The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nembe

  • PDP to Buratai: probe electoral violence in Bayelsa

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State has appealed to the Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai to investigate the violence that occurred in the state during the last general elections.

    The party alleged that some army officials directly participated in the elections and called on the military to redeem its image by probing incidents linked to them.

    Speaking at the party’s secretariat in Yenagoa, the Chairman of PDP, Moses Cleopas, said the activities of the army deployed in Brass, Nembe and Southern Ijaw, should be queried by the military.

    He wondered why the army had not kept sealed lips on the killing of two PDP members without provocation by soldiers.

    Cleopas lamented that PDP members were prime targets during the elections describing situation as unhealthy.

    He further took a swipe at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state, saying wondering why the commission declared constituencies won by PDP candidates inconclusive.

    Cleopas, however, described victory of some candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as temporary and vowed that his party would retrieve them in courts.

    He said PDP won all the seats in areas where proper elections were conducted while the APC allegedly manipulated the process in cohort with the military and INEC to win few seats in the state.

    The party boss said that in Nembe all PDP members were chased away from Bassambiri, where APC candidates were declared winners.

    He said: “The PDP won everywhere in Bayelsa and in places where the APC has been declared winners, we will reclaim our mandate”.

    READ ALSO: Dickson seeks probe of election violence

    In Ekeremor constituency 1, Cleopas said a chieftain of the APC invaded the area with soldiers and forced INEC field officials to alter results under duress.

    He said: The APC chieftain came with military men and doctored results and forced INEC to change results to the advantage of his party. This will not stand.

    “Nembe 2 and 3, Bassambiri was taken over by hoodlums. They chased away all PDP members from the community. Policeman who went there to maintain the peace were driven out by the APC in that area. They wrote results. There was no proper elections there.

    “In the areas declared inconclusive, in Ogbia constituency 2, we were winning before military men came and carted away materials in Otuokpoti Same in Brass constituency 2 and Southern Ijaw 4, it was pure abracadabra,” he alleged.

    “We are going back for the inconclusive polls, but a situation where armed military men were used to harass our people cannot be tolerated.”

    The PDP chairman said he had a personal experience where military men whisked away INEC officials who were just rounding off elections and named a senior military officer as the culprit.

    “It is on this note that we call on on the Chief of Army Staff to investigate the activities of his officers and men in Bayelsa because it has become recurrent that army men now chase PDP members,” he said.

  • No record of pipeline explosion in Nembe – NNPC

    The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation says it has no record of pipeline explosion in Nembe, Bayelsa, as being reported in some quarters.

    Mr Ndu Ughamadu, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the corporation disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN), in Abuja, on Saturday.

    No fewer than 50 people were reported to be missing after a leaking oil pipeline exploded and caused stampedeIn Nembe Kingdom in Bayelsa, according to the spokesperson of the community’s council of chiefs, Mr Nengi James-Eriworii .

    Read also: EFCC invades home of Finance Director of Atiku’s company

    He said the blast which happened in the early hours of Friday caused massive oil spillage in the community.

    But the NNPC said that the Nembe trunk line was operated by the Aiteo Group.

    ” It is not our pipeline, it is Aiteo that was mentioned, which ordinarily they are supposed to be on joint venture with NNPC.

    “I have cross-checked with our downstream unit that manages our pipeline and they said that they didn’t have such records,” he said.(NAN)

  • Constituents threaten to recall Senator Ben Bruce for non-performance 

    Constituents threaten to recall Senator Ben Bruce for non-performance 

    Constituents, mainly students, from the Bayelsa East Senatorial District, have threatened to begin a process of recalling the Senator representing them in the National Assembly, Mr. Ben Bruce.

    The aggrieved constituents accused the common sense senator of neglecting them and having no plans for his constituency, which comprises Nembe, Brass and Ogbia local government areas, Bayelsa State.
    Leaders of student bodies for the three local government areas made their grievances known Tuesday in a statement.

    The statement was signed by Samuel Tari (Nembe), Ambrose Joseph (Brass) and Mark John (Ogbia).

    They lamented that the senator was not in good relationship with his people and had continued to shy away from his constitutional responsibilities.

    They cried out that the senator was donating relief materials to people in other states when his constituents were wallowing in poverty with many students unable to pay their fees.

    Besides, they said since he was elected, Bruce had not visited his people.

    They said: “Since Bruce became a senator, he has failed to look into the basic needs and challenges currently bedeviling the East Senatorial Districts, such as issues of education, as most of our students cannot access good quality education.

    “He has failed to attract a single project to the districts in terms of infrastructures, roads and others. He has continuously and deliberately ignored efforts by the people to create a working relationship that will bring out purposeful leadership for our people.

    “He is yet to fulfil any of his campaign promises; painfully, he is an Abuja-based senator. He refuses to visit his constituency, except only once when he visited his hometown and couldn’t even stay for up to four hours.

    “Sincerely, we are tired; other places are enjoying the benefits that come from having a national representative. Our case has been a curse rather than a blessing. We are just like a district without a senator. This why we are intended to change that narrative”.
    The student leaders gave the senator a 10-day ultimatum, to amend his ways or face consistent protest and the recall process.

    They asked the senator to organise a town hall meeting with his constituents and take out time to tour his constituency.

    “We are, hereby, giving him an ultimatum of 10 days, starting from 21st August. If he fails to meet with us, we shall take our protest to the National Assembly.

    “We will mobilise all the students, our mothers and our fathers. We will initiate his recall process. Our people deserve a better treatment from him. We request to have a town hall meeting.”

  • Bayelsa elders to Dickson: Don’t let criticisms distract you

    Bayelsa elders to Dickson: Don’t let criticisms distract you

    Elders from the local government areas in Bayelsa State, Monday, urged the state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, to remain focus in his approach to development.

    The elders under the auspices of Forum of Restoration Caucus Chairmen (FRCC) insisted that the governor should overlook destructive criticisms and work with quality advice from well-meaning individuals.

    The elders said before advising the governor, they had taken time to tour all the ongoing and completed projects initiated by the governor in the eight local government areas of the state.

    In a statement issued in Yenagoa, the state capital, they said they were satisfied with the developmental strides of Dickson including his “massive investment in agriculture”.

    In the statement signed by the restoration caucus chairmen in the eight local government areas, the elders said they were excited with Dickson’s robust leadership and his achievements in the educational sector in line with his state of emergency in the sector.

    The statement was signed by the Leader of the Forum and Ekeremor Caucus Chairman, Chief T.K.O Okorotie; His Royal Highness Serena Dokubo, Brass; Talford Ongolo, Southern Ijaw and Dr. George Fente, Nembe.

    Others are Chief Godwin Odumgba, Yenagoa; Chief Francis Duokpola, Sagbama; Mr. Isaac Kumokou, Kolokuma/Opokuma and Chief George Okrinya, Ogbia.

    While commending the educational strides of the governor, the elders appealed to the state government to complete ongoing projects in the Jasper Isaac Boro College of Education to cater for increasing school population.

    They appreciated the governor for prudently managing the state’s lean resources saying it accounted for the execution of many developmental projects in the state.

    The elders said: “We urge the governor to continue on this path for the government to achieve more. We also urge all contractors handling state and federal projects in the state to use quality materials and to keep to the timelines contained in their contract agreements.

    “We observed the appreciable stability of the polity in the state with the specific reference to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and advise members of the party to be steadfast as we look forward to the eventual resolution of the party’s crisis.

    “This resolution is actively pursued by the PDP National Peace and Reconciliation Committed headed by Governor Seriake Dickson and other stakeholders across the country”.

    In their appraisal of all the projects in the eight local government areas, the elders said that there was hope that road would get to Ekeremor before the end of the year.

    They observed that in Brass, government was taking steps to partner with the Federal Government to actualise the abandoned Brass LNG project.

    In Kolokuma/Opokuma, they commended the government for completing the Ijaw National Academy and admitting 1000 students.

    “The befitting permanent camp for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has been put to use. Also completed is the skills acquisition centre in Kolokuma/Opokuma”, they said.

     

  • Why Buhari shouldn’t dialogue with Niger Delta militants, by Nembe chief

    Why Buhari shouldn’t dialogue with Niger Delta militants, by Nembe chief

    A community leader and social commentator, Chief Wilfred Ogbotobo, has said that a group of militants who has the penchant for wanton destruction of national assets, especially oil installations in the Niger Delta region, does not deserve a dialogue with President Muhammadu Buhari.

    He advocated military action as the best approach to flush out the criminals from the creeks and quell the unrest in the region.

    According to him, criminals should not be pampered and any dialogue with militants amounts to treating criminality with kid gloves.

    He said: “With the weighty challenges confronting the country at the moment, the Buhari administration does not have the luxury of time and resources for hopeless, hypocritical frolics with every lunatic group that springs from the creeks and other parts of the Niger Delta.

    “Instead, the Federal Government should consolidate the successes so far recorded and expand the overall capacity of the Operation Crocodile Smile to restore law and order in the region. This, he said, will enable the government to fast track significant development without delay.

    “Dialogue, especially with the same Ijaw actors, elders and leaders is akin to bathing a pig. The late President Yar’adua had broad and extensive consultations and dialogues with the same syndicates of Ijaw and other regional actors, elders and leaders before the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) was fashioned and implemented with its fraudulent Amnesty Fund which the syndicates hijacked in order to side-track the basic concerns of the downtrodden.

    “The cardinal thrust of the PAP, among others, is to confront the major issues of the Niger Delta, including restiveness, especially among the youth. The PAP successfully offered the syndicates hundreds of billions of Naira to share.

    “If another condemnable resurgence is to be pampered and dignified with a presidential dialogue, then, it only confirms that the Yar’adua’s PAP was a sham.”

    He described the amnesty programme as an exercise in futility, saying that Ijaw leaders are blinded by free cash and have been unable to chart a path of development for the region.

    Chief Ogbotobo reels off many interventionist agencies which people from the region mismanaged for their selfish interests.

    “Currently, it has become a miserable exercise in futility, to fathom how many more dialogues are required, for the Ijaws to make a decision on what they want and the manner they want progress in their territories.

    “Niger Deltans, especially Ijaws, have had extraordinary and absolute powers to manage federal interventionist agencies such as the defunct Directorate for Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) and much later the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) which had master plans and blueprints on which the same set of elders and leaders had enough dialogues and made more than enough inputs for the development of the region.

    “The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) came later, with its own master plans and roadmap for the development of Niger Delta, that included robust regional contributions and participations spearheaded by the same elders and leaders.

    “The same cabal participated and contributed in the conferences that succeeded in increasing the derivation revenue for oil-producing states to 13 per cent”, he said.

    He recalled that Nigeria overwhelmingly supported Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to become the President with the expectation to change the mind-set of the people of the region by developing the Niger Delta. He lamented that Jonathan squandered the rare opportunity of the region and surrendered the wealth that was supposed to accrue to the Niger Delta to hawks.

    “The Ijaws, and by extension, the Niger Delta region, had the opportunity to produce a President who was given an unprecedented pan-Nigerian goodwill and support.

    “Nigerians virtually surrendered Nigeria to Goodluck Jonathan and Niger Deltans. While he called the shots, notable Ijaw people such as Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark assumed extraordinary and all-powerful statuses.

    For six years, they called the shots and possessed statutory powers to grapple with the critical socio-economic challenges that face the region and its downtrodden masses.

    “Therefore, there is neither any novel idea nor rational demand that warrants this latest act of ignorance and immaturity being peddled by the Ijaw in the Niger Delta region. We have had enough dialogue and do not need any for now.

    “Despite the severe economic realities plaguing the nation, he has continued with the Presidential Amnesty Programme fashioned by the cabal to short-change the development of the the region,” he said.

    Ogbotobo noted that President Buhari has shown sincerity in developing the region.

    He said: “The inauguration of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Ogoni land clean-up was a prompt fulfilment of his electoral promises to the Ogoni people.

    “Jonathan, an Ijaw and Niger Deltan, refused to implement the report in six years and the Ogoni people didn’t go on rampage against national assets and multi-national investments.

    “Ken Saro Wiwa led the Ogoni struggle on a well-defined engagement, which is paying off to the commendation of global humanity.

    “In our scenario, any more hostilities or failure to embrace the PMB administration unreservedly, would only confirm the shameful lack of seriousness and the hypocrisy on the part of the Ijaw and their regional allies, towards the real development and progress of the Niger Delta.”

  • Military arrests soldiers’ killers in Bayelsa 

    Military arrests soldiers’ killers in Bayelsa 

    ***Recover stolen gunboat, weapons 
    Joint Military Task Force (JTF), Operation Delta Safe (ODS), has arrested militants who killed soldiers at a military checkpoint in Nembe, Bayelsa State.
    The troops also recovered military gunboats, arms and ammunition carted away by the militants during the ambush.
  • Militants kill three soldiers in Bayelsa

    Militants kill three soldiers in Bayelsa

    Militants disguised in white-mourning outfits, on Monday morning, killed three soldiers at a checkpoint located in Nembe waterways, Nembe, Bayelsa State and stole two gunboats

     

    Details later.

  • Philanthropist donates footbridge, other projects to Nembe

    SEnator Nimi-Barigha Amange is no doubt one of the household names in Bayelsa State. Amange was a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 2007 to 2011. He was also one of the Niger Delta delegates at the just-concluded National Conference.

    Currently, Amange sits on the Governing Board, University of Petroleum Technology, Effurrun, as its Chairman.

    He may not be the wealthiest man in the ancient Nembe Kingdom,  Nembe Local Government Area, where he hails from. But Amange is famously known for his magnanimity. Despite not holding active political position, the senator has never relented from playing his normal philanthropic roles.

    If he is not building a church for his community, he is constructing community roads or sharing relief materials to the needy. In fact, he derives pleasure in identifying and satisfying common communal needs.

    Recently, Amange donated three self-help projects he constructed to his kingdom.  The projects are 70-metre footbridge, two public conveniences (six toilets and two bathrooms each) and electricity project at Agbakabiriyai and Ogbolomabiri.

    No wonder the Nembe communities were agog with festivity during the inauguration of the projects. Women came out in their best attire and traditional dancers and drummers took over the streets. Children were no left out as they gathered to participate in the ceremony and to catch a glimpse of the projects.

    Also, some prominent sons and daughters of Nembe were on ground to heap praises on philanthropic Amange. Undoubtedly, the projects received royal blessings from the Amanyanabo of Nembe City, King Edward Daukoru, a renowned banker and former minister.

    With unfathomable excitement, Daukoru and other chiefs toured the projects and gave them pass marks. They were amazed that Amange has continued to be a pillar of support to the kingdom despite not holding an active political position.

    Daukoru was, however, worried about the sustainability of the projects. He was concerned about tampering with the public utilities donated by Amange. He gave a fatherly warning. He asked the locals not to vandalise the self-help projects.

    He said the projects would only have their desired impact on the kingdom if the beneficiaries handled them with care.

    The first-class traditional ruler in Bayelsa described the projects as unique development for the communities. The monarch cautioned the locals against abusing the genuine intentions of those who initiated the projects through vandalism, saying such act would jeopardise the future prospects of the communities.

    On his part, Barigha-Amange, who initiated the projects, explained that the idea was informed by his desire to put smiles on the faces of the needy, the widows, the orphans and the elderly in Nembe.

    Barigha-Amange said the footbridge would ease the hardship faced by the people while the public conveniences would phase out the outdated toilet system in the communitiies.

    He said the community, which was established by the late Amange the Great in 1833, had produced two former governors and a Senator: late Chief Melford Okilo and King Alfred Diete-Spiff and himself (Barigha-Amange) respectively.

    Indeed, before the people could play Oliver Twist, Amange dropped another surprise. He gave his kingdom the hope to expect more developmental projects from him.

    He said: “I have concluded arrangement to build a primary school in my community.”.

  • LMC awaiting match report for Nembe, Gombe stalemate

    LMC awaiting match report for Nembe, Gombe stalemate

    The League Management Company(LMC) says a ruling on the abandoned game between Nembe City and Gombe United will be made only after receiving a detailed match report from the match officials as to what led to the abandonment.

    The tie was stalemated at 2-2 before Gombe United got a penalty in the 89th minute for an alleged handball in the eighteen area by a Nembe player, but play was held up as the home team protested the awarded penalty.

    The melee led to the abandonment of the game, as players of Nembe walked off the pitch, making it the second time in two weeks when a game involving bottom of the table Nembe has been abandoned.

    In the tie postponed to yeterday due to heavy downpour on Wednesday, both teams were level at 1-1 after the first 45 minutes.

    However, in the second half, Austin Ekpoma gave Gombe United the lead in the 63rd minute by calmly picking his spot with a curler from the edge of the box.

    Six minutes from the final whistle, Sanni Yarma scored an own goal in a bid to stop a free-kick from Nembe City to put scores at 2-2.

    The game’s moment of controversy arrived a minute to the end, when a Nembe player was adjudged to have handled in the box leading the referee to awarding a penalty to Gombe.

    Nembe players, after protesting the decision, walked off the pitch, forcing the referee to call off the game after five minutes, the stipulated time for a referee to call off a game if a team leaves the pitch in protest.

  • Giwa, Nembe replay Match Day 18 fixture on Independence Day

    Giwa, Nembe replay Match Day 18 fixture on Independence Day

    October 1, the nation’s Independence Day has been announced as the date for the replay of the Match Day 18 fixture between Giwa FC and Nembe City.

    The replay was in consonance with the ruling of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) which on June 12 ordered a replay of the match which was earlier ruled a walk-over by the League Management Company (LMC) following Nembe City’s failure to show up for the encounter.

    Chief Operating Officer of the LMC, Salihu Abubakar said in a notice to both clubs that the rescheduled match will hold at the Rwan Pam Stadium, Jos and wished both clubs a successful match.

    It will be recalled that match officials led by the Match Commissioner, Musa Talle had performed the walk-over ceremonies and awarded three points and three goals to Giwa FC. But Nembe City appealed the preliminary decision to the NFF Organising and Disciplinary Committee citing the report of vehicle breakdown. Their appeal was upheld by the NFF which ordered for a replay.

    Abubakar said :“The fixture will provide independence day football delight to fans in Jos and its immediate environs.”