The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Illegal

  • Bank’s multi-storey structure illegal, says Dr. Braithwaite

    Bank’s multi-storey structure illegal, says Dr. Braithwaite

    Elder statesman and renowned legal practitioner, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite has told an Ikeja High Court in Lagos that  a 14-storey building being constructed by Standard Chartered Bank is illegal.

    Under cross-examination by the bank’s counsel, Adeniyi Adegbonmire, Braithwaite told Justice Doris Okuwobi that the building which also has a multi-level car park opposite his residence on Victoria Island negates town planning law.

    When Adegbonmire demanded to know if he was not aware that the structure was going to be erected, the former National Advance Party (NAP) presidential candidate said though he was not officially informed, he learnt of the structure and approached the court to stop it.

    Before the cross examination, Braithwaite’s counsel, Razaq Okesiji  sought the court’s leave to file some documents including the structure’s picture.

    Justice Okuwobi granted the request and admitted the documents as exhibits C15 (1), (11) and (111), C16 and C17.

    Leading his client in examination, Okesiji asked Braithwaite to identify from the picture the level of the structure. Adegbonmire opposed the examination, forcing the court to take a short recess to rule on the matter.

    In her ruling, Justice Okuwobi dismissed Adegbonmire’s objection, holding that the exhibit upon which the question arose touches on the res (the suit’s subject-matter.) She said it was in order for the claimant to explain the contents of the documents he front-loaded to the court.

    Responding to the question, Braithwaite said in violation of the court, construction “has now reached the 14th storey and a five level car park from floor two when injunction was granted.

    The judge with the consent of parties adjourned further proceedings to October 28 and 30.

    At the last hearing, Justice Okuwobi dismissed an application filed by the bank against the plaintiff’s amended statement of claims for lack of merit.

    Justice Okuwobi held that she did not see how the issues raised by the claimant had hampered the case.

    She said: “I do not foresee that the defendant/applicant will be denied the right to plead his own case in full and that he will be denied the right to fair hearing.

    “For this reason, this application cannot sail through. Consequently, it is accordingly hereby dismissed.”

    The bank prayed the court to strike out some paragraphs of the claimant’s reply to its amended statement of defence.

    The application followed Briathwaite’s response to the bank’s amended statement of defence in which he raised some “vital” issues to support his position.

    SCB’s Adegbonmire urged the court to strike out certain paragraphs it considered inimical alleging that the claimant is introducing new facts outside the issue in contention.

    Okesiji opposed the motion, saying the contents of the claimant’s reply to the defence statement and witness statement on oath were relevant to the subject matter of the suit. He said they are necessitated by the averments in the amended statement of the defence and the documents introduced by the defence, which were not in existence when the amended statement of claims was filed.

    The claimant, he said, neither departed, contradicted nor added new item to its claim, which should prejudice the defendant.

    Citing several Supreme Court authorities, Okesiji said the reply was within the claimant’s rights, adding that Order 15, Rule 19 of the High Court Rules allows new pleadings to come up in a reply.

    He urged the court to dismiss the defendant’s application, pointing out that the claimant’s reply to amended statement of defence and the statement on oath which the defendant seeks to strike out relate to the Environmental Impact Assessment Procedure in Nigeria. The failure of the defendant to comply with this procedure, has always been the kernel of the claimant’s case, he said.

    In the suit, Braithwaite is seeking an order declaring illegal, the erection of a 15-storey commercial building and multi-level car park by the bank in an otherwise residential area on Victoria Island, Lagos.

    The claimant said he is uncomfortable with the bank’s installation of giant industrial generators directly opposite his house with the concomitant fumes and noise pollution.

    Braithwaite is praying for N10billion damages and a demolition of the building.

  • Rivers PDP zoning: Group to stop Wike’s rally

    As the issue of zoning continues to raise dust in Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), party stakeholders in Orashi region of the state, have said that any attempt by the party to hold rally for the Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, in the region would be resisted.

    The spokesman for the PDP stakeholders in Orashi, Barr Nngeri Goodhead Goodliffe who stated this in Port Harcourt, the state capital over the weekend also described the plan to foist Wike on Orashi people as illegal.

    Goodliffe also vowed that the people of Orashi would not allow the rally being planned to hold in the community today to welcome Wike back from Abuja by the party state executive because it is against the constitution of their party.

    The Orashi PDP stakeholders expressed disappointment with the Rivers state PDP Chairman, Chief Felix Obua who is also their kinsman, saying that he has made things difficult for them especially with his attempt to impose a candidate on them ahead of the 2015 election.

  • NSCDC uncovers illegal refinery in Kogi

    NSCDC uncovers illegal refinery in Kogi

    The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Kogi State, at the weekend, uncovered an illegal refinery in Achuze, a border community between Kogi and Edo states.

    NSCDC said the refinery, which had an administrative building, a restaurant and a 150,000 litre-capacity petrol reservoir, was burnt.

    The State Commandant, Dayo Adesuyi, who led the operation at the weekend, said about 80 drums of crude oil were also burnt.

    He said the operators of the refinery engaged his team in a gun battle. One of the suspects was arrested but the others escaped.

  • ‘Deployment of soldiers for election duties illegal’

    It is ultra-vires (outside) President Goodluck Jonathan’s powers to deploy solders during elections, a human rights group, One Voice, has said.

    In a statement by its media committee chairman Pastor Deji Adeleye, the group said the police is being undermined by the deployment of soldiers to maintain law and order during elections.

    “OneVOICE, acting in consultation with some of the best legal luminaries in the country, believe that it is illegal and ultra vires the part of President Jonathan to deploy the military to maintain law and order during elections.

    “It is incongruous with sections 215 and 217 of the Constitution which made it abundantly clear that the power of the President to deploy Armed Forces for internal security is limited to the suppression of insurrection, including insurgency and aiding the police to restore order when it has broken down.

    “The use of soldiers during elections is ill-advised. Instead, the police should have been strengthened to discharge the duty of ensuring internal security while the military is restricted to the defense of the Nation’s territorial integrity.

    “What militarisation does is to invoke fears on voters to make them not consider participating in the election thereby disenfranchising them,” One Voice said.

    The group said the coercive apparatus of the state constitutionally mandated to maintain law and order is the police, not the military or the Department of State Security (DSS) whose legal existence is unknown to any law in Nigeria, or masked persons.

    “Indeed, the duty of the military is to defend the territorial integrity of the country or quell insurrection in any section of the country where the Police has proved incapable of handling the situation.

    “ONEVOICE is, therefore, demanding a stop to the use of the military and DSS operatives in subsequent election including the 2015 general elections,” it said.

    The group also condemned the current gale of impeachments and attempted impeachments of state governors, saying: “The road to the present democratic dispensation in Nigeria is undoubtedly a tortuous one and we cannot afford to allow our democracy to come to peril.”

    The development, the group said, has grave implications on constitutionalism and the rule of law, especially as laid down constitutional rules are being violated and trampled upon with impunity.

    It added that unlike America where impeachment is the last resort when all other options had failed, the reverse is the case in Nigeria.

    “It is always the first option with the legislators threatening the president or state governor at will.  To date, only twice have the American congress impeached the President since 238 years ago that America gained independence.

    “Although no Nigerian President has been impeached, many State governors have been sacked through impeachment since 1999 under the present dispensation. Under the former President olusegun Obasanjo, two governors, Joshua Dariye of Plateau State and Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State were impeached.

    “Under President Jonathan, impeachment notices against many governors have become very rampant. Indeed, political watchers see this method as a subversion of the constitution which portends danger for the political stability of the country,” One Voice said.

  • JTF uncovers illegal bunkering in Rivers

    JTF uncovers illegal bunkering in Rivers

    •32 barges, boats seized
    •Eight suspects arrested

    The Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Pulo Shield, has uncovered as illegal bunkering at Onne Port in Rivers State.

    It was learnt that the JTF operatives stormed the port on Tuesday and impounded 32 long barges and Cotonou boats suspected to be used for bunkering.

    The JTF’s monitoring team recently set up by the commander, Maj.-Gen. Emmanuel Atewe, was said to have received information that people were using the port to indulge in oil theft.

    A source, who partook in the operation, said many of the barges were laden with products believed to have been sourced from illegal refineries in the creeks close to the port.

    The source, who pleaded anonymity, said on sighting the JTF, people on board the vessels abandoned them and ran into the creeks.

    He said some of them dived into the water and swam to safety, adding that operators of illegal refineries used Cotonou boats to load the barges.

    The source said one of the barges was loaded with Automated Gas Oil (AGO), adding that the vessel had the capacity to carry 5,000 metric tons or 582,000 litres of the product.

    Describing such activities as a rape on the economy, he lamented that they were being carried out despite the presence of operatives of another security agency.

    The source said Atewe and the JTF’s Chief of Staff, Col. Hilary Nzan, led the Onne raid, adding that samples of the products were taken for laboratory analysis and investigations.

    He said the JTF was determined to punish the persons, including the security personnel linked to the theft, if found guilty.

    Said he: “We will carry out thorough investigations to determine the veracity of the information we got. We know that there are ships licensed to sell petroleum products.

    “But we learnt that people are using it as a cover to buy illegally- refined products. They anchor their barges and use illegally-refined products from illegal refineries to fill them.

    “Sometimes, they mix genuine products with bad ones. We have impounded a Cotonou boat, which supplied such product and arrested the driver.

    “During the operation, some people, who may be benefitting from the illegality, tried to stop us, but we resisted. The barges will be investigated.”

    Col. Nzan confirmed the raid, saying it was carried out based on reports that bunkering was ongoing at the Onne Port.

    He said eight persons were arrested, adding that the JTF took samples of the product for investigation.

    Nzan said one of the suspects was arrested for allegedly stealing 55 gallons of the product.

    Said he: “following on a tip-off, we carried out an operation at Onne Port.

    “The team impounded Cotonou boats and discovered barges suspected to be used for bunkering. Based on the zero tolerance for oil theft, we arrested people. The JTF will investigate the barges at the general area.

    “Some of them were filled with products. We collected samples of the product and tested them to determine their quality. Most of the suspects ran away when they saw our troops.”

  • NUC shuts two illegal varsities

    NUC shuts two illegal varsities

    TWO illegal universities were sealed up by the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) in Lagos last week. They are Evangel University of America, Egan, Igando, and Clinton University Study Centre, in Ojokoro, a Lagos suburb.

    Leader of the NUC team, Prof Adebisi Balogun, said the ‘schools’ are unapproved private universities.

    At the time the NUC team and others from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the State Security Service (SSS) got to the colleges last Tuesday, unsuspecting students were seated for the day’s class sessions. The proprietor and a bursar of one of the schools were arrested.

    At the Evangel Christian University of America, a four-bedroom flat on 2, Akinola Street, Olufemi Estate, Egan, Igando, the enforcement team arrested Dr. Philip Nnaji, the school’s Bursar, a midde-aged man.

    Nnaji, however, claimed he did not know the institution was operating illegally. He told the officials that to the best of his knowledge, the institution runs as an affiliate campus of the parent university in Illinois, United States. “The Nigerian campus only awards diploma, degrees and post graduate degrees in Theology,” he said.

    Many of the students were too shocked to speak. A few of them told The Nation that they were told the school was approved by the NUC, giving them the confidence to enrol. Some fell into the trap because they were unable to gain admission into the regular universities.

    At Clinton University Study Centre, Ojokoro, which operated inside a shopping mall, the proprietor, who called himself Uranta, denied operating a degree “awarding mill”.

    He said he was only running a Management Programme under the name “Clindick Management Academy” to prepare students for external examinations.

    Uranta also claimed that he had started seeking approval to establish a university named Clinton University in Afam, Rivers State, which was still in progress.  He even claimed that his last correspondence with the NUC was on June 14.

    “I applied to NUC last year and was invited to their office in Abuja. When I got there, NUC said no. This year, I applied for the proposed Clinton University. We went for the interview and were successful. Then, NUC wrote in June 2014, asking us to come and pick the form to run the university,” Uranta said.

    Uranta’s claim was however countered by Prof Balogun, Chairman, NUC Committee on Closure of Illegal Universities in Nigeria.

    Balogun said it was glaring that Uranta had not he applied to the NUC at all, yet admitted unsuspecting students.

    Balogun said: “The most important thing that is glaring form this exercise is that Mr Uranta has been operating an illegal outfit to desperate Nigerian students. And this must have been ongoing for some time. Although he has tried to convince us that he is making efforts to comply in terms of having filled the application forms, which is just one of the 14  steps required to open a university, that does not give him the right to start admitting students for Masters degree as we have seen with evidence today.

    “His so-called university has not been approved or in the least, the process has not started. And even if started, he cannot begin by awarding Masters degree from the outset.”

    Balogun also said the NUC publishes, in its Monday bulletins, names of these illegal universities. “And this is why the NUC has been sending monitoring teams to inform us of their activities across the country. We also send them warning messages and notes of caution, telling them that, if they want to run a private university, there are procedures that must be followed. But they won’t listen but just go on to establish and start running the ‘illegal mills’,” he said.

    During the raid, the officials confiscated several items such as students’ projects, receipts, computers, list of admitted students, bank tellers and files containing details about the university management before sealing the place a no-entry barrier.

    Balogun said the activities of operators of illegal universities in the country would continue as long as parents continue to send their children to such colleges because of desperation to get them admitted to tertiary institutions at all cost.

    While some of the students expressed hopelessness at the closure of their schools, asking where they would go from that point, Balogun advised parents and the students to do thorough findings on approved universities from the NUC, which is the appropriate authority.

    He said: “Go through the NUC website where we publish the list of all approved universities in Nigeria every week. We also publish the list of illegal universities and ‘degree mills’. There should be no confusion in going to regular universities.  However, should a student or his parents be unsure, they should resort to the Commission for clarification. When you ask for information instead of sending your children to these places to waste your hard-earned money and their precious lives, both of you will not be helped. In the long run, it will not help Nigeria. It will all amount to waste and at the end of the day. The degrees earned from these institutions will not be recognised for jobs or even for their career growth in life.”

  • Falana: deployment of soldiers for elections is unconstitutional, illegal

    Falana: deployment of soldiers for elections is unconstitutional, illegal

    Lagos lawyer Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) has said it is illegal and ultra vires on the part of President Goodluck Jonathan to deploy the armed forces to maintain law and order during elections.

    Falana, in a statement yesterday, titled: “Illegal involvement of soldiers in election duties,” said sections 215 and 217 of the constitution are abundantly clear that the power of the President to deploy armed forces for internal security is limited to the suppression of insurrection, including insurgency and aiding the police to restore order when it has broken down.

    Rather than use soldiers during elections, he advised that the police should be strengthened  to discharge the duty of ensuring internal security while the armed forces are restricted to the defence of the nation’s territorial integrity.

    He said under the current constitutional dispensation, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed lacks the  power to involve soldiers in maintaining law and order during elections.

    “Even in the Northeast region, a state of emergency had to be declared by the President to justify the deployment of members of the armed forces as part of the extraordinary measures he was required to take to restore law and order pursuant to section 305 of the Constitution.

    “Even then, the President had to seek and obtain the approval of the National Assembly for the said deployment for a specific period of time,” he stated.

    Falana described as “misleading apologia for the militarisation of the recent governorship election in Ekiti State”, an article by Bashorun Akin Osuntokun on “Militarisation and other fallacies” published in his weekly column in Thisday newspaper of Friday, July 11, 2014.

    According to him, Osuntokun,  in commending the soldiers for displaying professionalism, “was curiously  silent on the infringement of the fundamental right of Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s freedom of movement, which occurred at Iju-Itagbolu in Ondo State, contrary to Section 41 of the Constitution.

    “The governor, who was billed to attend a political rally at Ado-Ekiti on June 19, 2014, was crudely turned back by the soldiers who claimed that they were acting on “orders from above.

    “Mr. Osuntokun was equally silent on the illegal curfew imposed on Ekiti State by the army. Or was any curfew declared by the relevant authorities that was not announced? A client, Mr. Bayo Fajimi, who was going home from Akure, Ondo State ( his place of residence), was disenfranchised as he was prevented by the soldiers from entering Ekiti State at 6.30 pm on June 20 because of the illegal curfew! Is the Bashorun not aware that the soldiers subjected every hotel at Ado Ekiti to a search without warrant between 10pm and 2am  for the sole purpose of  ejecting all  those who could not give “satisfactory” explanation of their business in Ekiti State? Yet while all “illegal aliens” like Governor Amaechi and others suspected to be All Progressives Congress  members were harassed and expelled from the state by the army, some non-indigenes who are chieftains of the People’s Democratic Party, including two serving ministers and an influential thug from Anambra State, were allowed to “monitor” the election. Indeed, they were fully protected by the  armed gendarmes.

    “Even though the Bashorun admitted that he was “struck and inconvenienced by the rigour and saturation of the security blanket” on account of repeated security check-points, he dismissed the complaints of the militarisation of the election. As far as he is concerned, the United States Embassy had endorsed the militarisation by issuing a statement to the effect that, “the security forces collaborated effectively and provided a safe and secure environment free of major incidents”.

    He added that Bashorun Osuntokun claimed that the soldiers displayed civility as they were “neither intrusive nor threatening”.

    Falana, however, pointed out that the Americans, who issued the statement, do not involve armed troops in the management of their own elections.

    He added that the soldiers drafted to  his community at Ilawe-Ekiti  constituted  themselves into an army of occupation.

    “Apart from assaulting individuals without any justification, they beat up a policeman on June 20, which led to a violent clash between the police and the army. As a result of the pandemonium which ensued, the main market in the town was abruptly closed down. I personally witnessed the brutality exhibited  by the rampaging troops. I have other reports of human rights abuses committed in other parts of Ekiti State by those armed soldiers who usurped police duties of maintaining law and order before and after the election”, he said.

    He pointed out that with what he witnessed during the election, there was no role that the soldiers played that the mobile section of the Nigeria Police Force could not have played even better, adding: “Or when has the manning of road blocks become a military affair?”

    According to him, the three criminal elements, who were caught with a lorry load of ballot papers before the election were arrested by the police.

    “With the figure of 36,790 armed soldiers, police, state security service and civil defence personnel deployed for the Ekiti election, not less than one million armed troops will be required for the 2015 election.

    “Since the Federal Government cannot possibly mobilise that number of troops, the United Nations may be requested to send a Peace Keeping Force for the militarisation of the entire country during the general election.

    Falana recalled that when former President Obasanjo deployed the army during the 2003 general elections, over 200 people were killed by the security forces.

    He said the courts have consistently enjoined the Federal Government to desist from involving the armed forces in the conduct of elections.

    He cited several court judgments to back his claim that it is illegal to deploy soldiers for elections, including a lead judgment of the Court of Appeal in Yussuf v Obasanjo (2005) 18 N.W.L.R. (Pt 956) 96. Salami JCA (as he then was), held that “It is up to the police to protect our nascent democracy and not the military, otherwise the democracy might be wittingly or unwittingly militarised. This is not what the citizenry bargained for in wrestling power from the military in 1999. Conscious step or steps should be taken to civilianise the polity to ensure the survival and sustenance of democracy.”

    He maintained therefore that the deployment of the armed forces for the maintenance of law and order during elections cannot be legally justified in view of Section 215(3) of the Constitution which has vested the police with the exclusive power to maintain and secure public safety and public order in the country.

    He said the President is only empowered by virtue of Section 217(2) of the Constitution to deploy the armed forces for the “suppression of insurrection and acting in aid of civil authorities to restore law order”.

    The Senior Advocate said this, in effect, means that before the armed forces may be involved in the maintenance of law and order, there must have been insurrection or civil disturbances which cannot be contained by the Police.

    The Constitution, according to him, never envisaged that the armed forces will usurp the powers of the police with respect to the “preservation of law and order” in any part of the country.

  • NCAA clamps down on illegal structures on flight paths

    NCAA clamps down on illegal structures on flight paths

    The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) will soon clamp down on unauthorised high-rise buildings erected on flight paths in the nation’s airspace, it has been learnt.

    The structures include telecommunications masts, towers and tall buildings built without the agency’s aviation height clearance.

    NCAA’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Mr Fan Ndubuoke, said the agency would take the action to ensure that there is sufficient safety for aircraft when they want to land.

    The spokesman said NCAA’s investigations showed that the structures were constituting obstacles to the take-off and landing of aircraft.

    To prevent an avoidable occurrence, the regulatory authority has appointed Messrs Noon Mast Ventures Nigeria Limited to identify such structures near airports and pull them down from flight paths, he said.

    NCAA’s regulation stipulates that those who are compelled by whatever reason to erect a mast or high-rise structure near the airport or on flight paths should obtain NCAA’s Aviation Height Clearance.

    Ndubuoke said: “Once this request is made, the department in charge will proceed for inspection and give approval for an allowable safety height or will be advised to relocate the structure, where applicable.”

     

    “The firm has, therefore, been mandated to embark on countrywide surveillance, demand NCAA’s certificate of clearance as a condition for verification from owners of existing structures and, where this is nonexistent, they will be pulled down instantly.

    “While owners are advised to cooperate with them, it is important to note that all violators will bear the cost of pulling down the structure, if the need arises.

    “This action is to further strengthen our regulatory resolve to ensure safety and security of air transport in Nigeria. It is pertinent to point out that violations will be viewed seriously by the authority.”

     

     

     

  • NAFDAC begins clampdown on ‘illegal’ pharmaceutical firms

    NAFDAC begins clampdown on ‘illegal’ pharmaceutical firms

    The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has begun the enforcement of the deadline for the implementation of the Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) among pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria.

    The enforcement started in Abuja on Wednesday under the supervision of the Pharmacovigilance and Post-Marketing Surveillance Directorate of NAFDAC.

    The exercise, it was learnt, is aimed at mopping up from circulation anti-malarial and anti-biotic medicines that do not carry on their labels the MAS scratch and text authentication codes, which NAFDAC’s Director-Genaral, Dr. Paul Orhii, introduced in 2010 to eradicate fake drugs.

    Orhii, who has received global accolades for introducing multi-layered anti-counterfeiting technology, said there was no going back on the enforcement of compliance with the MAS deadline.

    The NAFDAC chief said the deadline was shifted twice in the last three years following the pleas for more time by a segment of the pharmaceutical industry.

    He said NAFDAC has President Goodluck Jonathan’s and Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu’s support to enforce the deadline.

    He said the move was to eradicate counterfeit drugs in the country.

    Orhii said instructions had been given to NAFDAC offices to enforce the compliance, adding that the deadline was irreversible.

    The NAFDAC chief said the scratch and text service had put the power of detecting counterfeit drugs in the hands of over 100 million mobile phone users in the country.

    He added that the international community was hailing Nigeria for pioneering the use of cutting-edge technologies in combating counterfeit medicines.

  • ‘Why Delta won’t stop demolishing illegal structures’

    ‘Why Delta won’t stop demolishing illegal structures’

    Delta State Commissioner of Environment Chief Frank Omare was the guest at the maiden edition of the ‘Searchlight on the State of the State’ hosted by the Warri Correspondent Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ). He fielded questions from reporters. BOLAJI OGUNDELE was there.

    What alternative places have you made for those displaced (during the demolition exercise) considering the economic hardship and what are you doing about some of your men alleged to be collecting bribes?

    We cannot allow people to continue to block government roads because they are poor, because they don’t have the means to have shops. If we do, they will just take over the whole place.

    Abroad, we have open market on Sundays, we are not against that. But the culture of continuing to block our roads, we should discourage it in its entirety. Who is a poor man? We have provided markets, let them go into those markets and start trading. As soon as you enter Sapele, there is a market, but half of the market is a dump site, another half is abandoned.

    The issue of bribe, he who alleges must prove. Why did you give bribe? It is because you are doing something wrong. If one is giving bribe, we have the social media, you can snap us, as we are taking the bribe. We are going to comb round again before the structures will take over. So, when you are building a block store where we have removed a caravan, you will tell us who gave you that approval. We mustn’t promote sentiment. Government policies and ideologies are always minority ideologies. Let us know that what government has put in place on the long run is the majority ideology.

    Delta State Forest Reserve has been encroached by a lot of them. What the ministry wants to do by next week we are using the media to inform that all those forest reserves that have been encroached upon by Deltans and non-Deltans should be evacuated immediately. If you go to Sapele Forest reserve, it is as if government does not own a land there. Why should you be building on government property? If you go to Agbor, Asaba, it’s all over and I cannot fold my hands. I will take the bullets on behalf of you; Deltans and the government of Delta State. Government must make a decision and government must take a position.

    Garbage removed from the gutters is beginning to litter the main roads, defacing Warri, what are you going to do about it?

    Government is not a charity organisation, you generate waste, you dump them in front of your gutters and you are asked to evacuate them. You should be punished for doing that. Thank God the governor of Delta state has taken the bold step in the area of environment.

    Some of the affected victims of the 2012 flooding have complained that they have not been given anything. Is this correct and what is the Delta state government doing in respect of the recent flood predicted for the Niger Delta Region?

    We have swamp boogies in the Delta South and Central Area, opening channels to major rivers. That is why after one hour of heavy rainfall, you see that all areas are flowing. That is one serious area the state government has been working on in the past three years.

    Secondly, if the money doesn’t get to you as the community leader, you will claim that nothing has happened, it is not charity money. I know the Chairman of the committee, Rtd Justice Tabai and I can vouch that they have done a thorough job and have reported to the government of Delta state. I am sure and I am happy that my governor did not touch the money. He set up a committee and released the money to the committee.

    We understand that one particular ethnic group is more affected in the demolition of the royal cemetery. Is that true?

    I don’t know which ethnic group. I am an Ijaw man, I am not commissioner of Ijaw ethnic nationality, I am a Commissioner of Delta State and I am given an assignment of the Delta state government, so it can affect any ethnic group or the Nigerian society. The most important question is if what Omare-led team has done is against the law. If it is not then what is the issue? As a matter of government policy, my recommendation after the task work is that those people who have laboured government and used taxpayers’ resources be arrested and prosecuted.

    Uvwie market has become a recurring decimal, what are you going to do about it? The Jigbale market still remains and caravans are still around, can Warri be clean?

    The attitude of the people has propelled me to do what I should do. You are aware that overtime I have gone to the Uvwie market, if you want a financial quantification of what government has put in to clean that place, it is enough to build this house, and there will be change. But what has happened, the people are adamant. They say, ‘this is our culture, our tradition’, and thank God the paramount ruler of Uvwie and other prominent people of Uvwie have condemned their actions.

    There is what we call the helicopter factor; when there is problem and you have tried all you can and it keeps returning. When twenty women, claiming poverty as excuse, will be matched to the Okere High College (Okere Prisons), they will know that government is serious, but that is what government is trying to avoid.

    Please, I want you to educate and tell them, so that tomorrow, they won’t ask me, ‘did you tell them’? They should stop embarrassing the people of Uvwie. Uvwie people are clean people. I have been there on market days, when they see me, they behave, but when I’m not there, they come out. Jigbale market and caravans, we are coming.

    Is the task force only for demolition of illegal structures and street trading? In some places, we see traders using umbrellas, what are you doing about it?

    The position of the task force is not for only illegal structures, we cart away waste. It is sad that people are just wicked to the government. Ask this, the efforts of Omare and his team, are they not enough for people to behave well? We are putting structures in place, even though it is slow.

    Some persons have admitted to doing wrong against the environment.