crises.

    Governor Yahaya, who gave the kudos while speaking to journalists at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, after a meeting with President Tinubu, also appealed against interactions tending to create divisions among communities and neighbours, blaming the bloody clashes and needless killings on these divisions.

    He commended the President for sending Vice President Kashim Shettima to visit Kaduna and Plateau States, in order to get the details of what transpired at Tudun Biri, Kaduna state as well as Bokkos and Barikin Ladi Local Government Areas of Plateau State.

    “In my capacity as the chainman of Northern Governors’ Forum, I praise the steps taken by the President in order to get to the root of what happened in these two states and the pledge he made that the right action would be taken to prevent future occurrence of these incidents. Above all, I am thanking him for the support given to victims or survivors.”

    Read Also: Adeleke denies slashing traditional rulers’ monthly allocation in Osun

    Speaking specifically on the Plateau crisis, the Governor said it is not a new thing but there is need for a review of the immediate and remote causes in order to find a lasting solution.

    “Despite the fact that this matter has been there for long, it is time for stakeholders to have a round table and tell each other the truth and then take deliberate steps toward loving each other. Before now, the people were living in peace and going about their normal businesses.

    “Some of the major issues that seem to allow the problem to persist include issues like farmer-herder clashes, the clamour for indigenes versus settlers, but the world over, if any society or country doesn’t welcome visitors, such a nation will not progress. Afterall we here are one and the same family.

    “Therefore, we are commiserating with those who lost their loved ones. There should be no reason why anyone should go and kill or take the life of a fellow human being since it is not a war situation.

    “Reprisal attacks have not taken us anywhere so, what we need to concentrate on doing is to understand ourselves and know that we have leaders at all levels whom we can lodge our complaints to. We should imbibe the habit of loving one another and living in peace for the progress of all of us,” the Gombe state governor advised.

    Commenting on the importance of agriculture to human development and attaining food sufficiency, the Governor said there is need for farmers to embrace modern techniques in order to boost their production.

    “The way it is now, people have to understand that we must modernise. There is need for machine tools, there is need for processing and luckily Gombe is among the States that have been approved to be part of the Special Agric Processing zones.

    “We have set up an industrial park where we can process all the raw materials or the agricultural produce that we have in the State. I think if all States will key-in and work in tandem and work with the federal government, we shall easily reach the desired destination for Nigeria,” he added.

    Governor Yahaya also sought for more collaboration between the federal and state governments in Nigeria, saying doing so would help a lot in achieving development in all sectors thus bettering the lot of citizens.

    “There were several engagements between us towards the end of 2023 particularly pertaining healthcare and enabling business environment reforms and many more. Without the economy picking and doing well, we will continuously be where we are or even worst of.

    “Collaboration of the states and the federal government; infact including the local governments is very key and fundamental for us because if there is any disconnect, we may not deliver on what we have to do for the people”, he said.

    The governor told Journalists that he was in the State House to intimate the Nigerian leader on the achievements the State has made under his leadership as Governor.

    He said the State government is ready to put more words into action in order to bring about faster development in the State known as the Jewel in the Savannah.

  • Tompolo versus Emami

    Tompolo versus Emami

    High Chief Government Ekpemupolo must have realised that success brings friends and enemies. In the last few days, Tompolo, as Ekpemupolo is better known, has been having running battle with some people from the Niger Delta, especially multi-millionaire Ayiri Emami.

    Emami’s issue with Tompolo centres around the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA). Tompolo says he has nothing to do with the group. Emami says he is lying. The Itsekiri-born politician insists Tompolo is hiding behind the avengers to blow oil facilities.

    The NDA says without some conditions being met by President Muhammadu Buhari, peace will elude the Niger Delta, their home. And, by extension, Nigeria.

    For the president to take them serious, they have carried out some bombings. They bombed the Chevron valve facility in the night of Wednesday last week and the 48-inch trunk line supplying crude oil to Warri refinery. They say they will crumble the economy unless their demands are met.

    One of the demands is the immediate implementation of the report of the 2014 National Conference organised in the run-up to the last general elections by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan. They say if this is not done, the country will break up.

    Another demand borders on ownership of oil blocks. They say 60 per cent of the oil blocks must be owned by indigenes of oil-producing areas and 40 per cent for others.

    They also have an axe to grind with their fellow Niger Deltan and Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, who earlier in the life of the Buhari administration faulted the Maritime University started by the Jonathan administration. They say Amaechi, an Ikwerre man from Rivers, must apologise to the Ijaw on whose soil the university is sited for his “careless and reckless statement about the siting of the university”. They say maritime university is located in “the most appropriate and befitting place Okerenkoko” and must start the 2015/2016 academic session immediately.

    They also show some love to the Ogoni people of Rivers. They say their land and all oil-polluted areas in the Niger Delta must be cleaned up and compensation paid to the communities. Their love is not limited to Southsouth alone. They also extend their love to the ‘Biafra’ nation. They say the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, must be released unconditionally.

    They also have issues with the Niger Delta Amnesty programme, which they say must be well funded and allowed to continue to function effectively.

    Another condition is about the anti-corruption campaign. They say it is skewed in favour of his political associates. The militants say that all members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who are indicted in any corruption-related cases should be made to face trial like members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Those they want apologies from also include Buhari, the Department of State Services and Timipre Sylva. Their offence: They killed former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, “with intimidation and harassment because of his party affiliation”.

    They also have a word for oil multi-nationals and foreign investors if the government dares them. They say the failure of the government to meet their conditions will lead to attacks on their business interests. They say they will soon visit evil on Lagos and Abuja if their conditions are not met.

    Their hide-and-seek tactics have incurred the wrath of the Niger Delta Liberation Force (NDLF) led by John Togo, which through their spokesman, Mark Anthony, says: “Those bombing pipelines in Delta State should not behave like cowards if they are truly fighting the interest of Niger Delta.

    “They should be bold enough to come out. When we were bombing, our leader General John Togo did not hide his face. We dealt with the Nigerian army, and we were not hiding.

    “They should not hide their identity. Buhari is not God and they should not be scared of him. JTF should not attack and arrest innocent people in Ijaw communities, they should go for the real saboteurs.”

    The almighty Tompolo’s running battle with Emami is coming when his battle with the law is still on. He has been named in a N34b scam at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA). For this, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) invited him for a chat. He spurned the opportunity. The agency decided to go ahead with his arraignment alongside NIMASA ex-Director-General Patrick Akpobolokemi. The court ordered him to appear. He has not. Instead, he issued a statement justifying his refusal to honour EFCC’s invite and failure to keep a date in court. His lawyers are in court trying to shield him.

    His defence sound like these: He is no signatory to any of the accounts of the companies involved in the scam. EFCC’s lawyer Festus Keyamo and Sylva are setting him up.

    Keyamo, he said, was after him because he refused to buy some property he introduced him to in Lagos and Abuja. Sylva, he claimed, was bitter because he refused to support his bid to become the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

    His hands, he vowed, were clean and as such Buhari should just get the EFCC to apply the break in his trial for alleged money laundering and corruption.

    A day or so after the court ordered Tompolo to appear before it to defend himself in the case against him, oil pipelines went up in flames in Delta State. Oil giant Chevron was in a deep pit as a result of the attacks. The country’s economy was affected too. Tompolo dissociated himself from the attacks. It would have amounted to a treasonable felony if he had said something else. He would have clearly declared a war against the Federal Government and we all can imagine what the new sheriff in town would have done.

    The ex-militant leader insists “Ayiri Emami and others accusing me of the destruction of oil facilities in part of the Delta are simply looking for relevance, recognition and pipeline surveillance contracts”. He alleged further:   “If anyone doubts what I am saying, such should find out from the GMD and Minister for State for Petroleum, because Ayiri and his likes have been troubling the Minister for pipeline surveillance contracts for some time now.

    “The Minister has even succumbed to the Ayiri Emami gimmick by appointing some of his cronies as special advisers. The funny thing about Ayiri Emami is that he does not even have the capacity and goodwill to protect oil facilities.”

    Emami, in a chat with The Nation, advised Tompolo to stop “hiding under militancy and face his crimes in a competent court of law. I insist that he is the one behind the bombing. If he is not, he should come out and prove his innocence. He denied seeking surveillance contract.

    My final take: The military needs to unmask those behind the avengers’ assault on oil facilities in the Niger Delta. This will also nip in the bud the plot to take the attacks beyond the creeks. It will be foolish to allow the militants pop champagne if they succeed in carrying their evil intention to Lagos and Abuja as they have threatened.

     

  • Why they are afraid of Amaechi, by Emami

    Why they are afraid of Amaechi, by Emami

    Chief Ayirimi Emami is a leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State. He spoke with SHOLA O’NEIL on several national issues, including the confirmation of former Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi by the Senate and defection of a former Commissioner for Youth in the state, Comrade Omolubi Newuwumi.

     

    What do you think is responsible for the opposition to the ministerial clearance of Chibuike Amaechi by the Senate?

    The reason for being some people are against Hon Chibuike Amaechi is that they feel that if he against the clearance of Hon. Amaechi by the Senate is that they know that when he comes on board, the APC in the Niger Delta would be stronger and we would have a rallying point in him, Edo state governor, Comrade Adam Oshiomhole and the APC candidate in Bayelsa State in the coming governorship election, Timipre Sylva.

    •Amaechi
    •Amaechi

    We, the progressives and the APC in the South-south need Rotimi Amaechi to be among the policy makers at the centre so that we can rally round him. We need someone to take our messages to Mr President because it is not possible to see the President always. But as a minister he (Amaechi) would be able to take our issues to the President.

    Besides, if he wasn’t appointment a minister, people of the Niger Delta region would see the President as an insensitive person and they would say he used and dumped Amaechi. That will now become a tool for PDP leaders in future elections. They would say, ‘don’t be another Amaechi for the APC’ etc.

    Let us not forget that the emergence of Jonathan as Vice-President under Yar’Adua was due to the funding of the election of Yar’Adua by one of our own (former Delta State governor James Ibori). The funding of that election was done by a Delta State man and when they got there, they dumped him.

    That is what Chief Edwin Clark is displaying today. When he was down, Ibori did everything to get him up, but when he got there, he abandoned the same Ibori and said he is a thief and he should be jailed.

    Today, he had been the father of (former President Goodluck) Jonathan from when he was in the office till he left. Now, he has turned against him. Are those the kind of people you want to call my leaders? I cannot associate with them. Buhari is not saying Amaechi’s position is to amass wealth, but he said this is a man who believes in something and we should work on it. That is why I always say ‘when the head is good, the tail will follow suit’.

    On defection of Omolubi Newuwumi to the APC

    Our mission is to ensure that by 2019, the APC can give a good fight to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). And to those that use the party as a negotiation tool, it can never happen in this state again. Omolubi’s defection is a great loss to the PDP because he is one of those that are very committed; they are movers and shakers of Warri and Delta politics.

    The election of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has been validated by the tribunal and people fear that this could be the end of the opposition.

    Okowa is not an issue to me; that has to do with the court. I don’t see that as a problem. We are focused and we know what we are doing.

    The defection of Omolubi to APC means a lot because he is a force to reckon with in Warri North and the state politics. He is not one of those that you can give money to sell his conscience. That kind of person is one that you should appreciate.

    President Buhari, during one of his television interviews, spoke about people like this when he made reference to Amaechi when they asked them questions about him. He said he did not get there alone, but with the people he worked with. He was referring to Amaechi. Those are people that you can work with because of their commitment and we have an Amaechi in Omolubi. They are not easy to find.

    There are strong political leaders in Warri North already. What does Omolubi brings to the APC in Warri North?

    Some of those I knew in APC while I was in PDP are negotiators and our agents. They are people that were planted by the PDP in Warri North to give feedback to the PDP after meeting with APC.

    I do not regard them as party men. These are party men and if there is an election, you will know that these are the real party men and PDP knows that we are loyal to our party. When you say you are loyal to a party, you must be loyal through and through, no matter what.

    At present, we have Okowa as governor of Delta State and he is a member of the PDP. When I come across him, courtesy demands that I give him his due respect as the governor. But when I go back home, I discuss with my people as members of the APC and ensure that my people are APC and those who are not are convinced to change.

    I have left PDP for good and all I need to do now is to build the APC in Delta State to be strong and a force to reckon with. That is the reason why we are happy that Omolubi Newuwumi is with us because he has the determination and the strength to help us built a strong party in the state.

     

  • Oil mining leases: Emami makes case for communities

    A Niger Delta activist and one of the leaders of the oil-rich Ugborodo Community in Warri Local Government Area of Delta State, Chief Ayirimi Emami, has accused the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration of sidelining communities in oil mining leases.

    He called for a probe into ‘secret oil blocs’ operatorship’ contract allegedly entered with some private companies in the immediate past administration.

    Emami said there is the need for a critical look at the period of Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke’s headship of the petroleum industry.

    His position was contained in a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari, a copy of which was made available to Niger Delta Report.

    Emami, who is Chief Executive of A&E Petroleum, said many contracts entered into by the last administration flouted the open and competitive bid practice mandated by the Public Procurement Act.

    He said host communities were sidelined in the sales of the oil firms, noting that the Minister flouted an order that bidding for Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 4, 26, 30, 34, 38, 41 and 42 be thrown open with host communities granted right of involvement.

    “The Federal Ministry of Petroleum flagrantly disobeyed the directive and surreptitiously granted the leases to non-indigenes against the Local Content Act or rights of preemption and /or first refusal by people of the host communities, who had the financial/technical capability to acquire them.”

    He faulted the sale of such assets to Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited, which he said neither tendered nor bidded for the bloc, as well as the sale of Shell Petroleum Development Company’s stakes in OML 42 to Neconde Energy Limited.

    In the case of Atlantic Drilling Concept, Emami said “the company only paid upfront cash payment of little more than $50 million initial entrance fee, for a lease that should ordinarily cost no less than $ 800 million.

    He suggested the probe should provide insight into: “Why the immediate past Minister of Petroleum furtively approve Oil blocs’ rights to companies without due process and the yardstick for regulating the discretional allocation of Nigeria’s National Oil and Gas assets.

    “How does these ridiculous undervalued secretive allocations of Nigeria’s most lucrative Oil and Gas assets support or strengthen Nigeria’s economic and political integrity?

    “Why were companies which have interests in each other, such as, Seven Energy, Septa Energy, Seplat Energy and Atlantic Energy were favoured so much in the award of rights in OML 4, 26, 30, 34, 38, 41 and 42, and why did the former Minister of Petroleum violate industry guidelines and the Procurement Act to favour these companies?”

  • Concern as Tompolo, Emami shun $16b project peace meeting

    Hope brightened for the $16 billion Gas City Project in Warri, Delta State, yesterday, as the Ijaw and Itsekiri hosts agreed on the groundbreaking ceremony for the strategic project.

    But the truce brokered by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan was received with mixed feelings, following the absence of the protagonists, Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) and Chief Ayirimi Emami, representing Ijaw and Itsekiri interests.

    Governor Uduaghan, according to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Sunny Ogefere, said: “The two groups resolved to make room for peace as well as ensure that the $16b Gas City Project takes off successfully.”

    Under the terms of the peace deal, it was gathered that the gas city would be named Ogidigben Gas City, while the deep sea port part of the project would be removed from the contentious Kpokpo to Gbaramatu Kingdom.

    Mr Austin Oboroegbeyi, who spoke on behalf of Ugborodo and Chief Godspower Gbenekama of Gbaramatu said they agreed that the Gas Industrial City would be named after Ogidigben and the Deep Sea Port after Gbaramatu.

    NNPC’s Group Executive Director (Gas and Power) Dr David Ige said the title of the project would not affect the original concept of the project, stressing: “They (projects) are inter-dependent projects.”

    However, independent investigation by our reporter showed that there were concerns that the peace deal could be a political move by The Presidency in view of the condemnation that greeted President Goodluck Jonathan’s no-show at the initial ceremony slated for last November.

    The President shied away, citing security reports, after Tompolo, ex-leader of the defunct militant group and his Gbaramatu kinsmen threatened violence if the President went ahead with the ceremony.

    The Itsekiri ethnic group, in reaction to the development, threatened to give block vote to the APC candidate, Gen Muhammadu Buhari,  prompting the President to make three quick visits to the state within weeks and a private visit to the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse II, Tompolo and Emami.