Niger Delta
President Buhari: Nigerian government to implement policies that will tackle Niger Delta challenges
President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed his administration’s desire to implement genuine policies that would help in tackling problems affecting the Niger Delta region to make life more meaningful to the people. Buhari gave the assurance during the commissioning and handing over of the erosion control and road improvement works in Owo Local Government to the Ondo State Government. The president, who was represented by the Minister of State, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Omotayo Alasoadura, noted that the erosion control of flooded area/road project was one of the ecological intervention projects approved and executed by the federal government through the Ecological Fund Office, in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), for the good people of Owo an...
Nigerian government set to tackle oil, gas infrastructure vandalism with skills acquisition
The Federal Government has expressed plans to create a reorientation programme aimed at engaging the youth in skills acquisition to address oil and gas infrastructure vandalism. The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, stated this at a Town Hall Meeting on “Protecting Oil and Gas Infrastructure” on Monday in Abuja. Newsmen report that the town hall meeting was organised by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture. Akpabio said that the programme would be targeted at the pupils and students of primary and secondary school across the nine states in Niger Delta. He explained that the Federal Government was currently meeting with stakeholders, traditional rulers, youth groups and all others from one state to the other. “We are setting up skills acquisition centres, we...
PIB: Ijaw leaders reject ‘disgusting, provocative’ bill
The leadership of the Ijaw nation has rejected the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) just passed into law by the National Assembly describing it as disgusting and provocative. The leaders also called on the Minister of State for Petroluem Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, to use this opportunity to write his name in gold, and on the side of prosperity by standing firm with the Ijaw people against their oppressors. President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), the umbrella body of the Ijaw people, Prof Benjamin Okaba in a packed press conference, he addressed at the Ijaw House, headquarters of INC in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, declared that the Ijaw nation rejects in its entirety the 3% and 5% provisions as compensation, the redefinition of host communities and other provisions including the alloca...
PANDEF cautions Nigerian government over Nnamdi Kanu, Sunday Igboho, others
The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has cautioned the Federal Government over some of its recent actions, warning that the government should consider the consequences of treating with contempt, the 16-Point Agenda it presented to President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2016. The group also condemned the midnight raid on the house of Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho and cautioned the Government’s plan to identify the sponsors of the rearrested leader of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu. The socio-cultural organization said the action of the government has caused the Niger Delta youths to declare a vote of no-confidence on PANDEF because it was the leaders of the region that requested them to stay action when they took a decision to cri...
Presidency: Niger Delta Avengers’ threat unnecessary
File Photo The Presidency on Sunday reacted to the threat by the Niger Delta Avengers to bomb oil installations if some demands were not met by federal government, saying the recent threat of force by the Avengers is unnecessary. It, however, said it was curious that the threat was coming barely 48 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari met with the leadership of the Niger Delta and Ijaw National Congress (INC), at the State House, Abuja and the germane issues, especially call for restructuring of the federation, and the inauguration of a Board for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), had been thrashed out. A release on Sunday by the Media Adviser to the President, Femi Adesina, stressed that the media was Sunday awash with threats and demands by a group, Niger Delta Avengers, to...
APC group suspends Senator Akpabio as national coordinator
The Minister for Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has been suspended by the Presidential Support Committee (PSC), a political support group of the All Progressive Progressives Congress (APC) as the National Coordinator. Akpabio was suspended for inactivity and poor leadership by the national delegates at their National General Meeting and Merit Award held yesterday at Barcelona Hotel, Abuja. The National Facilitator of the committee, Mr Gideon Samanni and the organisation’s Director of Media, Dr Kalaini Mohammed, announced the suspension in a joint statement. They said the suspension was necessitated to ensure the survival and revitalisation of the organisation. PSC raised an outcry that the group was gradually drifting into oblivion even though it supported the APC and the re-electi...
PANDEF: President Buhari lacks power to impose open grazing on states
The Pan-Niger Delta Forum has again warned the Federal Government and groups such as the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, against conduct and utterances capable of making the already bad security situation in Nigeria worse than it is. Elder statesman and leader of PANDEF, Chief Edwin Clark, gave the warning at a media briefing in Abuja, on Monday. He said President Muhammadu Buhari lacked the power to impose open grazing on state governments. He said the people of the Niger Delta have watched with restrained patience the reckless and irresponsible utterances of a group of jihadists who have over the years threatened other Nigerians over grazing routes and rights. Clark noted that the latest being the threat issued by a group of faceless anarchists who issued a warning to the Delt...
PANDEF: President Buhari lacks power to impose open grazing on states
The Pan-Niger Delta Forum has again warned the Federal Government and groups such as the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, against conduct and utterances capable of making the already bad security situation in Nigeria worse than it is. Elder statesman and leader of PANDEF, Chief Edwin Clark, gave the warning at a media briefing in Abuja, on Monday. He said President Muhammadu Buhari lacked the power to impose open grazing on state governments. He said the people of the Niger Delta have watched with restrained patience the reckless and irresponsible utterances of a group of jihadists who have over the years threatened other Nigerians over grazing routes and rights. Clark noted that the latest being the threat issued by a group of faceless anarchists who issued a warning to the Delt...
NGO: Oil spills killed 16,000 Niger-Delta babies in a year
The Stakeholders Alliance for Corporate Responsibility (SACA) has faulted the Nigerian government and multinational oil companies operating in the Niger-Delta over health hazards associated with exploitation and exploration activities. Newsmen learnt that SACA was formed and registered in Nigeria by an Irish Priest, Reverend Fr. Kevin O’ Hara, as a Non-Governmental Organisation in 2012 to find solutions to environmental problems inherent in the exploitation and exploration of oil by multinationals operating in the Niger-Delta region. Speaking to journalists at the inauguration of the group’s “Project Management Committee (PMC),” the Executive Director, SACA, Kingsley Ozegbe, hinted that statics available to his organisation through researches carried out revealed that in 2012 alone, about ...
Niger Delta: President Buhari has surpassed all past presidents – NYCN
National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) on Sunday said that President Muhammadu Buhari has surpassed all past Presidents of the country in the development of the Niger Delta region. The Council said the array of projects that now littered the coastal area was however made possible by the current Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio. The youths, therefore, warned the region’s politicians against blackmailing Buhari and Akpabio. The youths also threw their weight behind the interim sole administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Effiong Akwa for his prudent, transparent, and frugal management of resources which they said witnessed the execution of the projects within a short period of time. In a communiqué issued after a 3-week tour and assessment o...
PANDEF seeks South-south security outfit
The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has paid a consultative visit to former President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja to discuss the current security situation of the country and South south matters particularly the need for a regional security arrangement for the South-South as being done by other zones in the country. The PANDEF delegation led by the National Chairman, Senator Emmanuel Ibok Essien, said they visited the former President because he was a key voice in the country, and the political leader of the Niger Delta Region, and that his vast knowledge and understanding of the complexities and intricacies of the country, and the region, would be of immense benefit to PANDEF, and other groups in the country in the efforts to resolving the challenges we are confronted with. The group in a s...
PAP sets JAMB as criteria for ex-agitators to get scholarship
The Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, has explained that its new policy mandated all ex-agitators desiring to benefit from its scholarship scheme to first take the examination organised by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB. Amnesty office said the new policy was designed to eliminate mediocrity in the programme, adding that the scheme was aimed at transforming ex-agitators into well-educated entrepreneurs and employable citizens. PAP’s Interim Administrator, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio, disclosed in a statement in Port Harcourt signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Nneotaobase Egbe, that the policy was vital for the personal, intellectual and mental growth and development of the delegates. Dikio explained that PAP was targeted at ensuring that beneficiaries of PAP schol...
