The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Port Harcourt

  • Family of six consumed in Port Harcourt fire

    A family of six yesterday perished in an inferno. The fire which started around 2 pm consumed three sons and a daughter, aged seven, nine, 17 and 22, respectively as well as their parents in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

    Two other daughters of the deceased parents were not at home when the fire started. They had relocated to study and write the ongoing Senior Secondary School Certificate examinations of the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC). Otherwise, they might have also perished.

    The unfortunate incident happened at No. 17, New Estate Road, Railway Quarters, old Port Harcourt Township, popularly called Town and not far from the Port Harcourt Prisons.

    The deceased husband was a taxi driver, while his wife was a petty trader, with their property completely burnt, while neighbours made efforts to ensure that the fire did not spread to other apartments in the quarters.

    The cause of the fire could not be ascertained last night, but sources said a loud explosion was heard, probably from the apartment of the deceased and everywhere was on fire, with their neighbours scampering to safety, leading to confusion.

    The names of persons who perished in the inferno could not be confirmed, because of wailing in the area.

    The weeping landlord of the compound, who pleaded not to be named, described the incident as really pathetic.

    Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Angela Agabe, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), confirmed the incident, but that the details were still sketchy as at press time.

  • Family of 6 die in Port Harcourt fire

    A  fire incident  that started around 2 pm on Saturday consumed a family of six in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

    The family included  three sons and a daughter, aged seven, nine, seventeen and twenty two, as well as their parents.

    Two other daughters of the deceased parents were not at home when the fire started.  They had  relocated to study and write the ongoing Senior Secondary School Certificate examinations.

    The unfortunate incident happened at No. 17, New Estate Road, Railway Quarters, old Port Harcourt Township, popularly called.

    The deceased husband who was  a taxi driver and his wife   a petty trader had  their property completely burnt, while neighbours made efforts to ensure that the fire did not spread to other apartments in the quarters.

    The cause of the fire could not be ascertained last night, but sources said a loud explosion was heard, probably from the apartment of the deceased.  The  neighbours reportedly  scampered  for  safety, leading to confusion.

    The weeping landlord of the compound, who pleaded not to be named, described the incident as really pathetic.

    Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Angela Agabe,  confirmed the incident, but that the details were still sketchy at press time.

  • UNESCO tasks Port Harcourt World Book Capital team

    UNESCO tasks Port Harcourt World Book Capital team

    THE United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has hailed Port Harcourt, Rivers State for its emergence as the first African city to serve as a World Book Capital.

    Port Harcourt is the 2014 World Book Capital City. UNESCO representative in Abuja Prof Hassan Alidou said the city selection was a reflection of Nigeria’s distinguished literary tradition.

    She said there was no doubt that Nigeria has given humanity some towering writers and cultural figures, such as the late Chinua Achebe, the late Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa, Ben Okri, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, Chimamanda Adichie and Adebayo Faleti, among others.

    Mrs Alidou, represented by Programme Specialist for Culture at UNESCO, Abuja, Mr Giovani Fontana, said the implication of the honour is that Port Harcourt would hold the title of UNESCO World Book Day for a year, from April 23, 2014 to April 23, 2015. “The designation of World Book Capital City also speaks to Port Harcourt’s capacity to inspire a debate on all issues related to the development of book culture in the Nigerian, African and the wider global context. During the designated year, it undertakes to organise and run a larger number of events around books, literature and reading, she added.

    According to her, parts of the programmes are expected to bring together the local and national book industries and puts books and book culture into the public eye. This, she said, attracts sponsorship and extra funding for book related institutions.

    Every year, UNESCO convenes delegates from the International Publishers Association, the International Booksellers Federation (IBF) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) to grant the title of UNESCO World Book Capital to one city.

    Prof Alidou urged the Port Harcourt World Book Capital team to promote literacy production in national languages to promote the development of a multicultural and multilingual literate environment in Nigeria.

    “Our relationship with books determines, to a large extent, our relationship with culture. Our world needs to understand the diversity of cultures and to develop much stronger intercultural skills in the minds of every man and woman. We need these skills in order to live together in heterogeneous societies. We need them in order to address our common challenges together,” she said.

    Project Director, Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014, Mrs Koko Kalango, said the project would help to foster investment in education. “Thus, we are looking for partners who can see beyond the limits within which Africa has been portrayed to the possibilities which abound in her vast untapped resources. Nowhere is this more evident than in her human capital. Investing in education and knowledge wealth of the young people will have a domino effect on other sectors, meeting pressing needs in the region and helping to achieve the ideals of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals,” she added.

    She said the project would give opportunity to adults and youths to grow, improve reading culture among the people, as well as bring to the fore the ability and opportunity to express themselves.

    Deputy Manager, Nigerian Publishers Association, Mr Olawale Adebayo, who represented the Executive Secretary, said the association is glad to be a partner in the project and solicited the support of every Nigerian as ‘we will all reap the gains’.

    Representative of the Book Sellers Assocation, Mr Oluwatuyi Dare, described the emergence of Port Harcourt as world book capital city as a great honour to Nigeria, adding that it would give the nation a better image. “This honour will bring the world to Nigeria and Port Harcourt in particular and will contribute to the nation’s economy. Government should support the project. Many published works don’t get outside the country. If the world comes here, they will start to show interest in our books. It is a better avenue to showcase our books to the world,” he said.

    Port Harcourt beat 10 other cities across the globe to emerge UNESCO World Book Capital City for 2014, a year Nigeria will commemorate its 100 years of existence as a nation. Financial requirement projection for the implementation of the various programmes is put at $39.6million.

  • Police rescue 4 kidnapped expatriates in Port Harcourt

    THE police in Rivers State have rescued four kidnapped expatriates.

    Those rescued were: Vadym Shytov and Oleksiv Ishmyetvev (Ukrainians) as well as Obaya Marak (from Kiribati), Mikhail Teresgji (Russian).

    They were kidnapped 100 nautical miles off the coast of Bayelsa State on April 22 and sighted around Borikiri, Port Harcourt two days ago.

    Men of the Anti-Kidnap Unit (AKU) of the Rivers Police Command quickly mobilised and rescued the victims in good health condition.

    The Rivers Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, received the freed hostages and handed them over to an official of the company, Larry Etete.

    He said investigations were in progress to apprehend the kidnappers.

  • Briton’s wife kidnapped in Port Harcourt

    Gunmen have kidnapped Mrs. Grace Dickson, wife of the owner of Bongaville Hotel in the new Government Reservation Area (GRA), Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

    The kidnap of the Briton’s wife took place around 11 pm on Sunday, when she drove to the gate of their yet-to-be-ascertained residence in Port Harcourt. No demand for ransom had been made as at last night.

    Sources said amid sporadic gunshots, the hoodlums removed Mrs. Dickson’s eye glasses and moved her away in the car she drove to the gate, as the gateman was opening the gate for her to drive in.

    It was also learnt that the gateman initially opened the gate, but when the woman was no longer driving in, she ignorantly closed the gate.

    Shortly after the kidnap, the victim’s husband drove to the gate and the gateman opened the gate for him, parked normally and the gateman closed the gate, without informing him of the ugly development.

    Yesterday morning, it was gathered that the gateman told his boss: “Oga, last (Sunday) night, they carry madam go. They don carry madam go. Me I no know where they carry am go.”

    The shocked husband, according to sources, immediately contacted the nearby Sani Abacha Police Station, GRA.

    The Rivers Police Anti-Kidnap Unit went on the trail of the kidnappers to rescue the victim.

    Rivers Police spokesperson, Angela Agabe, confirmed the kidnap, but said details were sketchy.

  • Controversy over ownership of Port Harcourt

    As preparations for the 100 years anniversary of Port Harcourt get underway, the ownership of the city is causing controversy between the Okrika (Wakrike) and Rebisi (Ikwerre) people of Rivers State.

    While the Rebisi people are laying claiming to the ownership of the land, the Okrika have said the controversy surrounding the 1913 agreement in the ceding of 28 communities that make up the Port Harcourt metropolis to the then British colonial government cannot be controverted, as they have some documents indicating that the Okrika people were the original signatory to the master plan of the city.

    Unveiling the development at a press briefing organised to mark the Port Harcourt centenary anniversary celebration by the people of Okrika in Port Harcourt yesterday, the Chairman of Okrika Divisional Council of Chiefs, Chief Nemi Wisdom Adoki, disclosed that the history of Port Harcourt is like an open wound, which only the truth can heal.

    He said the truth of the ownership of the greater part of Port Harcourt land by the people of Okrika has been re-told several times and “it is very clear and unambiguous, definite, transparent and discernible.”

  • Bus crashes into shop

    A commercial bus driver last night crashed into a shop in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, injuring many people.

    The accident, which occurred about 9:30pm on Enwumen Avenue, would have been fatal if the traders had not closed.

    A witness, Fabian Woke, said a squatter-trader, who sells kerosene and petrol in front of the shop was lucky to escape death.

    “The young man was lucky. He closed early to watch the Chelsea/Benfica Europa Cup final in a nearby barbing salon. The bus crashed into the shop 10 minutes after he left,” Woke said.

    Among the victims was a pedestrian. He sustained a deep cut in his belly.

    Our correspondent, who visited the scene, was told that policemen had taken the victims to hospital.

    It was not clear what caused the accident, but the eyewitness quoted a passenger in the crashed bus as saying that it was caused by a female passenger, who fought the driver, following an argument over the collection of her balance.

  • Association to restore Port Harcourt’s values

    Association to restore Port Harcourt’s values

    To regain the values which once earned the Rivers State capital its Garden City appellation, a group known as Old Port Harcourt City Association of Friends (OPCAF) has been formed.

    Speaking in the city during the inauguration of the Board of Trustees of OPCAF, its President, Mr Ikay Thomas Amadi explained that the members came together to bring back the city to what it used to be in the 70s.

    Such values, Amadi said, include its serenity, camaraderie where ethnicity did not matter. He added that the will equally help government and its members through networking.

    To achieve these objectives, Amadi said the association would undertake some projects like tree-planting and teaching their children right values as they were thought by their own parents as well as through the Boys Scout and Girls Guide to which they belonged.

    On the possibility of achieving the camaraderie which the old Port Harcourt was noted for, the President of OPCAF said that it must be brought back “because when we were growing up, nobody asked you where you were from.”

    While stressing that the association is not a political one, he called on everyone who has lived in Port Harcourt in the 70s, was born and schooled in the city during the period and has attained a minimum of 40 years of age to come and join OPCAF “so that we can put heads together to see how we can get Port Harcourt to what it used to be.”

    Speaking on behalf of other members of the Board of Trustees of OPCAF, its Chairman, Mr. OCJ Okocha, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said that the responsibility being thrust on him and others calls for “honesty, transparency, integrity and…decorum.”

    Okocha who is a former National President of Nigerian Bar Association said that the board of trustees would take the assignment seriously by looking into the aims and objectives of the association, the qualifications and ensuring that it is run strictly in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.”

    Seizing the opportunity of the convivial mood that pervaded the occasion, Okocha recalled with nostalgia the warmth relationships they had in those days as youths and the “tricks and truancies” they played then, when they knew neither creed nor clan.

  • Police kill robbery suspects in Port Harcourt

    Rivers Police Command said its men had shot dead three armed robbery suspects who tried to escape after being arrested in the course of their operation in Eleme.

    Mr Ben Ugwuegbulam, the command’s Spokesman, stated this in Port Harcourt on Thursday in a text message he sent to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

    He said the suspects were initially arrested by the Anti-robbery patrol team in Eleme Local Government.

    The spokesman said the patrol team arrested the suspects following a distress call that a gang of the armed robbers had attacked a residential house in Eleme town.

    Ugwuegbulam said the patrol team rushed to the scene and intercepted the suspects on a Qlink motorbike as they were speeding out of the building.

    The spokesman said that the suspects were searched and one locally-made revolver pistol, .9mm ammunition and one expended bullet shell were recovered from the gang.

    Ugwuegbulam said that the anti-robbery team was taking the gang to the police station in their patrol vehicle when they ‘’jumped down from the vehicle.

    ‘’They were given a hot chase by the patrol team and when it was impossible to re-arrest them, they were fired at to stop them from escaping,’’ he said.

    Ugwuegbulam added that the suspects were ‘’fatally wounded in the process.

  • Port Harcourt, Enugu, others get CAC’s online services

    The 24-hour start–to-finish registration service in Lagos-the part of the four-point agenda of the Corporate Affairs Commission, which emphasises ICT–has become a model in ease of doing business, the CAC has said.

    Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kano, Kaduna are to get  CAC’s online start-to-finish services this quarter, as the commission  embarks on total upgrade of internet network to fibre optic

    The Registrar-General, CAC, Alhaji Bello Mahmud maintained that Lagos is an important commercial nerve centre of the country, considering its strategic importance, the Commission established two offices in Lagos at Yaba and the recently commissioned another at Alausa.

    In a statement by the Head, Public Relations, Churchill Williams, the focus of the agenda comes against the backdrop of the fact that ICT infrastructure is the key factor to achievement of the Commission’s objective, adding that ICT infrastructure will ensure greater efficiency of the system and high data integrity.

    “In order to actualise its ICT thrust, the Commission embarked on total upgrade of its WAN from VSAT-based network to a more reliable fibre based system. This was meant to improve availability and also enhance transaction,” he added.