The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Yenagoa

  • Snakes cause panic in Bayelsa

    Snakes cause panic in Bayelsa

    Sudden appearances of snakes especially Cobras on streets and homes in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital is creating panic among residents.

    Some persons attributed the development to consistent rainfalls and floods experienced in many parts of the capital city.

    Others, however, said the underdeveloped nature of Yenagoa which has bushes, unkempt canals and many undeveloped plots of land provide safe haven for snakes and reptiles.

    Residents of the Apex Academy road of Amarata community on Imgbi road at the weekend were said to have discovered a giant cobra in a vehicle and rallied round to kill it.

    One of the residents identified as Chidera, said the cobra was discovered in a vehicle owned by a trader.

    “At about 7am, the owner of the vehicle, Emmanuel, called an auto repairer to fix the vehicle but discovered a large snake hiding in the vehicle.

    “The man rushed to call some residents of the area to assist him. Some youths gathered and killed the snake”, he said.

    Another resident identified as Joshua‎, said there have been movements of snakes around the Amarata since the rainfall started.

    “Some weeks ago, I saw a huge snake at the back of my house in the morning. Attempts to kill the cobra failed as it was ready to strike”, he said.

    But a local snake expert, Festus Ogienwon, advised residents to be careful while walking at night.

    He further asked people to ensure their doors are tightly closed at all time to avoid snakes crawling into their apartments to hide.

  • Police shielding killers of my son- deceased father

    Police shielding killers of my son- deceased father

    Daniel Kokorifa, the father of Innocent, the 17-year-old boy allegedly killed by policemen in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on Monday, accused the police of trying to shield the police team that killed his son.

    He cried that since his son was gunned down by the police on August 18, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Adeyemi Ogunjemilusi, had yet to visit his family and commiserate with them.

    The aggrieved father said in an era of change under President Muhammadu Buhari, the police had demonstrated the same impunity which the current administration said it had come to change, in the case of his son’s alleged extra-judicial killing.

    Kokorifa was shot dead in mysterious circumstances by the Anti-Vice/Anti-Kidnapping team of the Bayelsa police command along the Air force Road.

    The son was said to be running an errand for his mother, Pere, when he was killed in mysterious circumstances by the policemen who deposited his remains at the mortuary  of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yenagoa.

    The father of the deceased, an officer of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) insisted that his first child out of five children was murdered in cold blood.

    He said the victim who was to turn 18 on 9th of September was a peacemaker, a non-smoker who had no records of criminality.

    “We are talking about my first son that I invested so much on and was preparing him to live his dream of becoming a lawyer. The police snatched him away from me in an unprofessional manner. Yet, there is no sympathy from the police. They are not handling the matter very well. It seems they want to deny me and my dead son justice.

    “I heard that the particular persons who shot my son was arrested and taken to Zone 5 in Benin. I have not confirmed because there is no official channel communicating to me. The police must show transparency in the handling of this case so that the law will take its full course”, the father said.

    He said in the spirits of transparency, the identities of members of the police team that shot and killed his son should be made public.

    “We have been mourning since this incident happened. We can’t stop mourning Innocent because we love him so much. My wife has been a shadow of herself and my other children are still thinking that one day their big brother will come home. What we demand is justice”, he said.

    The murder of Kokorifa has attracted deluge of criticisms against the police from members of the public.

    Hundreds of youths, women and activists at the weekend trooped to the streets of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, to protest the alleged extra-judicial killing of a 17-year-old Ijaw youth, Master Innocent Kokorifa.

    But the police in a statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Butswat Asinim, said the victim died in a gun battle between a three-man notorious armed robbery gang and the police squad.

    Aggrieved youths and activists took off from the NUJ Secretariat, Azikoro Road and marched towards police command headquarters but were stopped by the police at the Onopa axis of the Mbiama-Yenagoa road.

    They displayed placards and banners with inscriptions, “police are to protect lives and properties, not to kill innocent citizens”, not every Bayelsa youth is a criminal”, police, please stop the killings”, “we say no to police brutality and many others.

     

  • Police killing: Youths, activists, others to lock down Bayelsa 

    Police killing: Youths, activists, others to lock down Bayelsa 

    Youths, activists, clerics and civil organisations are proposing to stage a mother of all protest against the alleged extra-judicial killing of a 17-year-old teenager, Master Innocent Kokorifa by the police.

    The victim was gunned down by the Anti-Vice/Anti-Kidnapping squad of the police on August 18 along the Airforce Road, at about 11am.

    Kokorifa was said to be running an errand for his mother, Pere, when he was killed in mysterious circumstances by the police.

    The father of the deceased, Mr. Daniel Kokorifa, an officer of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) said his first child out of five children, was murdered in cold blood.
    He said the victim who was to turn 18 on September 9 was a peacemaker, a non-smoker who had no records of criminality.

    But the police in a statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Butswat Asinim, said the victim died in a gun battle between a three-man notorious armed robbery gang and the police squad.

    It, was however gathered yesterday that all arrangements by different groups of people to protest the killing under the auspices of House of Justice had been concluded.

    A Niger Delta activist and former Spokesman of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, Mr. Jeremiah Owoupele, was said to be spearheading the protest.

    Speaking in Yenagoa, Owoupele said the protest to demand justice from the police would be massive and peaceful.

    He said women, youths from various parts of the state, members of IYC, human rights activists, lawyers and Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO) had indicated an interest to join the protest.

    He described the killing of Kokorifa as unwarranted, avoidable saying it had plunged the deceased family into mourning.

    He said: “We can’t even comprehend the position of the Nigerian Police Force, an agency of government whose primary responsibility is to provide security, protect lives  and ensure peace in our society. But the police have suddenly  become an instrument of death.

    “It is even more tragic and more painful, the pace at which the Bayelsa Police Public Relations Officer issued a statement in respect of the late juvenile Mr. Kokorifa Innocent as being a criminal whose death was as a result of gun fire exchange with men of the Nigerian police.

    “Perhaps most intriguing is the fact that when respected citizenry including legal minds, youth leaders and activists raised eyebrows over this particular death, the police in a meeting with the deceased family pleaded with them to excercise restraint and allow the police command to investigate the matter.

    “This statement shows a deliberate attempt to cover up the culprits of this dastardly act. Is it not standard police practice for the police to conclude investigations before issuing a statement to the public”.

    Owoupele said the demonstration was designed to ask the police to investigate the untimely death of Kokorifa and bring the perpetrators to justice describing the act and conduct of the police as unprofessional and unethical .

    He said the eyewitness account of the incident was at variance with the statement issued by the command’s PPRO.

    According to him the protest would further persuade the police to enforce internal professional discipline within their ranks and reappraise the kind of characters they recruit into their fold.

  • Tension in Bayelsa as police kill 17-year-old boy

    Tension in Bayelsa as police kill 17-year-old boy

    *Ijaw youths plan protest

    *Our first son was extra-judicially killed – family

    *He was killed in gun duel – police

    The police in Bayelsa State were, on Wednesday, embroiled in a case of alleged extra-judicial killing of a 17-year-old Ijaw youth, Master Innocent Kokorifa.

    Innocent, who hailed from Okpotuari community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, was reportedly shot dead on August 18 by the Anti-Vice/Anti-Kidnapping squad of the police at Air Force Road, Yenagoa.

    The incident, which happened at about 11am on the fateful day, has pitted the police against, the deceased family, Ijaw youth groups and activists who accused the law enforcement agency of extra-judicial killing.

    The father of the deceased, Mr. Daniel Kokorifa, an officer of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), who broke down in tears while narrating the incident, said Innocent, his first child out of five children, was murdered in cold blood.

    He said the victim who was to turn 18 on September 9 was a peacemaker, a non-smoker who had no records of criminality.

    Narrating the incident, he said: “On August 18, I received a call from my wife that the police shot my first son, Innocent Kokorifa. I instructed my wife to go to police station at Ekeki to inquire about the condition and whereabouts of Innocent.

    “My wife later called to inform me that on getting to the station, she said ‘police shot my son’, but the police retorted ‘do not say police shot your son, so that police will investigate the matter for you’. They admonished and doctored her that if asked, she should say ‘bad boys shot her son’.”

    “When I heard this, I left Port Harcourt, where I work, by night bus and arrived Bayelsa at about 11pm the same day. I made efforts to locate the whereabouts and condition of my son to no avail because most police station l reported to claimed ignorance of the case”.

    Kokorifa said he went to the crime scene late in the night in company with some of his family members and on getting there he spotted blood stains on the ground.

    He said: “The next day, we returned to the same spot and met a woman who told us what really happened at the spot. The woman told us that men of the Anti-Vice squad came out and shot at an unarmed boy.

    “She insisted that the environment was peaceful and there was no cause for alarm until the police in Jeans and t-shirts came and shot the boy. When the boy fell down and became lifeless, the police prevented people from having a close look at the lifeless body.

    “They shielded the body of the deceased from onlookers and threw it into their van and zoomed off. After hearing this, I went to the office of Anti-Vice squad at Road Safety road to see the O/C Anti-Vice, but was told the O/C was not on seat and was advised to wait for the O/C”.

    After waiting in vain for the Officer Commanding Anti-Vice, Kokorifa said he went to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) where he was told by a doctor that a police team brought a lifeless body of a youth to the emergency unit on the fateful day.

    “I was told that the Emergency Unit rejected the body since it was already lifeless. I further went to the mortuary unit, where on enquiry, l was told by the mortuary attendant that a body was brought by members of the Anti-Vice squad.

    “I was told by the mortuary attendant that the police deposited money for the mortuary bill and signed the mortuary register at exactly 11:59am, about an hour after they killed him. The lifeless body of the deceased was brought out by the mortuary attendant and I identified it as my son.

    “I noticed that the deceased was hit by a bullet which perforated his oesophagus. On the day of the incident, my wife told me that Innocent left the house and went out to visit his aunt, Miss Gbasiemokumor Lucky who lives at the street adjacent to our  house”, he said.

    He further sobbed: “Innocent was a loving son, the kind of child every father would pray to have. He doesn’t smoke, neither does he keep friends or late night. He had no criminal record whatsoever and until his death, he was not of a questionable character.

    “He recently sat for the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and he was awaiting his result before they killed him. We need justice. Killers of my son must be fished out and brought to justice”.

    But the police in a statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Butswat Asinim, said on the fateful day the squad went to an uncompleted building along Airforce Road to arrest a three-man notorious armed robbery gang.

    The statement said: “On sighting the police and in a frantic bid to escape, the robbers fired at the police, the Police returned fire, one of the suspects sustained a bullet injury, while the others escaped, abandoning one locally made single barrel pistol, one live cartridge, one expended cartridge and wraps of substances suspected to be Indian hemp.

    “The wounded suspect was arrested and taken to the Federal Medical Centre, for treatment, but died few hours later. The deceased suspect was later identified as one Innocent Kokorifa ‘m’ Efforts have been intensified to arrest the fleeing suspects. Investigation is ongoing”.

    But a human rights lawyer from the Faculty of Law, Uyo, Mr. Aluzu Augustine, who was following the matter said the police were economical with the truth.

    “It should be noted that the police did not mention where or who was being robbed at the time, before the police intervened.

    “The locus in quo (Okaka Estate) is purely a residential area. The O/C Anti-Vice did not state who made the distress call and what time the distress call was received by members of his team and they did not also say who the armed robbers were”.

    Investigations revealed that the human rights community and Ijaw youths were not in tandem with the explanations given by the police insisting that the teenager was killed without provocation.

    Irked by the development, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Central Zone, was said to be planning a protest to occupy Yenagoa and demand justice for Innocent.

    The Treasurer of the zone, Mr. Ebikade Ekerefe, the former Spokesman of IYC, Owoupele Jeremiah and Deputy Speaker of the IYC Parliament, Tare Porri and other stakeholders were said to be mobilising youths against the police.

  • Students groan as Dickson fails to reopen Bayelsa varsity

    Students groan as Dickson fails to reopen Bayelsa varsity

    Three students, lecturer lose lives

    ASUU reduces demands, denies suspending action

    The Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Seriake Dickson, has failed to resolve the ongoing industrial action involving all categories of workers at the only state-owned Niger Delta University (NDU) five months after the institution was shut down.

    Investigations revealed that the closure of the institution has dealt deadly blows on the students and lecturers who are at the receiving end of idleness and economic hardship caused by non-payment of salaries.

    Lecturers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other categories of workers commenced industrial action in April to protest the inability of the government to pay them salaries since January.

    The workers said having suffered to discharge their duties without salaries from January to April, they were no longer unable to cope with domestic pressure and cost of going to school for their lectures.

    ASUU declared work-to-rule, asked its members to stay at home pending when government would ameliorate their hardship by paying their backlog of salaries.

    But negotiations to resolve the conflict between the government and the workers were said to have met brick-walls following allegations by ASUU that the government instead of seriously tackling the issues resorted to blackmails to cow them.

    It was further learnt that while ASUU had reduced their terms demanding only two months salaries out of the four they earlier wanted, the government had yet to shift ground on its proposed 50 per cent salaries for two months.

    It was further learnt that within the period of the strike, three students and a lecturer of the university lost their lives in circumstances blamed on the action.

     

  • Avengers are within your government, IYC tells Buhari

    Avengers are within your government, IYC tells Buhari

    • Says Lagos militants, avengers are not Ijaw people

    The umbrella body of Ijaw youths, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Worldwide, on Thursday, told President Muhammadu Buhari that members of the militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) were within his government.

    The President of IYC, Mr. Udengs Eradiri, who briefed the press at the Headquarters of the council in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, also lamented constant linkage of avengers and criminals in Lagos State to Ijaw people.

    Eradiri advised President Buhari to begin the search for avengers within his government insisting that members of the militant group were in Aso Rock villa.

    He wondered why the military was laying siege in Gbaramatu Kingdom for members of NDA whom he said were not in the community.

    He said: “Why are they always quick to attack our communities. Gbaramatu is not the headquarters of avengers. It does not habour any avenger. Do you think that the community people are happy that they are under siege and cannot go about their normal duties?

    “The more they are doing this thing, the more Ijaw people will begin to come together and we will never be divided. The government should stop harassing our people.

    “The NDA is within them. They know themselves. They are blocking the President left, right and centre so that he would not see them. The NDA is with him and his people there”.

    Eradiri also insisted that the Ijaw people were not behind the violent attacks on communities in Lagos and Ogun states by militants regretting that some people deliberately ascribed such criminalities to Ijaw to cause ethnic war between Ijaw and their Yoruba neighbours.

    He asked the security agencies to do their job by flushing out the perpetrators of Lagos violence and stop making public statements that could create ethnic tension.

    He said: “There are some groups in Lagos engaged in criminal activities and those activities are now threatening the brotherly relationship our people have enjoyed in Lagos.

    “First, Nigeria should stop ascribing anything that happened in the Niger Delta to Ijaw people. For the avoidance of doubt, Niger Delta Avengers are not Ijaw people. I am tired of answering questions about Niger Delta Avengers.

    “I am the President of the Ijaw Youth Council. I am not the President of NDA. NDA are not Ijaw people. We don’t know who Niger Delta Avengers are. If the security agencies know avengers, they should arrest them. They should do their jobs.

    “They should stop transferring their jobs to community leaders or youth Organisations or leaders of ethnic nationalities. Their duty is to maintain law and order, to gather intelligence and do whatever they deem fit to ensure that there is peace in the country.

    “Please stop ascribing negative things to Ijaw people. We are the fourth largest ethnic nationalities in Nigeria and I agree that we are the people who refuse to eat sand and call it food. But that does not mean that every little thing that happens in the region will be ascribed to Ijaw people”.

    Eradiri said the Lagos issue has assumed a worrisome dimension adding that all the criminal activities in communities hosting the Arepo Atlas Cove pipelines in Lagos and Ogun States were being perpetrated by thieves who were out to enrich themselves.

    He said there is widespread economic crimes along pipelines in the country and that the Lagos scenario involved people from all the ethnic groups.

    He said: “So, Nigerians should stop ascribing it to Ijaw people. Ijaw people are peace-loving people. For over hundreds of years, our people have cohabited with other ethnic nationalities. We have never been known to be hostile people.

    “We sympathise with families that have lost their lives especially during the Ogun-Arepo crisis. As much as our hearts grieve with the affected families, we want to say that the aggressors are not Ijaw people. They are common criminals who are stealing refined products for economic reasons.

    “Therefore, the police and other security agencies that are sustained by taxpayers money should go and do their job. It beats our imagination when a police commissioner will stand up publicly to ascribe such crimes to ethnic nationality.

    “However, whichever way we can assist to resolve the issues in Lagos, we are willing to support. But the problem is snowballing into crisis between Ijaws and Yorubas and that is why we are concerned.

    “We will not support any negative thing that will be done to destabilise Lagos and its environs because our people are peaceful and law-abiding. We appeal to the Yoruba community, all those who are fanning the ambers of ethnic crisis should stop it. There are some individuals who are behind it and any little thing that happens they want to ascribe it.

    “This is just to build bad blood against our people. The government should be very vigilant because just on Wednesday, properties of the Ijaws were destroyed within the outskirts of Lagos because of media propaganda against our ethnic nationality”.

    He added: “We appeal to the Yoruba people; don’t allow yourselves to be used by people because they just want to create conflict. Conflict in Lagos will never help any of us. We still remember the injuries that were inflicted upon both sides during the OPC, Ijaw crisis.

    “Go back and investigate the issues, you will be amazed that one nonsense matter that has no bearing that caused it. Yoruba nation must know that we are their brothers. We share the same aspirations.

    “Ijaws will not sit down and said lets go and destroy Lagos. Lagos share the same terrain with us and we cannot destroy our home because we see Lagos as home.

    “We see Ogun as home. Let’s not be deceived into an unnecessary conflict. The security agencies are to be blamed. They should go and do their jobs. The waterways should be policed properly”.

  • Avengers: DSS whisks away local publisher in Bayelsa 

    Avengers: DSS whisks away local publisher in Bayelsa 

    There was confusion in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Thursday, following the whisking away of the publisher of a local tabloid, Weekly Source, Chief James Abiri, by operatives who identified themselves as secret agents from the Department of State Security (DSS).

    Abiri was reportedly handcuffed and taken away from his office in Yenagoa at about 11am by the operatives who carried out the operation in three vehicles.

    His colleagues identified the vehicles’ registration numbers as SAG 391 AA, PBT 480 AA and Lagos 193 DN.

    The armed operatives numbering nine were said to have created panic among the residents following the commando style they effected the arrest.

    They were said to have kept mute refusing to disclose the reason why Abiri was being arrested.

    There were indications that his arrest bordered on reports about the activities of the militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).

    But one of them reportedly said the publisher was needed to answer questions on national security adding that the operation was sanctioned by the headquarters of the DSS in Abuja.

    A source and colleague of Abiri said other local publishers were around the office of Abiri when the fierce-looking and unfriendly secret agents stormed the place.

    The source who spoke in confidence said when the suspicious vehicles arrived the area, Abiri whose office was located upstairs of the building, was at a canteen.

    He said: “When the three vehicles parked, one of the secret agents, came to his office but could not find Abiri. Others were waiting in the vehicles.

    “The operative came to us and said he was looking for the publisher of Weekly Source. We didn’t know he had a pistol. Following they way he inquired about Abiri, we thought he was one of his news sources.

    “We innocently went to call Abiri. But on sighting him, the operative immediately called other operatives who came and handcuffed our colleague. They immediately took him to his office but would not allow anybody to come close to them.

    “They refused to talk to us but one of them later said they came from Abuja to arrest on issues of national security. They ransacked his office, carted away some documents and took Abiri along with them”.

    He said the suspected detectives were anxiously looking for the mobile phone of the journalist but could not find it.

    He said said the operatives initially mistook the office of a popular Yenagoa-based lawyer for Abiri’s office.

    “They had already ransacked and disorganized the office of the lawyer when they noticed it was not Abiri’s office. The lawyer called the police who came, exchanged pleasantries with the secret agents and left. They apparently know them”, the source said.

    It was gathered that the way and manner the operation was conducted made some security operatives working in Yenagoa to think that the journalist had been kidnapped.

    The umbrella body of local publishers in the state, Bayelsa Federated Newspaper Publishers Association (BAFENPA), confirmed the incident.

    The Chairman of BAFENPA, Mr. Easteday Ayibatari, said they went to the offices of all security agencies in the state including the DSS but could not trace his whereabouts.

    He said the DSS in the state said no security agent could come to the state and effect any arrest without notifying the state’s office.

    He said: “We are worried of his whereabouts. We have lodged a complain at the Ekeki Police station, Yenagoa. We have never seen this kind of arrest before”.

    Ayibatari called on the police to carry out thorough investigation to locate the whereabouts of Abiri.

    He said they were further worried over the refusal of the secret agents to properly introduce themselves and show their identity cards.

    But a security agent who spoke in confidence confirmed that Abiri was taken away by the DSS and asked the local publishers to direct their inquiries to the senior officers of the DSS.

     

  • Bayelsa teachers in terrible condition – NUT

    Bayelsa teachers in terrible condition – NUT

    The national leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Wednesday, described the plight of teachers in Bayelsa State, where the government declared emergency in education, as “pitiable and pathetic”.

    The angry leaders made the observation at a press conference on Wednesday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, after a two-day consultative meeting with its state chapter.

    The President, Mr. Michael Olukoya, lamented that months of unpaid salaries of teachers left them in the throes of untold hardship.

    Olukoya, said the national executive of the union came to specifically meet with the state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson over the plight of teachers, but were told the governor was not available.

    He, however, appealed to the state government to pay teachers their salaries.

    He said: “The working condition of teachers here in Bayelsa is pathetic. The state of workers is nothing to write home about. Despite their working conditions, we commend the teachers for allowing maturity, peace, concord and amity to prevail.

    “We have come here to plead with Governor Seriake Dickson that teachers should be paid their salaries.  Look at the terrain of Bayelsa State, we have some communities that it will take some hours before you can get there. It costs money and what have you. So, we are appealing to Dickson to pay the salaries of our members.

    “Next to issue of unpaid salaries is the issue of minimum wage or consolidated arrears.  We stand to be challenged. We appeal that the government should not just take teachers for a ride.

    “Every category of workers in Bayelsa State have been paid these arears except the teachers. Teachers, mother of all professions, why are you treating them like this? So, we want to appeal to the government of Bayelsa State that this minimum wage or consolidated arrears that have eluded teachers should be paid to them.

    “If not because we have not met with the governor, we would have left back a word and you know what that means,  but we know him as a gentleman and his love for education. We believe the governor will do the needful.

    “So, our members should not be made the sacrificial lamb: what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. We are insisting that our members should be paid those salary arrears.”

    On primary school management, Olukoya contended that there is a subsisting Supreme Court judgment that ruled that local governments should only participate in the running of the affairs of primary schools.

    He noted that there was no council in Nigeria that could effectively and satisfactorily run primary school education.

    He added: “We are told that here in Bayelsa, primary school management has now been given to the LGAs. We are not here to tell his Excellency how to run the state,  but we are saying it as practitioners, as managers that it can never have good result. The LG as being experienced here cannot give a satisfactory mode of education.

    “Do not forget, primary school is a foundation and if we want to say no to all the social ills in the country, call it Boko Haram, militancy, etc, we must not toy with the foundation – primary school.

    “So, we want to appeal to the government of the state not to relinquish primary school management to local government.  As we speak, LG has started lying off workers.

    “We shall come back to plead with the governor that the idea of saying because there is no money, primary school is now the function of councils will not work.”

    Olukoya called on the state government not to accord recognition to a body that calls itself ‘the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools’, saying that it was not known to the law as a trade union.

    He said according recognition to ASUSS was an aberration, encouragement of hooliganism and antithetical to the interest of the education sector.

  • Bayelsa local govt workers sacked amidst protest

    Bayelsa local govt workers sacked amidst protest

    …Victims accuse council boss of witch-hunt

    Hundreds of workers from Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, have taken to the streets of Yenagoa, the state capital, to protest their sacking and exclusion from an ongoing process to pay the staff of the council January salary.

    It was gathered that out of the seven months owed workers in the council, the state ordered that one month salary should be paid them.

    But the aggrieved workers in a peaceful protest on Monday said their names had been removed from payrolls despite partaking in the last verification exercise.

    The workers including primary school teachers accused the council boss, Joshua Maciver of carrying out an alleged instruction to delete names of persons who supported the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last governorship election from the council’s payroll.

    The workers were said to have disrupted vehicular movement and commercial activities in Yenagoa during the peaceful demonstration.

    They were said to have barricaded the road leading to the popular Swali market and the UBA banks where salaries were being processed for other workers.

    The workers said on enquiry, the council boss told them that their names were removed from the payroll because they were illegally employed in 2008.

    But some of the protesters who lamented their plight said their salaries were paid since 2008 till after the general election in 2015.

    According to them life had become unbearable following non-payment of their salaries.

    One of the teachers, Mr. Abraham Young, of St. Barnabas School, said the sudden action by the council chairman to stop their payment and accused them of being illegally employed was wrong.

    He said it was inhuman to call them fake workers after undergoing series of verifications.

    He said: “This is wrong. How can you wake up and call people who have been working and receiving salaries since 2008 fake workers. We have contributed immensely in the educational sector of this state. Look at how they treat us. How do we feed our families after waiting for so long for our salaries?”

    Another affected worker, Mr. Apollo Simon Gidi, from the post primary school board, said for eight years he worked  without any challenge.

    He said he was initially happy when he heard over the radio that the teachers would be paid January salary but that he became sad when the chairman said appointments of persons employed in 2008 had been terminated.

    “The termination of our appointment was not on any basis. We were employed by the state government through the normal procedure of employment. How will they come now and call us fake workers. We must take them to industrial court”, he said.

    Addressing the crowd, Maciver faulted the accusation of witch-hunt by the affected persons insisting that the procedure for the 2008 employment of the victims was wrong.

    He said his predecessors employed workers without the approval by the state government, adding the victims were supposed to be arrested and prosecuted instead of them to disturb peace through protest.

    He said the people protesting defrauded the state for many years and should be made to face the law.

  • Journalists, others barred as Ese gives evidence in camera

    Journalists, others barred as Ese gives evidence in camera

    Journalists and parents of Ese, Rose and Charles Oruru, were Wednesday denied access to the courtroom following the ruling of the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa to take the minor’s evidence in camera.

    The court’s judge, Justice Njiya Ngajiwa delayed Wednesday’s proceeding for about four hours to enable it dispense with other matters scheduled for the day before handling the case involving the minor.

    Ese was brought to the court under heavy protection by security operatives who shielded her from journalists.

    As at 4pm, the minor was still undergoing cross examination by lawyers to Yinusa Dahiru, his alleged abductor, who reportedly impregnated her.

    Only lawyers representing Dahiru, who is facing a five-count charge in the case between the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Dahiru and the prosecution were allowed inside the chambers.

    Dahiru, a Kano indigene is standing trial for abduction, illicit intercourse, sexual exploitation and unlawful carnal knowledge of the 14-year-old Ese.

    The prosecution was led by Mr. Kenneth Dika, Deme Pamosoo and Joy Wokpe of the International Federation of Women lawyers (FIDA), a non-governmental organisation,

    The defendant, Dahiru, aka, yellow, was represented by Mr. Kayode Olaosebikan, Abdul Mohammed and Oyebiyi Towo.

    When asked how he felt when he heard that Ese gave birth, Dahiru insisted that Ese was his wife.

    “I don’t want to talk, but she’s my wife,’’ he told journalists, before the prisons officials who accompanied him shut him up.

    But Charles and Rose were obviously angry that they were not allowed into the chambers.

    They waited outside the court premises while their daughter’s evidence was being taken.

    Ese who recently gave birth to a baby girl is still in the protective custody of the Bayelsa state police command.