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Tag: Warri

  • Abu, Uzezi state mission to Warri Wolves

    Abu, Uzezi state mission to Warri Wolves

    • Seasiders reveal identity of new signings

    Azzez Abu and Uzezi Oghenebo have stated their missions to Warri Wolves after they and four others put pen to paper on deals with the club till the end of the season.

    Abu, a member of the national Beach Eagles team, crossed over from Kwara United while Uzezi joined the Seasiders from Union Bank.

    Both players expressed happiness at the prospect of featuring for the 2013 Federation Cup finalists and reiterated their desires to ensure that Warri Wolves return to the continent.

    “I am happy about this move and very confident that I will do well in Warri. I thank Kwara United’s management and players for the opportunity I had with the club. This is a new experience for me and I would like to make the best of it,” an elated Abu told SportingLife.

    On his part Uzezi promised to make the Seasiders happy with his form both on and off pitch.

    Warri Wolves have also added Ifeanyi Ede, formerly of Enyimba, Tega Irihose, Gift Atulewa and Adama Coulibaly to their squad to ensure that the club finish the season higher than their present seventh position.

  • Rape…A Fine Arts teacher’s road to Warri Prisons

    Rape…A Fine Arts teacher’s road to Warri Prisons

    Six years after he committed the crime, a teacher at the Delta Career College, Warri  is sentenced by an Effurun High Court to 14 years’ jail term for a minor’s rape, reports SHOLA O’NEIL 

    On Tuesday September 23, 2008, Grace Ese (not her complete names), a single mother, kissed her daughter goodbye as she left home for Delta Career College, Warri, Delta State, one of the pioneer private schools in the Southsouth. The school has a reputation built over three decades as a trailblazer in its field. The founder and principal of the school, a seasoned educationist, Mr Emmanuel Ukeredi, takes pride in the school, whose motto is “Purposeful Education is only the best”.

    It was because of that status that Ms Ese sent her daughter to the school. The child is a bright and promising girl. Her steady progress in her education made her mother hopeful that by the time she clocks 15, she would graduate and probably go on to become one of Nigeria’s youngest doctorate degree holder.

    It was a dream mother and daughter shared. Having being forced to abandon her own pursuit of higher education when she got pregnant with the child, Ms Ese was hoping to achieve, through her daughter, her quest for higher education and a better future.

    She confided in our reporter that she conceived the child after her man she thought was her ‘Christian brother’ took advantage of her and then abandoned her when she got pregnant.

    She said: “I was doing my higher education when I got pregnant and I had to stop school because of her. I couldn’t take care of myself, the pregnancy and then the child. I had to stop because the father did not support me. When I went to my family, they did not support me because they felt the child’s father should help me. I sold akara (bean cake) to cater for her and I begged on the streets to sustain my child.”

    Ten years after her own ordeal – on September 23, 2008 – Ms Ese was forced to relive the horror all over again when a 35-year-old school teacher at the famous college, Mr Godwin Onoyiwai was accused of raping the child she loves and sacrifices so much for. Onoyiwai is a Fine Arts teacher of the school; he was employed to teach young children like the nine-year-old victim to appreciate and recreate the beauty of nature and everything around them.  Instead he reportedly etched lines of pain, trauma and stigma that might have scarred the child and her mother for the rest of their lives.

    Reconstructing the event that took place in the school’s premises six years ago, Ms Ese said the teacher lured her daughter into his office in a secluded part of the expansive school premises located on Airport Road in the Oil City and repeatedly violated her child until got released from his satanic urge.

    “He locked the door, asked her to open her legs. He said he wanted to show her something (in between her legs). She (the child) said, ‘no, tell me; when I get home I will look at it.’ He said ‘No’.

    “Then he forced her, pulled her dress, her boxers – because being a girl I ensure she wears boxers in case she opens her legs – her pant. He put her on the floor and when she was screaming he held her mouth. She was telling him, ‘My mummy said nobody should play this kind of play with me o. If my mummy finds out she will beat me oo’.

    “He said, ‘No, your mummy will not find out’.  He forced himself on her, continuously until he released.

    “After he raped her, she was bleeding and there was blood on the floor. When he saw that she was bleeding, he asked her to put on her pant, clothes and gave her bucket to go and get water. He gave her mop (stick) and asked her to mop the floor and put the blood into the bucket. That she did. Her pant was already stained; she was wearing it like that. She went to another student, a boarding student, who gave her peg and soap to wash her pant and hang it to dry in the school,” her eyes filled with tears as she replayed the scene from her daughter’s account. The report of the indecent act shocked the city, not even the medical staff who examined the child could hold back the jolt. One of the two doctors, who examined the child at the Warri General Hospital, described the rapist as “a very wicked and heartless person.”

    However, Mr Ukeredi and other members of staff of Delta Career College took the allegation with a pinch of salt and even strongly debunked it. Shortly after The Nation broke the news on September 29, 2008, the management of the school accused the mother of blackmail and attempt to extort money from the school. It was gathered that the authority of the college stormed the “A” Division Police Station, where the suspect was being held, claiming the he was a victim of the child’s mothers ploy to extort money from the school. The school’s proprietor stood by his employee, insisting that he is innocent. Police detective handling the investigation were also tainted by the brush of scandal. First, sources close to the suspect claimed that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and some policemen at the station demanded for gratification to “kill” the case.

    Similarly, the child’s mother told our reporter that a Commissioner of Police in the state was forced to transfer one of the investigating officers after he demanded N5,000 from her to facilitate the movement of the file to the state headquarters in Asaba.

    Independent investigations by Niger Delta Report revealed that prior to the unfortunate incident, the relationship between Ms Ese and the management of the private school had deteriorated. It was gathered that the latter was unhappy about what they perceived as the woman’s meddlesomeness.

    “The woman was always complaining about one thing or the other, especially with the running of the school. At a point, some of us were already saying that she should take her daughter away if she was not satisfied with the way the school was being run and that was when this matter started,” a staff of the college told this reporter on condition of anonymity.

    When Niger Delta Report asked Ms Ese about this dimension to the incident, she confirmed that she had been forced to demand better performance from some teachers and other staff of the school when she noticed perceived failing.

    “That is no reason why they should pay me back by raping my daughter,” she said.

    As the case dragged on, the relationship between the parent and school degenerated further. Ms Ese accused the school of throwing everything at her in a desperate bid to force her to give up on her quest for justice. She disclosed that the case file got missing twice at the Police Headquarters in Asaba and the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP’s) office.

    “There was a time I was so afraid that the power of the school would supersede me – their power, money and influence. The man told me to my face that he has kept N20m to fight me. Can I produce one per cent of that N20m?”

    In court, the teacher denied the charge against him. He said he went outside the gate to eat with his colleague, Edafe. He claimed they had invigilated the GCE exams and he was heading towards the boys’ hostel when he saw the girl in front of the boys’ hostel. She was in the midst of other students playing, he said.  He claimed they later saw her wandering around the boys’ hotel. He said they called her to ask what she was looking for around the boys’ hostel and she told them that she lost her bag.

    He said he was forced to confess committing the crime, adding that he told the DPO that he didn’t commit the crime. He said he spent 16 days at the police station and was kept in the cell.

    He accused the child’s mother of threatening to close the school if she was not paid N16 million.

    The judge did not believe him. The highly respected Justice P. O. Onajite-Kuejubola of the Effurun High Court mid last month ruled that the evidence before the court was overwhelming and proved the Fine Arts teacher was guilty of raping the nine-year old child. The teacher was senenced to 14 years in jail.

    Justice Onajite-Kuejubola said: “The defence put up by the accused is merely a shame defence; which is incapable of belief by any stretch of imagination in the face of cogent, credible evidence led by the PW1, the victim, supported by that of IPO, PW4, PW3, the medical doctor and PW2, the mother of the victim.

    “…The offence of rape, where the commission of the crime is proved beyond reasonable doubt, is no doubt a wicked, callous and dastardly act. Particularly in this case where a teacher like the accused person who is expected to be a guide, over a child like the victim herein, takes advantage of her. I want to condemn the act of the accused person very strongly and urge teachers whom parents look up to take care of their wards, who are sent to learn and by so doing repose some amount of confidence in such teachers, not to betray that trust and hope.

    “The entire circumstance of this case has been carefully considered in arriving at this decision so as to ensure that the innocent are not punished and the guilty set free. The accused is found guilty as charged.

    “The accused is hereby sentenced to 14 years imprisonment with hard labour.”

    Ms Ese, who said she was not totally satisfied with the sentence, praised the DPP and Justice Onajite-Kuejubola.  She was expecting a life sentence. She expressed the hope that it would serve as deterrent to randy school teachers who plan to take advantage of young pupil and student in their care.

     ‘We are shocked; we will appeal’

    The school’s principal, did not want to speak about the ruling when our reporter called him. He said an official statement would be issued by the school. At the time of this report, the official statement he promised was yet to be released.

    He, however, gave a hint of the feeling of the management of the institution about the development. When he was informed that Ms Ese had made certain serious allegations that the school made attempts to sweep the matter under the carpet, Ukeredi said the allegations were unfounded, adding that the school’s statement would say its side of the story.

    An interesting part of the story, however, is the fact that the school still maintains its stance on Onoyiwai’s innocence. According to the principal, the judgment shocked the school and the management had instructed its counsel to file an appeal.

    “We have instructed our lawyers to appeal. You can have interview with her (mother of the victim). Whatever porous allegations she made notwithstanding, I’m telling you that we were dumbfounded by the judgment and we have given instructions to our lawyers to appeal. If you see our press release, you will see the school’s own part of the story,” Ukeredi said.

    The last certainly has not been heard of this matter.

     

  • Warri…Pains, debris everywhere

    Warri…Pains, debris everywhere

    Almost everybody agreed that Warri, the commercial nerve centre of Delta State, was dirty. But not everybody agrees on how the state government should clean it up, writes BOLAJI OGUNDELE

    The city was consumed and literally drowned in an ocean of dirt and endless lines of illegally erected structures.  To the governor,  Warri metropolis and its environs should not be left to drown in filth.

    Governor Emmanuel Udughan set up a 25-man special sanitation team, led by his deputy, Prof Amos Utuama, to supervise the cleaning up of Warri, Uvwie and Udu council areas of the state. Initially, it was meant to be a one-week exercise. According to Utuama, the committee, which was the outcome of a special session of the state’s executive council meeting, was a necessity, borne out of the serious concerns over the increasing growth of unauthorised markets, motor parks, as well as the poor culture of hygiene in the city.

    “One of the steps we are going to take is to start going round to all welding places in the state, we will be arresting welders that are welding caravans. Any welder that is welding containers will be arrested and prosecuted by the Ministry of Justice,” the committee threatened at a news conference.

    The committee, especially from the point the Commissioner of Environment, Chief Frank Omare, took over its leadership on May 4, has become more aggressive, storming streets and alleys to demolish illegally sited properties, caravans and some residences. In each of the places it touched, it left both debris and pains behind.

    The rate at which the bulldozers were tearing down shops and residences has come under immense condemnation from different quarters, mostly those affected as well as the civil rights community. When you move round the city to observe the activities of the committee and listen to the man who has been the face of it, you will definitely want, not only to see reason with the government, but to also give support.

    Omare is wont to say that government would not just fold its arms and allow the system run into a halt by not correcting ills, he would say he was sympathetic to the plights of those affected, but that there was hunger in the land did not mean lawlessness should be condoned. When you see the space created where caravans and some structures were removed, you are likely to say the government could not have done better.

    When it comes to going round town to give the exercise a second look and listen to some of those who have lost one thing or the other; a business, a property or both to Omare’s armed security men-protected bulldozers, then you will definitely have to reassess your initial thought about the whole thing. Instances abound of petty retailers, whose little businesses were swept into the rubbles of demolition, landlords whose properties have either lost grounds or the main building ebbed by a bulldozer.

    Mrs. Betty Onoriode owned a caravan where she was selling retailed items on Third Marine Road, Uvwie Local Government Area.

    She said: “How I wan take feed now? All the market I bought yesterday are in the house no, all of them are spoilt, now where I want take get money? If I no see, I no go chop. We agree that the place is dirty, but they could have told us to keep it clean instead of destroying structures. Now we have no other place to go, this is our source of livelihood. As you see this place, there just too many widows, they are the ones caring for their children, paying school fees. There’s this girl who just came from Port Harcourt to start a salon, no mother, no father, now they have destroyed her caravan. She said she’s returning to prostitution because what she had hoped to make a livelihood from has been destroyed by government.

    “Now the government is trying to empower the youths, like as we are talking now some girls are in the secretariat learning how to do hair, some beads making, some dress making, the question is where are they going to stay to practise? Uduaghan himself empowered some of them, bought machines, bought hairdresser’s equipment and most of them have bought caravans to use, where do you want them to start from? He has destroyed their sources of livelihood. He went to Aboh Market to give them land. Must everybody go to that place? Can I go to that place to work?”

    Christy Onosode is a hairdresser, who had a caravan made out into a shop for her.

    She said: “This has affected me badly, it means I’ll be losing customers because when I leave this place I may not come back and there is no other place for now. So, we will just have to be like this for now till we find another place.”

    Mr. Paul Obuh’s land on New Layout Road, off Jakpa Road, also in Uvwie Local Government Area, was containing a number of shops made out of caravans, behind which was a nursery and primary school. The bulldozers destroyed the caravans, the school as well as everything in the school.

    Obuh said: “The pale loader was already out of this place when I came, it was in the next place. I went there and saw Boro because the information we got was that it was Boro who brought them because of this my land, claiming that there is a church here making noise to disturb him.

    “Before then though, he had approached me to sell the plot to him, which I refused. When he was building he said the back of his building was too tight. So, he needed me to sell part of my land to him, but I said no that I didn’t want to sell; but I gave him three feet by hundred and only told him to pull down the fence at the back there for me. People were telling me to collect money, but I said no that at least he is going to be my neighbour. After some time, he started approaching me to sell.

    “I believe he has an avenue now to raid the place and that is why he did this because if you check the whole Warri, I don’t think there’s a place they destroy like this; destroy hundred by hundred with the whole property, the blocks, the granite. After the caravan, he still went inside into the school, packed everything together and smashed them. You can see for yourself that this is a deliberate act.”

    Also in a sad mood is an engineer, Oduh Edafe Unuezi who built a car wash on Refinery Road, investing over N6.5million.

    He said: “They want to plant flowers on the road when the people are hungry. I am a Mechanical Engineer and I set up this business to help myself and be an employer of labour, but we have not even commenced business and they are telling us to pull down our structures. It is painful for somebody to have invested so much money on a business and somebody will just wake up one morning to send people out of business. No notice was given to us before this destruction.”

    Oghenejabor Ikimi, the Executive Director of the Centre for the Vulnerable and Underprivileged (CENTREP), took the state government up on the demolition of sixty-five residential buildings in  Ifiekporo, Warri South. The government said the people built illegally on a royal cemetery.

    He said: “We are not oblivious of the fact that over 200 families were rendered homeless in one swoop without notice or due process as a result of the action of government and we call on the state government to adequately compensate the victims without delay as information reaching us indicates that the demolished residential buildings were duly covered with approved building plans after the buildings were registered by their owners through the Ministry of Lands and Urban Development.”

    The Commissioner of Environment insisted:  “We will not because of hunger and poverty and hunger allow society run wild.”

    He also said  there is no sacred cow as the wave of demolition has touched his property as well as that of the governor. He also noted that the demolition did not start suddenly, but that people had been notified long ago.

    Where next goes the bulldozer? That seems the question on lips in Warri.

  • Rising sea level threatens Lagos, Warri, Port Harcout, Calabar, says minister

    Rising sea level threatens Lagos, Warri, Port Harcout, Calabar, says minister

    The Federal Government warned yesterday that about 32 million residents  along the coastlines in Lagos and the Niger Delta region may be displaced because of the rise in sea level.

    The government noted that with an accelerated sea level rise of 0.5 meters, 35 per cent of the Niger Delta landmass would be lost.

    It added that with accelerated sea level rise of 1.0 meters, 75 per cent of the Niger Delta will be gone under water.

    The Minister of Environment, Laurentia Mallam, alerted the coastline residents to the looming danger at this year’s World Environment Day, with the theme: Raise Your Voice Not the Sea Level.

    The minister said cities, such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Calabar, and Warri, which are located along the coast, are vulnerable to sea level rise and storm surge.

    She said: “Nigeria is endowed with low–lying coastline of about 853 kilometres long. This coastline is very important to the economy of the country. It accounts for most of the country’s industrial establishments and energy infrastructure, while major settlements, such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Warri are located along the coast and, therefore, sensitive to sea level rise and storm surge.

    “Studies have projected that with an accelerated sea level rise of 0.5 meters, 35 per cent of the Niger Delta landmass will be lost, and with accelerated sea level rise of 1.0 meters, 75 per cent of the Niger Delta will be gone under water.

    “Given this scenario, it implies that nearly 32 million people (22.6 per cent of the national population) who live along the coastal zone are at risk of becoming environmental refugees. Such forced movement could result in social frictions arising from demands of land resources for economic activities by the refugees.

    “Moreover, many fishing grounds will be adversely affected, thus threatening major livelihood of the rural dwellers along the Nigerian coast. This is because the mangrove swamps provide breeding grounds and refuge for many fish species.

    The intrusion of saline water due to sea level rise will have an undesirable consequence on fresh water resources of the affected areas.”

  • Nembe, Warri Wolves play draw

    Nembe, Warri Wolves play draw

    • Giwa hold Dolphins in Port Harcourt

    Nembe City and Warri Wolves played out a 1-1 draw in a rescheduled league match played at Omoku, Rivers State yesterday.

    Nembe City eventually picked their first point of the season while the Seasiders’ road trip has also yielded a point for the first time this season.

    Nembe City were still fresh from their local derby 2-0 loss to Bayelsa United while Warri Wolves were yet to fully recover from their agonising 2-3 loss to Sunshine Stars in Akure last weekend.

    The Yenagoa side started the game well and their desperate incursion into the vital area of the visitors fetched the opening goal after onrushing Nembe players forced Warri Wolves’ defender Goodluck Onamado to score an own goal in the 10th minute.

    Nembe couldn’t protect their 1-0 lead beyond the first half and their lack of adequate cover gave Warri Wolves the equaliser through Gbolahan Salami who has scored three goals from three matches for Warri Wolves this season. His goal was a delectable volley that Nembe’s goalkeeper, Sule Mohammed could not have answer to.

    The Seasiders blamed the pitch they used at Omoku for their inability to get all points but praised centre referee Nasril Ibrahim from Kaduna State for a well done job.

    Meanwhile, in Port Harcourt, Giwa FC held their nerves to record a 1-1 draw against Dolphins. It was the first time in nearly three seasons that Dolphins would fail to win their two consecutive home games after the same club fired blank against Enugu Rangers last weekend.

  • Uduaghan, others bid farewell to true Warri Boy Pa Akporiaye

    Uduaghan, others bid farewell to true Warri Boy Pa Akporiaye

    Last Saturday, prominent Nigerians and dignitaries from all walks of life turned up at the First Baptist Church on Mission Road, Warri, Delta State, to pay their last respects to Pa Nawe Eric Akporiaye, who passed away at a ripe age of 92 years.

    Leading the long list of eulogies for the late Pa Akporiaye, who was the father of Dr Leslie Akporiaye, Medical Director of the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, Governor Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan said the late Pa Akporiaye lived his life as a true “Warri Boy”, who eschewed tribalism and worked for the peace and unity of the Oil City.

    Those who knew the deceased spoke eloquently about his dedication to society causes, his dedication to the Rotary Club and Boys Scout as well as his zeal and love for the Oil City of Warri.

    One of his children reflected: “He never failed to attend a Rotary meeting, even when he was travelling away from home.”

    Governor Uduaghan commended his steadfastness to peace and unity among all the ethnic groups in Warri and environs.

    The governor remarked that the late Akporiaye represented a generation of Warri indigenes that stood for unity and harmony among the ethnic groups that dwell in the city.

    He urged the various ethnic groups in the country to forge a common front towards making Nigeria a great a prosperous nation.

    Lamenting the ethic distrust and suspicion that now prevails in the city, Uduaghan noted that Warri became famous not necessarily because of industrialization but because of people like Akporiaye, who he said “were worthy ambassadors of the city.”

    He urged the various ethnic groups in the state and Warri in particular to borrow a leaf from their progenitors and learn to live in unity and join hands with his administration’s determination to restore the lost glory of the city.

    The Governor assured that his administration was committed towards transforming Warri into a modern city that would be the envy of others in the country.

    Dr. Uduaghan explained that the State Government was executing an agenda, ranging from traffic control, junction improvement, road rehabilitation and expansion, general improvement in transport infrastructure, waste management as part of measures towards transforming the urban areas and cities in the State.

    Uduaghan decried poor sanitary habits, indiscriminate trading and parking on walk ways and on streets, warning that the State Government would soon come out sternly against such practices.

    In a sermon, the officiating minister, Reverend Justin Okoroji (Junior) charged the living to take the biblical water of life and live right to enjoy divine favour.

    He emphasised that man would certainly account for his days before God hence the need to be sure we finish well on earth.

    In his homage, the DELSUTH Medical Director, Dr Akporiaye noted that the news of the death of his father, who died just eight years short of a century, did not come unexpectedly after years of ill health, but noted that it still “hit us like a ton of bricks.”

    He recalled that his fathered worked hard during his life time and “always put in 100%. This is one of the most important lessons we learnt from him. He taught us to be self-sufficient and to work hard to realise our dreams.”

    ”Friends and associates knew dad as a gentle soul with quiet sense of humour. But even though he was gentle and reserved, he had a distant serious side that sometimes kept those around him at a distance,” he added.

    Speaking further, Dr Akporiaye said his father was no yeller, but still had his way of ensuring discipline. “His silent treatment was more effective than the worst beating one could imagine.”

    He may have been soft spoke, but he loved to tell stories and teach us songs from his childhood. We cherish those special weekend outings, bird hunting, taking photographs and if we were lucky, eating his “pepperless” Sunday lunches.”

  • FGC Old students inaugurate N92.7m projects in Warri

    FGC Old students inaugurate N92.7m projects in Warri

    The Old Students Association of Federal Government College (FEGOCOWOSA), Warri has inaugurated four projects worth N92.7million executed by it in the school.

    The ceremony, which was part of the events to mark the Annual General Meeting of the Old Students Association, was attended by old students from across the world.

    Outgoing National President of the association, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the National President of the association, who presided over the ceremony, said the projects were executed to give back to the school which had given them so much.

    “My vision was to do everything we could to make Federal Government College, Warri, remain great, to inspire the next generation of the school’s Students to be the best they can be and to motivate them to aspire for greatness,” he said.

    The former Accountant General of Lagos State and Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Finance, described education as “the most potent weapon against poverty”, adding that “if the youths have good education, they will be better placed to overcome the challenges ahead”.

    The four projects commissioned include a new state-of-the-art Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Centre, a 500KVA electricity generator, an expanded Infirmary (sick bay) and a renovated dining hall.

    Ambode thanked Mrs Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, the former Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and an old student of the college and other members of FEGCOWOSA for their cooperation and dedication towards the realisation of the projects and successful completion of his tenure.

    He assured that he will continue to support the incoming executive committee and the association in general to greater heights.

    The AGM was preceded by a procession held within the school premises in honour of the 59 students recently killed by suspected terrorists at the Federal Government College in Yobe State. The procession was concluded with a symbolic ringing of the school bell in the college assembly ground 59 times.

    Ambode during the solemn procession called on the Federal Government to protect students and youths, who are the future of the country by putting an end to their mindless killing in parts of the country by insurgents.

    The AGM was climaxed by a public lecture delivered by the Delta State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Prof Patrick Muoboghare.

    In his paper entitled, “Watering the Labour of Our Heroes Past”, Muoboghare, who is also an old student of the College as the Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, noted that Nigeria could only move forward as a nation if the people become more conscious of their history and were inspired by the sterling achievements of men and women who made sacrifices to keep Nigeria together after the amalgamation of 1914.

    Muoboghare stressed the importance of education in the development of the individual person, the family, community and the nation, stating that the contribution of Ambode to education must be acknowledged. He commended the leadership style of Ambode, which he noted not only led to the revival and expansion of FEGCOWOSA nation-wide, but the remarkable achievement that saw the completion of four major projects in the college within the three years he was the national president.

    He urged the new executive committee members to build on the achievements of the Ambode-led committee in the interest of education and national development.

     

     

  • $20 billion gas project from Warri to Europe

    It is, no doubt, an ambitious project. The Federal Government is thinking about exporting natural gas from Warri, Delta State to Europe. This will undercut Brussels’ dependence on gas exports from the Russian Federation.

    This $20 billion Trans-Saharan project , when completed, will transport about 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Warri through Niger Republic to the north of Algeria and finally to Spain, from where it will find its way to other parts of Europe.

    But there is a stumbling block on the way of this grandiose scheme. The problem is its huge cost.

    President Goodluck Jonathan, on January 29, announced the project in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

    So far, according to Jonathan, Nigeria has mobilised $700 million to support the completion of the Nigeria-Algeria natural gas pipeline project.

    Jonathan said: “We have raised $450 million in Eurobonds and an additional direct equity contribution of about $250 million in support of this project. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which is the executor of this project has completed the concept design for the pipeline, which is an important milestone since I last provided an update on this project to the committee.”

    A staggering $19 billion is still required for this project that will become the world’s most expensive energy export project. It will dwarf the $3.6 billion, one million bpd, 1,092-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which ships 850,000 barrels per day of Azeri Caspian oil to Turkey’s deep-water Mediterranean Ceyhan port .

    In a keynote address by African Union Commission chairman Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma at the African Mining Indaba Ministerial Symposium on February 3 in Cape Town, Zuma said: “We should move away from building infrastructure only for one purpose, whether it is power generation and distribution capacity for a mine, whilst the communities and villages surrounding the mine are still in the dark. A good example is the new pipeline that transports gas between Nigeria and Algeria, where there are also plans for a Trans-Saharan highway on the same route.”

    As good as this project is, there are concerns. One of them is the fact that will it be corruption-free, given the country’s status as “Africa’s most corrupt hydrocarbon state”? Again, the fact that it is passing through the militant-torn Magreb to southern Europe is also a concern.

    It is a concern that not a single major European financial lending source has signed to the project yet. Could the corruption issue be at the heart of this?

    An article recently noted that if Nigeria wishes the project to go forward, it must begin to grapple with corruption in its energy sector and find a way to get its neighbours to provide a transit route, which will make the investment less risky.

    There is also the germane issue of the people of Warri and Delta State generally where the gas is coming from. Has everything been done to ensure their interest is protected? It is worthy to note that the major problem behind the low supply of electricity in the country is lack of gas to power the turbines. Of course, it is not that the country is short of gas; not with all in its reserves. But some people blew the gas pipelines with dynamites. Is anyone thinking of doing something to ensure that this sort of problem will not affect the investment into this massive project?

    Certainly, all these concerns are guiding investors’ interest in the project and unless they are taken care of, the project may only remain on the paper.

  • Warri youths protest port operator’s marginalisation

    The frosty relationship between the Integrated Logistics Services (INTELS) and its host community in the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) New Port area Warri, Delta State, boiled over as hundreds of youths from the community protested against the company.

    The peaceful protesters said they were unhappy about alleged monopolisation of the loading and offloading of oil and gas operations at the terminal by INTELS.

    One of the aggrieved community youths told our reporter that they are “unhappy that all operations at the New Port area of the city have been taken over by INTELS who do not care about our people.”

    It was gathered that yesterday’s protest was the latest in the unending bickering between the Warri community and the concessionaire over the latter’s operation.

    The host had on December 5, 2013, in an open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, accused INTELS of deliberately marginalizing people of NPA Warri host communities in its employment policies, human capital development and youth empowerment programmes.

    The letter blamed “the infrastructural decay of Warri Port” on INTELS monopolization of activities at the Warri Port and sought to know “the political heavy weight that is behind INTELS Nigeria Limited”.

    More infuriating for the protesters was INTEL’s alleged shutting-out of indigenous contractors from the Port Operations, a move they said was contrary to the Local Content Act.

    Armed with placards and chanting war songs, protesters poured stormed the New Port gate before 7:00am in a number of buses.

    They prevented vehicle and human traffic in and out of the company’s areas.

    Their placards bore inscriptions denouncing the company’s policies and appealing to Federal Government to call the management of INTELS to order as well as to revamp the port.

    Attempts to get the company’s official to comment on the incident proved abortive as the few who managed to get into the premises said they were not competent to comment on the matter.

    However, the Manager, Delta Ports, Mr. Obumneme Onuenyenwa, who spoke to reporters during the protest, promised that the port authorities would intervene on the issue with a view to reaching a compromise between INTELS and the host communities.

  • Delta community berates Warri Refinery over fallen bridge

    Delta community berates Warri Refinery over fallen bridge

    The people of Ubeji, a host community to the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, have raised the alarm over the devastation on their livelihood by the company’s blockade of the water channel leading to the community.

    The latest face-off between WRPC, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the community is over the repair of a collapsed bridge linking WRPC’s refinery to the NNPC Loading Jetty.

    Several months after the bridge accident, which resulted in at least one death, the people of Ubeji lamented that the company has failed to fix the bridge.

    More worrisome for them is the company’s use of a pontoon barge to cross the river at the detriment of fishing and economic activities in the Itsekiri community.

    The Ubeji Community Youth President, Mr Philip Bomele, in a statement in Warri, said: “Over eight months ago, the bridge that connects the WRPC Main yard to the NNPC Loading Jetty along the Ubeji Community Creek collapsed.

    “The cause (of the collapse) we discovered was as a result of poor maintenance culture exhibited by WRPC and over loading of trucks used at the Jetty above the maximum load bearing capacity of the bridge.

    “In trying to make the NNPC Loading Jetty accessible for their operations, WRPC used a pontoon barge to block the channel linking Ubeji Community, thereby rendering the community inaccessible.

    “This has caused serious environmental and economic failures as there is no free flow of water and the fishermen and traders from the community cannot go about their fishing and trading activities since the blockage caused by the pontoon barge.”

    The community youth leader lamented that series of complaint to the management of WRPC over the losses the community had been experiencing since the blockage, failed to move the oil firm to address the plights of his people.

    “Ubeji Community, a peace loving community, is calling on the Federal Government, Delta State government and well-meaning NGOs, humanitarians and Nigerians to come to its aid to prevail on WRPC to remove the pontoon barge to allow free passage of it Indigenes to carry out their various activities.”

    He also appealed to the NNPC subsidiary to heed to their cries and protestations by stopping perceived marginalisation of host communities and depriving them of their rights to freedom of movement.

    Bomele lamented that the continued blockade of the water channel was costing families who rely on fishing, trade and other businesses on the river for their livelihoods.

    “The sole source of livelihood of most of our people is fishing and trading. When their only access to market and fish is blocked for this long, how are we supposed to survive, how are we expected to send our children to school?”

    He therefore appealed to WRPC to take urgent steps to solve the problem before the situation gets out of hand.

    The Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs Emmanuella Ate, could not be reached for comment at the time of this report. A source in the Public Affairs Department, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the company was working towards removing the offending pontoon barge from the water.

    “We are aware of the complaints from the Ubeji people. I do not know when it will be done, but what I can tell you is that there is plan to fix the problem as soon as possible,” the source added.