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Tag: Jonathan Obuebite

  • No election in Nembe wards, PDP candidates insist

    Candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just-concluded Presidential and National Assembly election in Bayelsa State at the weekend insisted that no election held in the seven wards of Nembe-Bassambiri, Nembe Local Government Area of the state.

    The candidates said they were surprised that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) still went ahead to announce results, which they claimed were written without election by leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Speaking at the PDP state secretariat, Yenagoa, the candidates, who contested elections in the affected wards said there was no basis for INEC to accept results from Nembe-Bassambiri where elections could not hold.

    Persons, who narrated their ordeals, were the PDP candidates for Brass-Nembe Federal Constituency, Marie Ebikake and Bayelsa East Senatorial District, Izagara Ipigansi.

    Ebikake said other areas where elections held in the senatorial district, the PDP defeated the APC and wondered how 41,000 votes were ‘manufactured’ from Nembe-Bassambiri to upturn the victory of the PDP.

    She said: “You all are aware that the 22nd, specifically in Bassambiri, there was serious shoot out throughout the night and everybody ran helter skelter. Some people moved to Nembe City while some people rushed down to other communities.

    Surprisingly they said election took place on Saturday and we thought it was a joke”.

    She said one military officer with the rank of a major aided the opposition to write the controversial  results describing him as a disgrace to the military.

    Also speaking, Ipigansi, said he could not vote in his unit because electoral materials did not get to Nembe-Bassambiri.

    He said after all their efforts to get the materials proved abortive, they discovered that the materials were diverted to a private hotel under the supervision of security operatives.

    Read Also: Gas explosion sacks Bayelsa communities

    He said: “There were no materials. I can attest to that because I was not giving the opportunity to see the materials and to cast my vote. Bassambiri protested and we called people to record and take video clips of what happened at the various units where people waited in vain to cast their votes.

    So as a candidate I did not participate, only to be told on the 24th of January that results had been prepared to be submitted. I was no giving the opportunity to vote in my Constituency 3, which comprises wards 11, 12 and 13. There was no election.

    “In Brass, I won APC by almost 7,000 votes. In Nembe local government in constituency 1 where election was conducted I won APC by almost 3,000 votes. So you can imagine that in my own constituency and my own community that has ward 11, the highest voting strength in that local government, I didn’t have one vote. This is surprising.

    “So I am surprised that where election did not hold, result were compiled and submitted. We are pleading that INEC should have a rerun of election in Nembe Bassambiri. If  they are popular let them come and contest”, he said.

    Also, the Commissioner for Education, Jonathan Obuebite, said the results relied upon by INEC to declare candidates of the APC winners would not stand.

    He said: “Whatever result you see that have been used to declare any candidate should be disregarded because we know we are to meet in court, and definitely the law will have is course and the truth will manifest and the rightful candidate that won the election will be declared or re-run election will be conducted in those 7 wards.

    “Let it be very clear to the world that there was no election Nembe constituency 2 and Nembe constituency 3. Now the big question is how come they allow those results to be declared? How come they did not probe the card readers to confirm that indeed there was no accreditation?”

  • Bayelsa schools can’t open now, says Dickson

    The Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, at the weekend ruled out immediate reopening of schools, which were closed by the government following the flood disaster. 

    Dickson, who spoke in a media chat in Yenagoa, said there was a need to protect children from water borne diseases.

    But the governor assured the people of the state that the schools would not be closed for too long following the flood assessment reports by a committee led by the Commissioner for Education, Jonathan Obuebite.

    He said the Ministry of Education was working to mitigate the negative impact of the closure on the overall performance of students in the forthcoming West African Examination Council (WAEC).

    The governor noted that while the flood started to recede, government was more concerned about the health and safety of the children.

    He said that the government was taking steps to ensure proper sanitation of all the schools including the ones that were converted to camps for displaced persons before children were allowed into them.

    Read Also: Nigeria sitting on keg of gunpowder, says Dickson

    He said: “We ordered a forced closure of all schools about a month ago to ensure the safety of the children. But now that the flood is receding, we will do everything possible to make our schools habitable before announcing the resumption of schools.

    “But let me assure you that, that will not be too long from now. The State Ministry of Education is monitoring the water level and making daily reports to me. We are not in a hurry to push children who are vulnerable to harm’s way.

    “On the issue of the performance of our students in national examinations, I want to assure you that government will encourage all schools to make some adjustments to enable them to make up for lost time”.

    The governor, who commended the flood victims for their resilience said the government would do its best to ameliorate the plight of displaced persons and ensure their resettlement into their communities

    He called for collaboration in proffering long term solutions to address the flood issue through the dredging of the major rivers, tributaries, shore protection as well as construction of sea walls and shelters.

    Dickson also offered automatic employment to all indigenes of the state,mwho graduated with first class in their respective areas of studies. 

    He called on such graduates, who did not pick the employment forms for the 1000 vacancies announced earlier by the government, to approach the civil service commission for enrollment into the service.

    He explained that the automatic employment of first class graduates would be in addition to the 1000 graduates awaiting oral interview to be conducted by the Civil Service Commission.

    He explained that his desire to bequeathed a vibrant and productive civil servant inspired the decision to engage all first class graduates in the state.

  • Dickson’s wife urges parents, guardians to expose rapists, paedophiles

    Dickson’s wife urges parents, guardians to expose rapists, paedophiles

    Wife of Bayelsa State Governor, Dr. Rachael Dickson, on Friday, warned parents, guardians and traditional rulers against protecting  rapists, paedophiles and other criminal elements in the state.

    She lamented increasing cases of abuse of women and girl-child in society and urged people to always shame rapists to reduce the incidence of the menace.

    Mrs. Dickson spoke when the Commonwealth Women in Parliament (CWP), African Region, visited St. Judes Girls Secondary School, Amarata, Yenagoa, to interact with the students.

    The interaction was compered by Miss Mabel Obiriki, a Bayelsa scholarship beneficiary and female first-class student of the Lincoln University, United States of America.

    Speaking on the theme, ‘Girl-Child Education: A Panacea for a Stable Society’, Mrs. warned parents against encouraging their girl-child to indulge in street hawking instead of being at school.

    She said:  “The government is doing so much about rape and street hawking. As you are aware, we have the office of Public Complaints in Bayelsa that takes care of every girl that has been violated.

    “Now, the family cannot say they do not have the money to prosecute the matter. Now, I say to every mother and guardian, once your daughter is violated, it is not a cultural issue anymore; it is a criminal matter. Somebody has broken the law, the law should take its course.

    “Do not go for settlement. Immediately you go for settlement and a token is paid, that culprit will violate another girl. So, let them (violators) face the law. It is not traditional. No traditional ruler should call for settlement. If the law sets him free, we accept, if the law does not set him free, let him face the punishment.

    “On the issue of street hawking, actually, there is no reason for street hawking in Bayelsa. We have free education and I know that government has formulated legislation. Every guardian, every parent that their daughter and their son is of school age that are hawking while they should be in school, will not go unpunished. Education is the right of a child and in Bayelsa, we will enforce that right.”

    In her submission, Chairperson, Commonwealth Women in Parliament, Lindiwe Maseko, appealed to the parents and society to give equal attention to both the girl-child and the boy-child.

    Maseko commended the government and legislature for making a.law to ensure that the perpetrators of violence and abuse against the girl child were brought.

    She said: “It is important for all to appreciate that this is a challenge to our society, not just Bayelsa, not just Nigeria, not just Africa continent, but for society as a whole. It therefore behoves us all, in particular men and our boy children to stand and say no to abuse, rape and violation of the girl-child.

    “The boy child should be taught to protect the girl child. Parents should appreciate that every child is important, not to protect the boys alone. We need a societal movement that forbids that practice of violating the girl child.”

    In his remarks, the Commissioner for Education, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, said the government had spent over N70bn in the education sector since its inception in 2012.

    He said the government took the education of girl-child seriously, saying that as part of the measures to reduce the incidence of street hawking, prostitution and other social vices, the government made education free and compulsory for both boy-child and girl-child.

    Also speaking, Mrs. Ebiowou Koku-Obiyai, a former lawmaker and former Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress, Bayelsa State, said the government domesticated the child right law in the state.

    She said: “We have domesticated the child right law in the state. It was domesticated last year, and in that law, there are a lot of things it has captured. Hawking and rape are part of it. Rape has become a problem in the society because most times when our children are raped, people do not want to talk about it because of stigmatisation.

    “People will hide family members will hide. We have a law that can protect them and that is the child right law. We have various organisations to assist them.

    “The duties of these organisations are to track some of these vices against our children being the girl child or boy child. I also know that boys are being raped. All of them should be protected. Parents should be bold to report; we have not been making formal report and that is bad. This is so because once a girl is raped, you have destroyed the future of that child because the child will be withdrawn in life, some of them may even be afraid of getting married.

    “I want to use this opportunity to tell our parents, our brothers and sisters that whenever they hear anybody that is raped, they should speak out and the law is there to protect them.”

     

     

  • Bayelsa education commissioner urges stakeholders to draw new strategy

    Bayelsa education commissioner urges stakeholders to draw new strategy

    The Bayelsa Commissioner for Education, Mr Jonathan Obuebite, has urged education team and  stakeholders in the state to formulate new policies and strategies to take the sector to greater heights.

    The commissioner gave the charge on Monday during a meeting with the principals of model secondary schools in Bayelsa held in his office in Yenagoa.

    Obuebite said that one of the resolutions for the year was zero tolerance to any act of indiscipline and nonchalant attitude from the top to the least person.

    Read Also: Schools reopen in Maiduguri for 2nd term academic session

    He said that it would no longer be business as usual as both erring staff and students would be sanctioned appropriately.

    The commissioner stressed that the meeting was borne out of the governor’s desire to reposition the sector to achieve this, adding that all hands must be on deck.

    The President of Association of Nigerian Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools, ANCOPSS, Mr Abey Ayebaemi, congratulated the commissioner on his emergence  as the Best Commissioner at the 2017 Bayelsa Merit Award.

    He said that it was a well deserved award hinged on hard work, sincerity and dedication to duty.

    The president thanked the governor for appointing Obuebite, as the Commissioner for Education, saying, “it is the first time a meeting of such nature is been held’’.

    NAN

  • Bayelsa to augment funding of primary education

    Bayelsa to augment funding of primary education

    The Bayelsa Government has pledged to augment the funding of primary school education to end ongoing strike by teachers in the state.

    Mr Martins Fefegha, outgoing Commissioner for Education, announced the plan on Thursday at the handing over ceremony to the new Commissioner for Education, Mr Jonathan Obuebite, in Yenagoa.

    Teachers in public primary schools in Bayelsa have been on strike for more than six weeks in the state.

    Although the new academic session began in September, the teachers refused to go back to their duty posts in protest over alleged non payment of 10 months salary arrears.

    Fefegha noted that the state government’s resolve to augment primary school funding which had been the constitutional responsibility of the local governments.

    According to him, the state government’s decision follows the dwindling resources at the disposal of the local government councils.

    He said that the state government observed that the current revenue profile of councils was not sufficient to pay primary school teachers leading to backlog of unpaid salaries.

    Fefegha, now redeployed to Ministry of Mineral Resources in a minor cabinet reshuffle, handed over to Obuebite, who until the development was in charge of Information and Orientation.

    Speaking at the brief ceremony, Obuebite said the state government had declared a state of emergency in the education sector and had injected about N55 billion in the sector since 2012.

    According to him, the state government is determined to give more priority to the education sector.

    He said that under his watch, the welfare of teachers and capacity building would receive adequate attention.

    He also assured that the state government was poised to clear the backlog of salaries owed to primary school teachers in the state.

    NAN

  • Soldiers’ killing politically motivated – Bayelsa

    Soldiers’ killing politically motivated – Bayelsa

    The Bayelsa State Government said on Thursday that the recent killing of soldiers by suspected militants along the waterways of Letugbene community in Ekeremor local government area of the state was politically motivated.

    The government in a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, regretted the unfortunate incident, describing it as unwarranted, barbaric and totally unacceptable.

    He said the government discovered from its preliminary investigations that there was no dispute to have warranted an attack on soldiers, who were carrying out there legitimate duties.

    He said it was purely an act of criminality, deliberately carried out to rubbish the security and peace efforts of the state government.

    Obuebite, who expressed government’s sympathy to the immediate families of dead soldiers and the Nigerian Army, called for a thorough investigation into the incident to ensure that everybody linked to the act was brought to book to serve as a deterrent to others.

    He said: “To us, this incident is a politically motivated and sponsored by some persons in high places to heat up the state for their selfish interests and as a government, we would not fold our arms and allow a few individuals to rubbish the peace and security we have been able to bring to our state.

    “We will support the security agencies in whichever way possible in carrying out their investigations in this matter.”

    Obuebite said the government would resist every move by mischief makers to take the state back to its inglorious past, when some politicians used their positions to perpetuate acts of lawlessness.

    He also urged the Federal Government to ensure that anybody found culpable in the matter, no matter how highly placed, should be made to face the music.

     

     

  • Bayelsa approves N2bn counterpart funds for SUBEB, SDG

    Bayelsa approves N2bn counterpart funds for SUBEB, SDG

    The Bayelsa Government says it has approved the release of N2billion counterpart funds to the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the approval was given by State Executive Council at its 77th meeting at the government house in Yenagoa.

    Mr Jonathan Obuebite, the state’s Commissioner for Information, said shortly after the meeting that the release of the funds was in line with the government’s commitment to improving the standard of education and empowering youths in the area.

    “’SUBEB and SDGs will each get N1billion,” he said.

    Obuebite further said the approved sum as resolved in the executive council would take care of the state’s share of the counterpart funds and other developmental projects.

    “With the approval of N1billion, most of the on-going projects, especially at the primary education sector are expected to be completed.

    “Also with the sole aim of beautifying the Ox-bow Lake, Council also looked into the dredging activities at the Ox-bow Lake and has called on all owners of dredgers within that vicinity to immediately move out.

    “This is a follow up of the notice sent out by the ministry of environment to all operators within the environment.

    “Council announced the commencement of the fencing project that is billed to commence immediately at the Ox-bow Lake for security reasons,” Obuebite said.

    He further explained that the council agreed to encourage Bayelsa people to take advantage of the free boarding school facilities provided by the government with five of its kind already in session.

    According to him, in July, the sports academy in the state will become fully operational as directed by the governor.

    Reacting to the allegation by the Association of Local Government Employees that Bayelsa was the most indebted state to local council workers having failed to pay up to 16 months salary, Obuebite said the state owed only nine months.

    “No LGA is owing more than 9 months’ salary except Ogbia that is owing 10 months arrears.

    “But modalities are being worked out to off-set the backlog of salary arrears.

    “The said publication (allegation) lacks fact as the situation on ground is different,” he said.

  • Labour, Dickson disagree on education tax

    Labour, Dickson disagree on education tax

    The Bayelsa State chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), on Monday, disagreed with Governor Seriake Dickson, on the introduction of compulsory education levy in the state.

    Dickson signed the Bayelsa Education Development Trust Fund Law 2017 compelling civil servants, goverment officials, contractors and taxable citizens to pay monthly education levy.

    The governor explained the reasons behind the tax insisting it was part of the measures to protect the future of education in the state.

    Dickson, who said he was the highest contributor to the funds insisted that anybody opposed to the tax would be considered as an enemy of the state.

    According to him, the fund would guarantee the sustainability of huge investments of the government in the educational sector.

    Dickson said: ”From now on, funds will be pumped into the EDTF account to support the free feeding, free uniforms and other items of the students. And it will take little contributions from every Bayelsan; some will pay as little as N400, N500 per month. There are others that will have to pay N1,000 or more depending on their business”.

    But the NLC chairman, Mr. John Ndiomu, said that while the workers were in support of the education development of the state, they believed that the government had the capacity to finance it without resorting to imposing further taxes on them.

    Ndiomu appealed to the government to review the levy because workers were still grappling with how to survive the current recession.

    On his part, the TUC chairman in the state, Mr. Tari Dounana, described the levy as “an antipeople’s policy” by the executive and the legislature without any inputs from the stakeholders.

    Dounana said: “It is unfortunate that such a law that requires civil servants to make contributions about their salaries was passed and assented to without a public hearing for the stakeholders to make their views known

    “We have already agreed to support the proposed Health Insurance Policy into which workers will also make contributions. This is one deduction too many. We are opposed to it.”

    But the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, said that the levy had noble intentions insisting that the state needed it to move its education forward.

    He said: ”We have built infrastructure and built boarding schools for which 16 of them will commence soon. We need to put up a system that can sustain them. The Government will be doing the job of providing infrastructure, but the essence of this is that we must run a boarding school and if we are to provide boarding facilities as we have done and we want to run them, we must put up a system that must sustain it outside of the direct government’s funding.

    ”And that is why the government has said that five per cent of its internally generated revenue will be channelled into the  EDTF and that everybody in government – political appointees and elected political officials including the civil servants and all citizens of the state will pay something into that fund which will be used primarily for students’ feeding and immediate needs in the boarding schools we have established in the eight local government areas for which the Ijaw National Academy is one.

    ”So, what we are doing is to sustain our educational system and also move Bayelsa out of the educationally disadvantaged state  to a state that will compete favourably with other states in the comity of states as a state that is educationally advantaged.”