The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Imo

  • Nigeria to domesticate IMO laws

    Nigeria to domesticate IMO laws

    The Nigerian Maritime Administrator and Safety Agency (NIMASA)  has said the country has taken steps in the direction of domesticating five International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulatory instruments, with the submission of the instruments of their assent to IMO’s London headquarters.

    NIMASA said it was able to achieve this feat as a result of its collaborative efforts with the Federal Ministry of Transport.

    Nigerian High Commissioner and Permanent Representative to the IMO, Dr Dalhatu Sarki Tafida,  who presented the instruments to the IMO Secretary-General, Koji Sekimizu on behalf of the Federal Government, listed the instruments to include  the Safety of Lives at Sea Protocol 1988 (as amended) and the Marine Pollution MARPOL Protocol of 1997.

    Others are the Protocol of 2005 on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts (SUA) Convention 1988, Protocol of 1988 on the SUA Convention Against Fixed Platforms on the Continental Shelf, and the Protocol of 1988 on the International Convention on Load Lines.

    “This submission is borne out of the desire of the Nigerian Government to curb the menace of piracy and promote shipping activities in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea in line with international best practices,’’ he said.

    Sekimizu expressed IMO’s pleasure on the submission of these core instruments, particularly three of which border on Ships Standard, SUA Convention and SUA Protocol, which are significant in tackling the menace of piracy.

    Sekimizu urged the government to continue the war against piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

    Director-General of NIMASA, Dr Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi who was represented by the Executive Director, Maritime Safety and Shipping Development Capt. Bala Agaba, said with the deposition of the instruments of assent, the agency was obliged to enforce the provisions of the conventions to the letter, not only on Flag Ships but also Port State Administration.

     

  • Govt to Ihedioha: don’t cause crisis in Imo

    Govt to Ihedioha: don’t cause crisis in Imo

    The Imo State Government has warned former House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha to stop making unfounded allegations against Governor Rochas Okorocha.

    The government urged him to concentrate on his case before the Election Petitions Tribunal, instead of crying wolf where there was none.

    Ihedioha was the Imo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the April 11 election.

    The former lawmaker reportedly accused the Okorocha of diverting the state’s resources to acquire estates in and outside the country when the workers were owed salary arrears.

    But in a statement in Owerri, the state capital, the governor’s Chief Press Secretary Sam Onwuemeodo urged Ihedioha to stop disrupting the peace.

    The statement said: “Ihedioha is not the only Imo man or the only Nigerian who ran the governorship election and lost. Imo State cannot stop existing because he failed in an election. He should face his case at the Election Petitions Tribunal like other candidates in other states and stop talking as if he is still on election campaigns.

    “He should also stop insulting the governor as if he derives pleasure from doing so. He had run for the governorship and he has failed or refused to respect the governor on seat and the office.

    “It is also unfortunate that a man who had been in the House of Representatives for 12 years and Deputy Speaker of the same House for four years, and who is expected to know the efficacy of respecting political office, like that of the governor, was taking delight in abusing his governor without provocation.

    “Ihedioha’s party, the PDP, governed the state for 12 years and could not renovate one school and Imo people did not accuse them of stealing the state’s funds. He has the audacity to accuse a man who had done in four years what the PDP could not do in 12 years of stealing the state’s fund.”

  • Imo Police burst baby factory syndicate

    Imo Police burst baby factory syndicate

    The Imo State Police Command Friday rescued five pregnant teenagers, including a deaf and dumb victim, Miss Blessing Nwabekee from a ‘baby factory’ allegedly operated by one Chief Emmanuel Eke, a senior Civil Servant in Abia State.

    The teenagers who were at various stages of pregnancy were said to be rescued in Abia State, where they were kept until they delivered of the babies.

    Parading the suspects, the State Police Commissioner, Austin Evbakavbokun disclosed that one Miss Ibuchi Okafor, 20 year old from Ihioma in Orlu Local Government Area of Imo state absconded from her home with a nine-months old pregnancy only to be found in the premises of the suspect at Isiala Ngwa South, Abia state after she had delivered and sold the baby at N500 000 to a yet to be identified buyer.

    According to the CP, the Police who swung into investigation after a report of the missing teenager, found four other pregnant girls, Nkasiobi Uchenna 23, Ela David 24 from Isoko in Delta state, Oluchi Victor 25, Isialangwa, Abia state and the deaf and dumb waiting for delivery at the home of the suspect.

    The CP disclosed that the owner of the baby factory confessed to have sold the baby delivered by Ibuchi for N500 000.

    Evbakavbokun however assured that the state Police Command would not relent till the child traffickers in the state and kidnappers are completely chased out.

    Meanwhile, the suspect who told journalists that he made the confession under duress, said the business belonged to his late wife, who he said passed on seven weeks ago.

    According to him, “I am not a child trafficker, I am a Civil servant in Abia State. It was my late wife that was running the home where the pregnant women were found by the Police. I confessed to the crime because of the toture I went through.”

  • Respite from kidnappers, cultists in Imo

    Respite from kidnappers, cultists in Imo

    Months of violence and tension from criminal groups are coming to an end in Imo State as the police and Department of State Security (DSS) tackle the criminals. OKODILI NDIDI reports

    Security agents have stepped up to the felons and the people can now sleep peacefully. For a while, such peaceful rest was a luxury that residents of Owerri, the Imo State capital, and environs could not afford. Kidnappers and cultists were about, perpetrating all manner of violence. Rival cultists often clashed in broad daylight, leaving blood and corpses in places that residents could easily see. Kidnapping was also on the increase. The criminals struck fear in the people.

    The activities of these dare-devil criminals are more rampant in the oil-producing communities of Ohaji Egbema and Oguta, where they torture, maim and kill innocent citizens daily.

    Most painfully, a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Mr. Frampton Akpanika, was killed in his apartment.

    It is unclear if Akpanika’s murder stirred the security forces into action. The crackdown on cultism and kidnapping has begun to yield result. Over 25 suspected cultists have been arrested in a forest, where they were allegedly holding what was referred to as their national conference, during which new members were reportedly recruited. It was also gathered that the group was fine-tuning their next attack.

    The cultists were reportedly nabbed by police in an ambush operation, according to the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Austin Evbakavbokun, who was represented by the Command’s spokesperson, Mr. Andrew Enwerem, a Deputy Superintendent of Police.

    Enwerem while parading the bandits at the Command’s headquarters disclosed that the Police acted on a tip-off by concerned residents, who saw them gathering in the forest.

    He said, “This group of cultists belongs to the Black Axe Fraternity and they were arrested while holding their national conference in the forest. We have promised that we are going to fight criminality to a standstill in Imo State.

    “They are the ones terrorising the state capital and other parts of the state. The command has resolved to fish them out from wherever they may be hiding and to make the state uncomfortable for all criminal elements because since the birds have learnt to fly without perching, we have learnt to shoot without missing”.

    Some of the cultists who were mainly between the ages of 19 and 26, said they were in the forest to settle a looming crisis between the two leading cult groups in the state to avoid bloodshed, while others denied that they were just passing through the forest when they were apprehended by the Police.

     

    •The suspected kidnappers
    •The suspected kidnappers

    Also, a six-man kidnap syndicate was also busted by the Department of State Security (DSS).

    The gang which includes five males and a female, were arrested after they had kidnapped Nnawike Chinaka in Nkwerre Local Government Area of the state.

    Parading the suspects before the State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, the state Director of the DSS, Mr. Francis Ejiofor disclosed that the Command has set up a special Taskforce to curb the rising cases of kidnapping in the State.

    He said that the operation is beginning to yield result with the arrest of the syndicate and the rescue of the victim.

    The Governor commended the recent efforts of security operatives in the state for ensuring that kidnapping and other related crimes are brought to the barest minimum.

    He assured that the state government will continue to provide adequate support and partnership to all security operatives to make the state peaceful and crime free.

    The state Police Command had also arrested two suspected kidnappers, Ebuka Ibeh and Kelechi Nwogu, from Orsu Local Government Area of the state, who allegedly specialised in the abduction and selling of under-age children.

    The duo before their arrest had succeeded in abducting two minors, aged 4 and 3 years from their home before luck ran out of them.

    One of the suspects, during interrogation, confessed that the two children, Chigozie and Chukwuka Ezeribe from the same parents, were kidnapped along the road while their mother was out to fetch them food.

    He said, “When we monitored and found out that their mother was out we grabbed the children and drove off in a motorbike and took them to where we wanted to sell them to a waiting buyer”.

    The rescued children have been reunited with their family according to the state police boss.

  • Imo: Okorocha dares kidnappers

    Imo: Okorocha dares kidnappers

    Determined to make Imo State a safe haven for investors and residents, the State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha said government is working hand in glove with all the Security Agencies to nip kidnapping and other violent crimes in the bud.

    Governor Okorocha disclosed this when he visited the Department of State Security Services (DSS) Imo State command as six kidnap suspects aged between 16 and 25 years were paraded.

    The Governor who expressed worries at the resurgence of such ugly trend in the State announced that government is battle ready to end kidnapping and violent crimes in the State and assured Imo people that his government shall guarantee the safety of lives and property of residents in the State.

    “But let me again warm all criminals, all kidnappers to get out of Imo State because this is not a place for you. We are ready for you,” he stressed.

    Owelle Okorocha recalled that 4 years ago before he assumed office as governor, the entire State was traumatized by the activities of kidnappers and criminals until his administration swooped into action to bring criminality to a halt.

    The governor maintained that government will continue to demolish houses belonging to kidnappers or any building where kidnap victim is kept, and therefore warned parents and guardians to always monitor the activities of their children and report suspicious movement, to security agencies.

    “Any house of any kidnapper or where a kidnapper is found will be demolished and destroyed, more so houses of the kidnappers’ parents  will equally be demolished if their lifestyle and means of livelihood does not justify the building,” he warned.

    Earlier the Director, Department of State Security Services (DSS) Mr. Francis Ejiofor, explained that the commend has set up task force in the 3 zones of the State in line with the directives of the Director General of the DSS to combat kidnapping and other violent crimes.

    The task force, he said has recorded tremendous success in tracking and arresting kidnap cases in the State.

    Ejiofor said the men of the State Security Services arrested the six paraded kidnap suspects on tip off while their victim, Mr. Nnawike Chilaka from Nkwerre LGA was freed after being held captive by his abductors for five days.

    The suspects are Mr. Suleman Samila, a gate man from Niger Republic and Chinedu Joseph alias Topic from Abia State who was described as the prime suspect. Others are Chigozie Keneth, a Computer Science Student of the Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Anayo, Michael Uzochukwu and Miss Kosisochukwu, a Secondary School student all from Nkwerre Local Government Area of Imo State.

  • Anxiety as Imo moves against oil firms over N40b debt

    AIl companies in Imo State are in jitters  following a bill passed by the House of Assembly asking them to pay N40 billion tenement rate and other statutory revenue owed the state since 1978.

    The people have lauded the bill, accusing the firms of fraud. They said such moves would boost the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

    The companies were mandated to offset all outstanding debts for their exploration activities in the last 37 years.

    Reacting to the bill, a senior official with one of the indigenous firms, who pleaded for anonymity said the bill was coming at a time the companies were struggling to remain in business because of the fall in oil prices.

    According to him, “in the last 37 years, the firms have enjoyed a cordial relationship with the state, especially the host communities, and I can say that we have tried to live up to expectations in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility.

    “But this development may throw spanner into the existing relationship. Granted that some companies may have defaulted in their contractual commitments, but the bill is coming at a wrong time when the companies can barely pay salaries”.

    The bill has however continued to receive commendation from indigenes.

    Stanley Onwere described the bill as an indication that the House of Assembly is determined to recover all that the state had lost to investors because of the absence of proper legislation.

    He commended the lawmakers for living up to the people’s expectations. “This is the vibrancy that we expect. The passage of the bill less than three weeks after inauguration shows that the lawmakers are committed to making developmental laws,” Onwere said.

  • Police arrest 25 suspected cultists in Imo

    Police arrest 25 suspected cultists in Imo

    The Police in Imo State yesterday arrested 25 suspected cultists and 10 ‘armed robbers’.

    Parading the suspects, police spokesman Andrew Enwerem, said they acted on a tip-off by concerned residents who saw them gathering in the forest.

    Enwerem said the suspected cultists were holding their national conference and initiating new members.

    “These ‘cultists’ belong to the Black Axe Fraternity and they were arrested while holding their national conference in the forest,” Enwerem said.

     

  • Imo denies complicity in suspension of Monarchs

    Imo State Government has denied its involvement in the suspension of four traditional rulers and the probe of about 50 others.

    The state Council of Traditional Rulers suspended four monarchs for disobeying the Council’s directives and identifying with a deposed monarch and factional chairman of the Council, Cletus Ilomuanya.

    A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo described the action as an independent decision of the Council.

    “It is important to say that while the state government takes exception to the action of the traditional rulers, it has no hand in their suspension or the trial of more than 50 others.

    “The government has a culture; the culture of not being vindictive, even at the height of provocation. The suspension and trial of the concerned monarchs remain the business of the Eze Samuel Ohiri–led council.

    “The state government cannot interfere in the Council’s activities, especially in handling issues concerning the conduct of the members. The state government will however not hesitate to act on the recommendations of the Council as long as it is in the interest of the state.

    “This explanation has become necessary to set the record straight with regards to the referenced actions of the Council on their members,” Onwuemeodo said.

  • Imo proposes Catholic University

    Imo proposes Catholic University

    The quest for quality and affordable education in Imo State has received a significant boost with the flag off of the Catholic Diocese of Orlu University. It was all joy at a thanksgiving service at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Orlu, when the state Governor, Rochas Okorocha, gave the aspiration a breath of life with a cash donation of N100 million and an expansive plot of land for the university.

    At the event, which was also the thanksgiving service by the Governor in commemoration of his victory at the 2015 polls and successful inauguration, were other prominent Imo citizens such as Senator Ifeanyi Araraume and Chief Felix Idiga, who donated generously to ensure that the Catholic University is completed on time.

    Governor Okorocha, who spoke before a large audience, including over 350 Catholic and Anglican Priests and other clergymen, directed that all necessary authorisation papers for the university be given to the leadership of the Diocese for the commencement of the project with immediate effect.

    He assured that the state government would continue to invest heavily in education, adding that the free education progreamme will remain a priority project of the Rescue Mission administration.

    The Governor listed the Marine University under construction in Ossemotor in Oguta Local Government Area, the European University in Ideato South Local Government Area and another under construction at Ngor-Okpala Local Government Area as some of the tertiary institutions that would be the envy of many when they finally take off.

    Okorocha noted that he has always encouraged the Church to invest in the building of universities to assist in producing graduates with sound moral training and the fear of God.

    He reiterated that his second tenure would be better than his first, adding that the rural roads projects would be completed, while the free education from primary to university levels will remain a major thrust of his administration.

    The Governor further pledged to live up to his promise of building industries and factories in his second term which will help in creating jobs in the state and end poverty among the citizens.

    He said: “When I said I will stop kidnapping in the state, including Orlu, people doubted me.  Today, it is a success story; kidnapping has been confined to the trashcan of history in the state.  Now, I have promised to establish industries. I am speaking based on my trust in God.  I will fulfill the promise.  This government will fulfill its campaign promises.  The 27 general hospitals, the 305 primary schools and other projects will be completed.”

    Continuing, he said:  “The problem I had with the elite or the big men in the state was that I didn’t carry them along.  But I will now carry them along. These coming four years will be better than the last four years.”

    Earlier in his sermon, the Bishop of the Diocese, Most Reverend Augustine Ukwuoma, observed that the Church has been in the forefront of development, noting that great continents such as Europe was developed by the Church.

    The Bishop explained that although governing people is always difficult, the government should always listen to them to eliminate their biases. He also advised the people to pray for the government, noting that people can criticise those in authority, but it must be constructive and not just for the sake of doing so or for the sake of opposition.

    Encouraging those in authority to use their positions to develop the society, the cleric recalled that “the former President of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, was under pressure to send his children abroad for education but he refused. Instead, he preferred to improve the quality of education in his country.

    He praised the Governor for sustaining the free education programme and supporting the proposed Catholic University, which he assured will boost the education industry in the state.

    The renowned cleric advised the Governor to listen to the people and carry everyone along, adding that, “my dear Governor, political campaigns are over. I urge all to sheath their swords. We should forget about politics and unite. Whether we voted for you or not, you are the Governor. God has made you the Governor. Let political opponents not become your personal enemies. There is life after politics. Let us work together to make Imo better”.

    Reacting to the development, scholars and other stakeholders in the education sector, described the proposed Catholic University as a development that will re-define the quest for meaningful education in the state.

    Dr Nathaniel Izuzu noted that early schools that produced some of Nigeria’s best brains were owned and operated by the Church.

    “I have no doubt that the Catholic University will be an instant success. In conventional universities, the rate of moral decadence is alarming and I know that the coming of the Catholic-owned University will provide a credible alternative for our children,” he said.

    In a similar manner, Mr. Cletus Uzokwa, said the issue of incessant closure of schools as a result of industrial actions will not be the case with the proposed Catholic University.

    “I am delighted about the planned university, because when it becomes operational, people can get admitted and graduate at target time without the usual frustrations suffered in public universities,” he said.

  • NYSC member murdered in Imo

    NYSC member murdered in Imo

    A member of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) simply identified as Akpan has been strangled to death by yet to be identified assailants in Ezuhu Umuhu Okwuato autonomous community in Aboh Mbaise Council of Imo state.

    The victim whose body was discovered in his apartment by neighbours was tied up and his face covered with his shirt before he was murdered.

    According to an eye witness who does not want his name mentioned, “neighbours of the deceased became curious when they discovered that his door was opened and was not seen around the premises.”

    The source added tha; “when the neighbours entered the apartment they found the lifeless body of Apkan in a pool of his own blood with his legs tied and they promptly raised an alarm which attracted the attention of the members of the community who reported the matter to the Police.

    It was learnt that the late Apkan who was said to hail from Cross Rivers State, was last seen on that fateful day when he was fetching water from a nearby borehole.

    However, further investigations at the Christ the Saviour Secondary School, a private School in the community where the late corps member was a teacher, revealed that his death may not be unconnected with an alleged amorous affair with a young lady in the school which apparently had not gone well with another rival who was said to have been dating the said young lady before late corps member was posted to the community.

    It was gathered that the boy friend to the young lady had threatened to deal with the corps member if he fails to hands off his girl friend.

    When contacted the spokesman of the Imo state Police Command , Mr. Andrew Enwerem (DSP), confirmed the incident stating that some arrests has been made while investigations into the dastardly act has commenced in earnest.