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Tag: Rivers

  • Rivers DPO killed in Abia

    GUNMEN have killed the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Rumuolumeni in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Kingsley Chukwueggu.

    Chukwueggu, a superintendent, was reportedly killed   on Sunday evening around Awaza in Abia State, while returning  to  Port Harcourt.

    Sources said  the victim was killed in the company of three occupants of a private vehicle taking them to Port Harcourt.

    But the DPO was the only  victim.

    Commissioner of Police Zaki Ahmed has led top officers and men to Rumuolumeni Police Division to commiserate with the personnel.

    The spokesman of the command said investigation had commenced to fish out the killers.

    He said: “We’ll unravel the hoodlums as other occupants of the vehicle are helping to trace Chukwueggu’s killers.

    “The command is in touch with Abia command; investigations have began.” he said.

    Residents of Rumuolumeni have expressed shock at the the murder, describing Chukwueggu as a vibrant senior officer.  They called on the high command to fish out the perpetrators and prosecute them.

  • Police launch man-hunt for killers of DPO in Rivers

    The Commissioner of Police in Rivers, Mr Zaki Ahmed, has launched a manhunt for the killers of SP Kingsley Chukwuegu, the Divisional Police Officer ( DPO ) of Rumuolumeni Police Station in the state.

    A statement issued in Port Harcourt on Monday by DSP Nnamdi Omoni, the Public Relations Officer in the state, said the commissioner had promised to arrest the killers.

    Omoni also said that the commissioner had already led a delegation of senior police officers to commiserate with the wife of the deceased officer and other family members.

    “With a deep sense of loss, the Police Command in Rivers announces the sudden death of SP Kingsley Chukwuegu who died in the early hours of Monday.

    “Until his death he was the DPO, Rumuolumeni Police Station. The Commissioner has this morning led a delegation of Senior Officers to commiserate with his wife and other members of his family.

    “The commissioner has launched a serious man-hunt for the perpetrators of the dastardly act and promised to fish them out soonest,” the spokesman said.

    NAN

  • 2019: How Rivers people ‘ll chase Wike out of power –Amaechi

    Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi, said yesterday that the Rivers State electorate will put an end to what he termed Governor Nyesom Wike’s poor performance, bad governance and misrule, during next year’s election Amaechi who is the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state spoke at a grand reception for him and the Director- General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA),Dr.Dakuku Peterside, by the Free Rivers Development Initiative (FRDI) at Opobo, headquarters of Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area of Rivers State. Peterside hails from Opobo. Amaechi asked the people of Opobo to start mobilizing now with a view to ensuring that they produce the state’s next governor. “When we start (politics), we will compare my first tenure with Wike’s first tenure,” he said. “You must start mobilising now.

    You have not shown enough anger. You must show enough anger to chase him out of power. Show enough anger, such that if anybody warns you, you should chase the person out of Opobo.” The minister who was apparently taken aback by alleged summoning of Opobo chiefs to Government House,Port Harcourt,midway into the reception said: “Correct Opobo/Nkoro LGA’s chiefs, some of them came (for the reception), but many of them have run away (to Government House, Port Harcourt). “I then asked Ikwerre chiefs to join me to Opobo. One of them is Chief Chidi Lloyd (former Majority Leader of Rivers House of Assembly). When Ikwerre people wanted to produce governor (in 2007), they came together, were united and said they wanted governorship of Rivers State, not one of our (Ikwerre) chiefs escaped. If you (people of Opobo/Nkoro LGA) do not get governorship of Rivers State (in 2019), blame your chiefs.

    They have run away. “When things were extremely bad with me, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja (indigene of Opobo) was behind me. Not politics. He (Jaja) will agree that I introduced him to major politics. I was hungry, I had a wife and children, but no money to survive then as a young man, but Dr. Sam Sam Jaja stood firmly behind me, as things were very rough then. Ike Chinwo housed us and gave us food, before I met Dr. Peter Odili (former Rivers governor). Dr. Odili played important roles in my life.” Also speaking, Peterside who was the governorship candidate of the party in Rivers during the 2015 election, said Wike is running a failed government. The government, he said, is also petty and has democratized stealing.

    The NIMASA D-G described Amaechi as a visioner and a leader, who has done a lot for the people of Opobo/Nkoro LGA and other parts of Rivers State Peterside said: “It is not always common to take up responsibility for other people’s challenges. Our leader (Amaechi), for a very long time, has taken up the challenge of the development of Opobo and Nkoro Kingdoms. Today, in Rivers State, the symbol of good governance is Rt. Hon. Amaechi. We must be grateful to him. “Today in Rivers State, soot is killing our people. The current government (of Wike) represents the mass looting of our commonwealth. Our schools are shut down. Our pensioners are being owed and they are dying daily. Our people have no means of livelihood, that is why they are taking to illegal refining of crude oil. Rivers State secretariat is stinking. “About three years ago, when Rt. Hon. Amaechi left office, the road to Opobo (Ogoni-Andoni-Opobo Unity Road), remained less than two kilometres to complete. Till today, Wike’s government has refused to complete the strategic road. Before Rt. Hon. Amaechi left government, it was estimated that N6 billion would be needed to complete the road, but when Wike took over, instead of paying the contractor the N6 billion, the contract was cancelled, re-awarded to themselves and they inflated the figure to N14 billion.

    They have democratised stealing in government. “Rt. Hon. Amaechi believes that every Rivers person must be given an opportunity to participate in governance. He believes in equity, justice and fairness. Rt. Hon. Amaechi and his wife, Dame Judith, played great roles in my life. “In the elections of 2015 and rerun of 2016, they (PDP members) rigged everywhere (in Rivers State), but they could not rig here (Opobo). APC has never lost any election on this soil (Opobo). We have not had a government with this type of terrible record. The government (of Wike) has failed in every respect. We know what the votes will do. The people of Opobo/Nkoro LGA will speak (during 2019 elections) and they will speak very loud.” However,Wike, in his reaction, said he is a man of substance, with awards from all over the world. The Rivers governor, who spoke through Information and Communications Commissioner Emma Okah, alleged that Amaechi and Peterside had not attracted any development project to Rivers State, since their appointments.

  • ‘Businesses have moved out of Rivers’

    EX-President, Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) Ledum Mitee, and former  INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Bariton Lenu Kpagi yesterday said businesses have pulled out of Rivers State.

    They spoke at the maiden stakeholders forum of the Initiative for Credible and Non-violent Elections (ICE), in Port Harcourt,  the capital

    Kpagi said: “In the last two years,  over 300 businesses have left Rivers State and relocated to other states.

    ‘’I know of a state with a dry seaport, which has attracted over 200 companies between November and date, one of the companies which relocated to the state employed over 400 persons which would have reduced the unemployment rate in the state.

    “While businesses are fast dying in the state, politicians are busy dividing the state along political party line. Youths are the tools and target of electoral violence,  youths should reject the offers and antics of politicians and create the right environment for credible elections,  the state is losing, businesses are dying, while unemployment is rising.”

    Mitee explained the concern of the initiators, saying:  “The meeting, which was attended by youth groups,  and organisations,  including tertiary institutions and music artists, was meant to sensitive youths on the need for credible and peaceful elections for development and good governance in the state.

    “The idea of this initiative came from what was an informal discussion among friends trying to X-ray developmental in the state.

    ‘’We reviewed ghetto enormous resources and advantages available to the state. We noted that we do have three seaports and an international airport, irrespective of its present state.

    “We are unarguably the oil capital of Nigeria, home to a petrochemical plant and two refineries, an oil and gas free zone and have abundant natural resources in vast lands and waters,  among others.

    “No doubt, the state has enormous advantages that should make it the preferred prime investment destination but for some years now,  the reality tells a different story. Several businesses have moved out of the state, with no discernible new ones moving in.

    “Even private citizens are relocating with their families to other states that cannot boast of any natural advantages, yet the latest statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that the state does not fall within the first three states with the highest reported crime rates in the country.

    “We have examined the reasons why we have found ourselves in the ironical situation that in the midst of such endowment and natural advantages, we continue to be the butt of jokes and ridicule and have found that our situation is not unconnected with the perception of the state as a theatre of violence. This association of our state with violence, in turn,  stems from the type of elections we continue to witness in the state.

    “Elections which represent the modern and universally accepted process through which individuals are chosen by the people to represent them in government, have, in the recent past in the state, characterised by fraud associated with political tensions, crisis and frightening levels of violence. The outcome of elections in the state have more or less been the subversion of the democratic process rather than its consolidation.”

  • Rivers to ban street trading

    Some traders at Diobu in Port Harcourt, yesterday, appealed to the Rivers government to provide affordable stalls before enforcing its ban on street trading.

    They spoke to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) following the seven-day ultimatum banning trading on Bishop Okoye Street in Diobu.

    According to them, it’s unfair for government to drive them out of business without providing an alternative place.

    A trader, Mrs Kechi Wechie, who sells vegetables, appealed to the government not to be hasty about banning trading on Bishop Okoye Street.

    “We are aware that we trade on the road; but we have nowhere to go from here, we implore the government to help us.

    “What we do here is petty trading, we will be happy to access affordable stalls with the assistance of government,’’ Wechie said.

    Another trader, Miss Anita Welekwe, a plantain seller, told NAN that banning trading on the street without another provision would “put food off the tables of many families’’.

    “Many of us trading here are the bread winners in different ways.

    “ I tell you that many families will go hungry if we are stopped from doing our businesses,’’ Welekwe said.

    Archibong Matthew, a grinding machine operator, expressed concern about the notice government has given traders to quit the street.

    “It is from proceeds of my activities here that I assist my younger ones in school; I pray this notice will not be enforced.

    “I will be the greatest victim, I wonder the excuse to give to those that depend on me, I beg the government to change its mind,’’ he said.

    NAN reports that some residents of Mile 3, Diobu, had appealed to the government to stop traders from selling on Bishop Okoye Street.

    They alleged that the traders were display fish, vegetables and other edibles in the open on the filthy street.

    They alleged that they had stopped buying from the  traders, for fear of being infected by disease from such items.

  • Illegal refineries with 4m per-day capacity discovered in Rivers

    The Nigerian Navy says it has discovered six new illegal refineries with combined capacity to refine four million litres of crude oil daily in Alakiri, Asari Toru Local Government Area of Rivers.

    Capt. Victor Choji, Executive Officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Pathfinder Port Harcourt, disclosed this while destroying one of the illegal refineries on Thursday in Alakiri, Asari-Toru.

    “The refinery (in Alakiri) has capacity to produce one million litres of refined petroleum products daily, while the five other refineries have production-capacity of three million litres daily,” he said.

    Choji said the refineries were discovered through intensive intelligence gathering and undercover operations by naval troops.

    He said the navy deployed Swam Buggy machines to crush the metallic storages and its pipelines to make it impossible for operators of the refineries to rehabilitate the facilities.

    “This operation is focused on hitting the very heart of their infrastructure, so that the operators do not have capacity to regroup and resume their illicit activities.

    “We realised that whenever we set ablase the refineries without the use of Swam Buggy machine, days after our troops leave the scene, the oil thieves return and revive the refineries.

    “So, the Navy came up with this strategy to ensure that the pipeline network and metallic storages at the illegal facility are completely crushed.

    The executive officer said the swam buggy approach was also adopted to address health concern raised by residents over carbon emissions (black soot) in the atmosphere in the state and environs.

    He said that the strategy had led to significant reduction of soot in the atmosphere while also improving aquatic life in the maritime environment.

    “We started siphoning petroleum products first before destroying the illegal refineries as part of measures to eliminate soot in the atmosphere.

    “After siphoning the product, it is then taken out of the area and handed over to authorities for testing and analysis,” he said.

    Choji said it would take troops about seven days to move the petroleum products and destroy the six illegal refineries.

  • Buhari’s planned visit to Rivers based on killings, beheading in the state- Adesina

    Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina has explained that President Muhammadu Buhari plan to visit Rivers State is due to recent killings persons in parts of the state.

    According to him, Governor Nyesom Wike is faulting the proposed visit based on wrong premise.

    The Presidency had listed Rivers among the states the president will visit over killings in parts of the country, most of which is blamed on herdsmen.

    When told that Wike does not understand why the President is basing the Rivers visit on crisis, Adesina said that Buhari wants to condole with the families of those affected by various killings in the state.

    He recalled the Omoku killings and the beheading of victims whose heads were taken away by their assailants.

    “If he (Wike) doesn’t understand, the rest of the country understands. We understand, other Nigerians understand. Even people in Rivers state understand because on New Year Day, a minimum of 24 people were killed in Omoku.

    “So, is that not crisis? And can you count the number of people that have been beheaded in Rivers state in recent times?

    “People will be killed and heads will be cut off and the assailants will go away with the heads. So, can anybody say that there is no security issue in that kind of place?

    “It’s left to the governor. He’s the chief security officer. If he says there’s no security crisis in his state, good luck to him.”

    On what will become of the trip if the governor does not welcome it, Adesina said: “I’m sure he will be formally informed of the date. So, if he now says he doesn’t want the visit, it’s left to him and the federal government to decide the next step.

    “But the president is visiting so that he can condole with people who lost their loved ones, 24 people minimum, were killed in Omoku.

    “So, those people are the reason. Those people and the many beheaded; relations of those beheaded and their heads taken away, are the reason why the president is visiting the state.” he said.

  • Wike, Rivers APC clash again

    RIVERS State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and the state’s Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Davies Ikanya, are at loggerheads over the controversial Neighbourhood Watch law. Wike signed the bill into law on Thursday, at the Government House, Port Harcourt, while Ikanya declared that it was illegal for members of the neighbourhood watch to bear arms, in a state with a recent history of killings and violence during elections.

    The governor assented to the Neighbourhood Watch bill, while ignoring Wednesday’s service of a suit filed on the legality and constitutionality of the establishment of the agency at the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, by two chieftains of the APC: Ezemonye Ezekiel Amadi and Chizy Enyi, against Wike and eleven others, with reference number FHC/PH/CS/34/2018. The matter was adjourned till May 2. Wike stated that he established the neighbourhood watch to improve the security of Rivers communities, stressing that the outfit will support security agencies with intelligence and information, for them to efficiently fight crimes and make the state safer.

    He noted that the neighbourhood watch could not work without the approval of security agencies, which he said would profile all the operatives, claiming that anybody who loves Rivers state would not do anything to undermine steps that would enhance the security of lives and property in the state. The governor said: “If your hands are clean, you have nothing to fear. By tomorrow (Friday), I will appoint the person that will head the Neighbourhood Watch Safety Corps. “All criminals will face the full weight of the law.

    We will fight crime and ensure that Rivers State is safe for investors.” Wike also debunked claims by opposition that the Rivers government planned to use the neighbourhood watch to arm youths, claiming that the corps was a replica of what was already in existence in Lagos State. Rivers APC chairman, however, declared that the law, passed by the members of the Rivers House of Assembly on February 15 this year, was unacceptable, considering what Wike and other members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did to win the 2015 general elections in Rivers at all costs, especially the violence, killings and beheading of innocent people. He maintained that allowing members of the neighbourhood watch to bear arms would be inimical to the peace of Rivers state and would also violate the exclusivity of firearms to the Federal Government, as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.

    Ikanya, through his Senior Special Assistant (SSA) Media/Public Affairs Consultant, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, noted, yesterday in Port Harcourt, that allowing the neighbourhood watch would amount to having a militia in Rivers state. Ikanya said: “Considering the bloodletting that accompanied the 2015 general elections in Rivers State, with this type of legally-approved militia group, only God knows what will befall the state.

    “The sinister law that authorises members of the neighbourhood watch, Wike’s private army, to carry arms, enter, search and arrest citizens without warrants, is evil, wicked and unacceptable. “Allowing Wike to formally arm his militia men will not only pose severe threats to the security of everybody in Rivers State, including those urging him on this sinister plot, but will make the evil, satanic, autocratic and fascist regimes of Mobutu Sese Seko, Emperor Fidel Bokassa or legendary Idi Amin of Uganda to be saints and angels of their countries.

    “We are talking of Wike, who in 2014, ordered members of his militia group, the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), to attack and stone the Northern governors that were on official visit to Rivers State, with their vehicles damaged at the Port Harcourt International Airport. “We are talking of Wike, who ensured that the then Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, now Transportation Minister, was so humiliated and embarrassed, that on several occasions, he (Amaechi) was prevented from entering the Government House, Port Harcourt. We are talking of Wike, who proudly influenced five members of the Rivers House of Assembly, constituting of 32 members, to attempt to impeach the then Speaker, Rt. Hon. Otelemaba Dan Amachree, with Amaechi as the target.”

    Ikanya also expressed shock that the Rivers governor, who claimed that his administration had no money to take care of Rivers students on overseas scholarships, could not pay pensions and salaries of civil servants for over six months or employ any Rivers indigene into any meaningful enterprise, could budget a whopping N22 billion for the purchase of guns and ammunition to arm Rivers youths to kill themselves, in the guise of having neighbourhood watch.

    He declared that the acquisition of guns, ammunition and explosives are within the exclusive legislative list of the Federal Government, adding that the Rivers neighbourhood watch law will do more harm than good to the already heated polity. Meanwhile, Wike has appointed ex-police officer, Uche Chukwuma, as the Acting Director General of the Neighbourhood Safety Agency. A statement by the Special Assistant to Governor Wike on Electronic Media, Simeon Nwakudu, in Port Harcourt, the State capital revealed that Chukwuma, who retired as an Assistant Commissioner of Police, holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Degree and is a seasoned security professional.

  • Rivers restates commitment to health insurance

    Rivers State Government on Wednesday said that it was committed to implementing the Health Insurance Scheme.
    The state Commissioner for Health, Prof. Princewill Chike gave the assurance in an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt.

    Chike said that the government was already building five zonal hospitals as part of the preparations for the project take-off.
    According to him, the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BSMH) is also being upgraded to meet the requirements for the scheme.

    The commissioner said that the government’s intention for the scheme was to make healthcare affordable and accessible to the ordinary people.

    Read Also: PDP members defect to APC in Rivers

    He said that the scheme would reduce out-of-pocket expenses on healthcare.

    “The health insurance scheme is a good thing; it covers a wide spectrum of aliments; all you need to present is your card.
    “What is required to access the scheme will be made affordable; it is a scheme that targets the ordinary people,’’ he said.

    Chike said that the government was carefully packaging the scheme to ensure that challenges witnessed in similar programmes elsewhere would be eliminated.
    The Newsmen reports that the process of passing the Rivers State Health Insurance Bill into law is at an advanced stage in the State House of Assembly.

    NAN

     

  • PDP members defect to APC in Rivers

    Many non-indigenes, mainly of the Hausa community in Ndoni, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area (ONELGA) of Rivers State, have defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The defection in Ndoni took place barely one week after some members of the PDP defected to the APC in Omoku, headquarters of ONELGA.

    A chieftain of the APC, Prof. Henry Ugboma, who is the chief medical director (CMD) of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), received the defectors on Saturday at Ndoni, where he and a former Rivers governor, Dr. Peter Odili, one of the leaders of the PDP, hail from.

    Some of the defectors stated that they are happy with the Rivers APC’s leadership of Rotimi Amaechi, minister for Transportation and Ugboma.

    Leader of the defectors, Shaibu Abubakar, said: “We pledge to work for the interest of APC and we request the leadership of APC to assist us to prevail on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to release our Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), which we are yet to receive, after being registered.”

    The CMD of UPTH assured the defectors that the violence that prevented them from voting in 2015 would not be allowed next year.

    Ugboma said: “The killers who prevented you from voting in 2015 have been neutralised and their sponsors will also face the music. The poor performance of the PDP in Rivers State has provided room for APC to win all the elections in 2019. We will ensure you receive your PVCs.”

    APC Chairman in ONELGA Felix Okoro-Ejeje assured the defectors of equal opportunities, urging those yet to register, to to get their PVCs before the elections.