The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Warri

  • VP Osinbajo takes TraderMoni to Warri, Asaba markets

    The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Friday visited the Warri Main Market and Ogbe Ogonogo Market, Asaba in Delta State to assess the disbursement of the TraderMoni scheme.

    TraderMoni is an Empowerment Scheme of the Federal Government created specifically for petty traders and artisans across the country.

    Under the scheme, two million petty traders across the country would get N10,000 collateral-free loans this year.

    Osinbajo, shortly after touching down at the Warri Airport, proceeded to the Palace of Olu Of Warri Ogiame Ikenwoli for a courtesy visit.

    Osinbajo was given massive welcome at the palace where he addressed an enthusiastic crowd.

    He explained that TraderMoni, a brainchild of President Muhammadu Buhari, was meant to empower no fewer than 2 million petty traders in 2018.

    “Today, I am here to flag off the TraderMoni scheme –one of those schemes initiated by President Buhari.

    “We have looked at the whole commercial landscape of Nigeria; the largest number of people engaged in commerce are petty traders.

    “They are small traders; some of them table top traders; some of them selling on trays and the whole is usually not more than N2000 to N5000.

    “The president then decided, following an experience which he had with the Katsina Foundation which he was the chairman, that it is important to give these petty traders some kind of a loan—N10,000.

    “When they pay back, we give them N15,000, when they pay back, we give them 20,000 and we keep increasing all the way to N100,000 so long as they come back.

    “It is meant to empower the petty traders,’’ he said.

    The vice president said that there was nothing political about the scheme as was being insinuated.

    He said it was unfortunate that because the scheme had gained popularity, some people were attacking it.

    At the Warri Main Market, Osinbajo was given a rousing welcome by a waiting crowd which cheered and hailed as the vice president acknowledged cheers.

    He went round the market lines and stalls to have a one on one exchange with the traders.

    Afterwards, the vice president proceeded to palace of Ovie of Ughelli Wilson Oharisi 111 on a courtesy call.

    At the Ogbe Ogonogo Market, Asaba, Osinbajo was also received by broom wielding crowd.

    He went round the market and had one on one interactions with the traders who told the vice president their successes with the TraderMoni.(NAN)

  • Theft of Tompolo’s Equipment: Navy dismisses, Jails three ratings

    The Nigerian Navy has dismissed three of its personnel who were arrested in June for stealing equipment stored at Mieka Jetty in Warri, where they were on guard duty.

    The three personnel; Petty Officer Ekong Samuel, Leading Seaman Elijah Sagwada and Seaman Usman Shuaibu, were also handed over to the authorities of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Okere, Warri, to continue with a five-month jail term handed down to them by the Navy Court Martial which tried their matter in Warri.

    Speaking to journalists after the de-kitting of the dismissed ratings at the base of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta in Warri, the Commander of the NNS Delta, Commodore Ibrahim Dewu, assured that the Nigerian Navy would not condone acts of indiscipline, neither protect any of its personnel found wanton as an officer or rating.

    Dewu, who explained that the dismissal and sentencing of the erring personnel was done in accordance to standard navy rules, said that they were not summarily tried, adding that they were given fair hearing, allowed to come with their counsels and were only dismissed and sentenced after the court martial had been satisfied that they were guilty.

    Read Also: Appeal Court ruling: I remain PDP’s Ogun candidate – Kashamu

    “Sometime in June, some of our personnel that were to Mieka Jetty, keeping duty, were caught stealing some of the equipment in that jetty. When the report was made to the base and they were arrested, both them and the civilians that were involved.

    “A thorough investigation was carried out, a court martial was recommended after the investigation and these three personnel from NNS Delta were court martialed. What you see this morning is the sentence that was given after the court martial. We are carrying out the naval procedure for a dismissal and we are going to send them to prison after the dismissal.

    “They were dismissed first, after which they were de-kitted and now they are going to serve five months jail term in prison. So what we did this morning was to dekit them and then hand them over to the prison service, to continue their jail term.

    “I want to make this statement clear that the Nigerian Navy has never and will never condone any case of indiscipline, especially issues that will bring disrepute to the service. We do not cover any of our personnel that is caught involved in such cases. That is why today we have dismissed them and then we are handing them over the prison to serve their jail term”, Dewu said.

  • We will not join planned petroleum strike – IPMAN

    The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said that it is not party to the planned strike by other oil marketers.

    The marketers, including Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) and the Independent Petroleum Products Importers (IPPIS) had given the Federal Government a 7-day ultimatum, threatening to shut down depots across the country.

    The marketers claimed that the Federal Government is owing them a total of N800 billion Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF).

    However, the IPMAN, through its Kano State chairman, Bashir Ahmad Dan-Mallam,on Monday, said it would not join any strike action that is capable of inflicting hardship on Nigerians.

    According to Dan-Mallam, the Federal Government is also owing IPMAN about N150 billion PEF, but the association was not threatening any action against  the government.

    He maintained that the aggrieved oil marketers should rather engage the Federal Government in dialogue in order to resolve their differences amicably, noting that, the debt was inherited from previous administrations.

    He boasted that even if the oil marketers insist on the strike, the public should not panic as all the deports across the country are filled with the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petroleum.

    “All the deports in Kano, Minna, Warri and other places across the country are filled with petroleum that is enough for the consumption of the people throughout this festive period and even beyond.

    “So, let me use this opportunity to call on the general public that they should not panic about petroleum scarcity as we, the IPMAN, will not join the strike.

    “We are not pray to any action capable of inflicting hardship on the public. We have enough petroleum in our deports. So there is no course for alarm,” he said

    Dan-Mallam also called on the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to stop supplying petroleum to those associations that threatened to embark on strike.

    He also stated that, IPMAN  challenges all private deport owners to show when they ate supplying PMS to the association, stressing that, the era of the traditional end-of-year petroleum scarcity is over in Nigeria.

    He however called on the Federal Government to endeavour to settle the debt for the interest of the masses who bear the brunt whenever there is industrial action in the country.

     

     

  • APC built Train stations in villages of PDP chieftains – Amaechi

    The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, on Sunday said that in the course of executing the Warri-Itakpe Rail line, stations were built in the villages of Peoples’ Democratic Party(PDP)’s chieftains.

    Amaechi disclosed this at the `Next Level Presentation’ at Presidential Villa Banquet Hall to signal the commencement of the campaign of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2019 general elections.

    The minister who made a presentation titled `What We are Building ’  said that President Muhammadu Buhari, upon assumption of office, directed that old and abandoned projects be completed.

    “The truth is that the country is compelled to make a choice between good and bad. When I was appointed the Minister for Transportation, the president warned–do not start new contracts, go and complete old ones.

    “We met Itakpe –Warri Rail line which had been in existence for 34  years uncompleted; it would have been the first Standard Guage line in Africa if it was completed.

    “Based on the president’s instruction, I did a memo; I thought we will borrow money from China; but the president refused. He said we should use our internal funds to execute the project.

    “People saw me on social media on Train service from Warri to Itakpe. I got to Warri 8pm because I was going from one station to the other—almost all the villages and most  prominent members of PDP made sure that train stations were in their villages.

    “So, I am compelled to do those stations in villages of members of PDP; it is okay; it is the instruction of the president that you must go and finish the old work.’’

    He said that the tradition in the past was that once one was elected, one left the old things for the old people and awarded new contracts.

    According to Amaechi, the ministry will start commercial service from Itakpe to Warri.

    On PDP’s argument that it started the projects, Amaechi said that Buhari made it clear on commissioning the Abuja –Kaduna rail project that the project was started by the former government of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “We completed it but two things are remarkable—we borrowed 500 million dollars to start that project at the time oil was selling at 114 dollars per barrel.

    “ We should not have borrowed; you mean this country could not have afforded 500 million dollars?

    “I will show that we can; when I wrote a memo to the president and to the cabinet requesting that he should allow me borrow 500 million dollars from China to buy locomotives and coaches for Lagos-Ibadan, the cabinet under the directive of the president refused.

    Read Also: PDP kicks as APC wins by-election for House of Reps

    “He(the president) said 500 million dollars; we can get from here and we are funding it from here; so we did and completed Kaduna to Abuja quickly.

    “We spend N56million per month and we get N16 million; so we are augmenting for both rich and poor—N40 million per month under the directive of the president because he fears that the poor might not be able to afford it. So, everybody is using it.’’

    According to him, Lagos to Ibadan railway is almost complete—a distance of 156kms.

    The minister said that application had also been made to construct Kano to Kaduna railway as approval for funds is being awaited.

    “We are about to award the central line from Abuja to Niger to Baru from Baru to Itakpe to Warri; the president had approved a new seaport in Warri. We are negotiating with a Chinese company which will build it.

    “Do not forget that N2.7 billion dollars is N1 trillion. So, we are looking for money to commence already awarded work on the coastal rail.

    “The coastal rail starts from Lagos, from Lagos; it passes through Ogun State, Ondo, Benin, Asaba, and Onitsha. From Benin again, it passes through Warri, Sapele, Ughelli, to Bayelsa, in fact, it goes to Utuoke. From Otuoke, it goes to Port Harcourt.

    “ Then from Port Harcourt, it goes to Aba, Uyo, and ends up in Cross River State.

    “We are almost ready to award Port Harcourt to Maidugiri. The difference between us and the last award is that the last award was 1500km but under the directive of Mr President, it was extended to 2000 km.

    “ The last award was Port Harcourt straight to Maidugiri but in order to satisfy everybody at the directive of the President, we must get to every state capital,’’ he said.

    On his part, Mr Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, said that it would require a long journey into Nigeria’s history to recall when last it had massive investment in infrastructure.

    “It is no coincidence that we look to the 1970s and the 1980s when we built new airports, new seaports, new refineries, new highways and bridges.

    “The closest you will have to that era is the 1990s when petrol-money was also being applied to upgrade infrastructure under the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF)incidentally chaired by Buhari.

    “We lost an enormous opportunity when recently oil money rose to $114 dollar per barrel and stayed there for almost a decade and we have no new airport, refinery, bridges, petrochemical plants,   no new seaports to show accountability to how all the money went,’’ he said.

    The event also witnessed the unveiling of Buhari-Osinbajo 2019—A Basic Guide-The Campaign Manual in Brief.

    NAN

  • Arik Air resumes Warri flights

    Arik Air said Thursday that it will  resume flight operations to Osubi Airport, Warri with effective  Friday, October 26, 2018 following the reopening of the Airport closed on September 3, 2018 by Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).

    Its spokesman, Adebanji Ola disclosed this in a statement.

    Read Also: Arik Air resumes flights from Abuja to Calabar, Uyo

    According to him, Arik  Air operates two daily flights from Lagos to Warri and one flight from Abuja to Warri. He said flights into Osubi are  also resuming same day.

    Also speaking , its Chief Executive Officer, Captain Roy Ilegbodu, said the airline is pleased  to welcome passengers back on the Lagos-Warri and Abuja-Warri routes with a promise of on-time departures and great customer experience. 

    Arik Air recently launched its Mobile App to further boost customer experience. Free to download on Google Play store and IOS App Store, the app presents consumers with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

  • ‘N13b maritime investment under threat’

    Indications are that N13b invested in the dredging of the Escravos and Warri Channels in Delta State would come to waste if the federal government fails to upgrade the Warri port to a national export destination.

    Making this appeal at the weekend was Daniel Reyenieju, a lawmaker representing Delta State in the lower chamber of the National Assembly.

    According to him, having spent N13b to dredge the channels, it would not be economically wise not to put it to its required use.

    Besides, the lawmaker noted that if Warri port becomes the nation’s export destination, Lagos port and the attendant challenges of clearance, congestion, transportation and overstretched facilities among others would be eliminated.

    He said by moving all export related activities to Warri port, such policy would make it a corridor for both originating shipments and empty containers.

    Besides, Reyenieju opined that the nation stands to generate trillions of naira annually as a result of ease of doing business at Lagos and other ports as a result of a functional Warri port.

    He said: “What I am calling the federal government to do is to make Warri port an export designated port as a matter of policy. This has got nothing to do with laws; it is just operational policy of the Ministry of Transport and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is to designate the Delta Port as an export zone or export destination.

    “Whatever that needs to be exported out of this country should go out through that corridor while whatever that needs to be imported can come in through the Lagos Port and any other port. That may not foreclose the need to export few oil and gas materials through the Warri port.

    “There’s need for us to make sure that the port becomes very effective after the dredging, because we are not going to spend about N13bn to dredge a place and at the end of the day the place is not going to be put into proper use,” he stressed.

    Justifying the dredging of the channels, the lawmaker said it was long overdue, adding, “Delta is the only state in this country that has four ports; Warri Port, Sapele Port, the Koko Port and the Burutu Port. These are heavy cargo ports in terms of petroleum export terminals; the Warri refinery terminal and the Escravos terminal where crude oil is exported out of the country. So, the essence of the Escravos which was dredged about 45 years ago, became very necessary.”

  • Photos: Flood takes over road in Warri

    A major road , Enerhen Junction, a nerve centre connecting Warri, Effurun and Udu has been taken over by flood.

    The flood was as a result of a downpour which only lasted few minutes on Thursday.

     

  • ‘Lunch to Launch’ conference to hold October 27

    A non-governmental organization, Eagles Wing Motivation has concluded plans to hold its annual leadership conference tagged “Lunch to Launch” on October 27 in Warri, Delta State.

    The convener of the conference, Stephen Ogbolu explained that the dire need of people wanting to project their business to the next level, project their marketing skills has always being a motivating factor for always organizing the conference annually.

    He said: “In my experience in coaching several clients, I discovered that there are people who are in dire need of moving their business, organisation or life to the next level. They want exceptional growth and success but are confused on how to improve their selling skills, network with the right people or even master the art of excellent customer service. With this I came to a conclusion that I’ll do all I can within my expertise and network to help launch my clients to the next level of their dream. ”

    Issues to be discussed at the conference include design thinking, Psychology of sales, job/career/business/leadership efficiency and effectiveness, networking among others.

    Attendees expected include students, chief executives, professionals, consultants, Heads of Departments, sales/marketing representatives, individuals who desire growth in their corporate organization, businesses and personal life, among others.

    Key speakers expected to speak at the event include Management Consultant, Ebuka Anichebe; Business Coach, Abiola Salami; CEO, Mypassionmylife Media, Onye Ubantu, and some other seasoned leaders and business experts from various fields of endeavor.

    Eagles Wing Motivation is a Non-Governmental Organization that’s channeled towards raising young leaders of our generation who will build the mind, nation and future.

    Stephen Ogbolu is a a Life Coach, Personal Development Expert and Nation Builder who helps individuals, businesses and corporate organizations achieve exceptional level of growth and success in their business, organisation and personal life by helping them improve their selling skills, networking skills and excellent customer service.

  • Two robbery suspects die in shootout with police in Warri

    Two suspected robbers were killed at the weekend when they engaged the police in a shootout in Warri, Delta State.

    The Nation gathered that the suspects were members of a gang, which robbed Warri residents of and its environs.

    They were allegedly operating in the town said when they met their waterloo on Saturday.

    Police sources said the gang, one of whose members escaped with bullet wounds, allegedly robbed a tricycle driver, identified simply as Mr Uche, of his Keke NAPEP around the Main Garage in Warri.

    Uche was said to have notified a police patrol team from the Warri ‘A’ Division, which immediately chased the suspects.

    Although the hoodlums reportedly robbed many people as they were moving round the town, they were said to have run into the patrol team around the Old Welfare area of the town and opened fire on them.

    At the end of the shootout, two of the three-man gang were seriously injured and taken to an undisclosed hospital, where they died.

    Police Commissioner Muhammad Mustafa said two suspects were arrested in connection with the robbery of the Keke NAPEP driver.

    “They used a tricycle, popularly called (Keke NAPEP) for the operation and they were intercepted by the police. But they are seriously injured and currently are in the hospital,” Mustafa said.

  • 2019: Use your PVC to vote out bad leaders – PFN tells Nigerians

    The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) on Wednesday called on eligible voters in Nigeria to arm themselves with their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and get ready to vote out bad leaders.

    The Vice President, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (South-South), Bishop Simeon Okah made this call in Warri when he played host to the South South leaders of the PFN.

    Okah said the era of complaining and doing nothing has past, stressing that the time for people to stop complaining and take action by going to the polling units to vote during election has come.

    He said it was not enough for people to sit down in their homes complaining about bad leadership when they can actually change the leaders through the power of their PVC’s.

    Okah, who is also the Bishop of Flock of Christ Mission Incorporated called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to sit up and ensure that they build the trust of the people by conducting credible elections in the country.

    “We want INEC to do what we are paying them for. It is not a good thing that after involving professors in the conduct of election, the professors will begin to manipulate elections. This only means that Nigeria is gone. We do hope that this time around INEC would sit up and do the right thing because if they fail to sit up, they will end up setting this country on fire,” the South South PFN Vice President said.

    Read Also: Use your PVCs wisely, Fape tasks Nigerians

    On the involvement of security agents in the conduct of elections in the nation, Bishop Okah cautioned against the use of military men, saying that the function of military was to keep the nation free from external aggression.

    “The military should not be involved in the 2019 general elections. Their duty is to maintain peace and unity of the country. They should not be used in the conduct of elections. That is the duty of the police. Only policemen are allowed to monitor elections,” Bishop Okah added.

    Okah said that those people praying for the downfall of the country will not succeed, noting that God will not make their plans to succeed.

    He advised Christians in the nation to come together and use their numerical strength to get involved in the politics of the nation, saying, “Christians should organize themselves and try to know the number of eligible voters that they have so that they can use this to vote out any leader who is not performing.”

    Okah also called on Christians not to vote for any politician who has used the platform of the PFN to climb to leadership position but has forgotten to do the will of the people.

    He also warned politicians who are involved in snatching ballot boxes to desist from it saying that they are setting a bag precedent for the younger generation.