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Oil & Gas

Youth leader seeks unity amongst Bayelsa oil communities

Youth leader seeks unity amongst Bayelsa oil communities

By Nathan Nwakamma

Development

Ekeremor (Bayelsa), Feb. 11, 2020 (NAN) Mr Torke Ekpetun, the Youth President of Agbidiama community, Ekeremor LGA in Bayelsa, has advocated peace amongst oil communities to attract development and improve standard of living.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday that the greatest problems facing oil communities were disunity and selfish community leadership agenda which has made development elude oil rich communities across the state.

Ekpetun, who was recently inaugurated in office, said he would pursue a policy of unity amongst the people and ensure that International Oil Companies (IOCs) in the area would work with community leadership for common good.

He noted that disunity amongst the oil communities was an ‘ill wind’ that does no good to anyone and provides opportunity for selfless leaders to emerge and usurp the commonwealth of the people for selfish ends.

He assured oil firms oerating in Ekeremor area of Bayelsa that under his leadership, youth restiveness would be tackled as efforts are underway to re-orientate the youths and get them to learn new skills to make them competitive.

The youth leader expressed displeasure over the divisive activities of the former youth president and the outgone Community Development Chairman of Egbemo-Angalabiri Community..

He regretted the decision of the past youth leadership of Egbemo-Angalabiri to ignore the leadership of Agbidiama Community in the signing of an agreement with an oil services firm for a building project in Clough Creek flow station in 2019.

He observed that such action is capable of threatening the peaceful co-existence of Agbidiama and Egbemo-Angalabiri communities and creating crises between the communities and the oil companies.

Ekpetun called on oil firms to investigate the issues raised and ensure that there is no re-occurence, adding that Agbidiama and Egbemo-Angalabiri communities are joint hosts of Opukushi, Tunu, Clough Creek, Dodo North and Cambo Oil Fields, and have always gone into joint agreement with IOCs willing to execute projects in the area.

He however expressed optimism that both communities would have a robust working relationship that would engender peace and rapid socio economic development between them in the coming years. (NAN)

NN/MST

Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola

Health

Bayelsa has no case of Lassa fever –FMC

 

Lassa
By Nathan Nwakamma

Yenagoa, Feb. 10, 2020 (NAN) The Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yenagoa on Monday, confirmed that no confirmed case of Lassa fever had been recorded in Bayelsa.

The centre clarified that clinical tests on a suspected case earlier reported on Jan. 30 had  turned out to be negative.

Mr Ben Akpedi, the spokesman for FMC, Yenagoa, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa that all the tests conducted at the reference laboratories on the samples had been matched and the result was negative.

“After due diligence and tests and confirmatory tests in line with the best practices in the health community, the test results were negative and that is the only case so far,” Apkedi said.

He said thst the patient, who was earlier isolated and quarantined had fully recovered.

Akpedi urged the public to continue the practice of hand washing, disinfecting surfaces to avoid the transmission of the virus, which spreads through ingesting food and drinks contaminated with the feaces and urine of infected rodents.

The FMC spokesman said that the hospital and the medical community in the state remained on the alert while efforts to intensify disease surveillance remained ongoing.

NAN recalls that the Bayelsa Commissioner for Health, Dr Pabara Newton-Igwele, on Jan. 30, announced that the state had recorded a suspected case of the disease.

According to him, the state government has set up an isolation centre at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri to cater for suspected cases of the disease in the state.

Newton-Igwele called on the public and the healthcare personnel to take preventive measures seriously and ensure that their surroundings are clean at all times. (NAN)
NN/KOO/YEMI

Edited by Kevin Okunzuwa/Yemi Idris-Aduloju

 

Defence/Security

Man, 30, in Police net over alleged murder of wife, 26, in Brass LGA , Bayelsa

Man, 30, in Police net over alleged murder of wife, 26, in Brass LGA , Bayelsa
Killing
By Nathan Nwakamma
Yenagoa, Feb. 6, 2020 (NAN) The Bayelsa Police Command on Thursday said it had started investigation to unravel the mystery surrounding the death of a 26-year-old wife in Brass, a coastal settlement in Bayelsa.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that the couple, Monday Uwem and wife, Blessing, until the incident were resident at a fishing camp in Akassa area of Brass, Bayelsa.
SP Asinim Butswat, the Spokesman for the Command, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa that the deceased’s husband was invited by the police to help in its investigations.
“Investigation has commenced into the murder of one Blessing Menaboo Uwem, ‘f’, 26 years, a resident of Aparama Fishing Camp, Okumbiri Town, Akassa, Brass Local Government Area, Bayelsa.
“The deceased was allegedly killed by her husband one Monday Uwem, 30, at their residence at Aparama Fishing Camp and buried her body in a shallow grave in their kitchen.
“The suspect, who confessed to the crime, was arrested and detained for further interrogation and investigation,” Butswat said. (NAN)
NN/AOS/TA
Edited by Bayo Sekoni/Tajudeen Atitebi

 

Niger Delta

 Scholarship Beneficiaries: Amnesty Office disowns 700 Niger Delta youth 

Scholarship Beneficiaries: Amnesty Office disowns 700 Niger Delta youth

Amnesty
By Nathan Nwakamma
Yenagoa, Feb. 5, 2020 (NAN) The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) says the hundreds of youth who staged a protest on the East-West road on Wednesday claiming non-payment of 23 months benefits were not part its scholarship scheme.

Mr Murphy Ganagana, Special Assistant on Media to the Chairman of the PAP, Prof. Charles Dokubo, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday that 10,000 scholarship beneficiaries under the scheme were getting their monthly stipends regularly.

He said that the PAP was up to date in its obligations to beneficiaries who are bona fide beneficiaries in PAP database.

“Those that were enlisted in the data base and offered scholarship have been paid up to this month, February.

“The protest is a cheap blackmail by persons who got into the schools through the back door,” he said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of undergraduates from 10 different universities who said they were scholarship beneficiaries on Wednesday blocked the East West Road for more than three hours in protest.

They were demanding for stipends from the Presidential Amnesty Office, which they said had ran into 23 months.

The students were all wearing black dresses and carrying placards with inscriptions such as ‘Dokubo allow God to use you’ and ‘Charles, we rejoiced over you, why are you now making us cry?’

Other inscriptions read: ‘Don’t push us back to the creek’; ‘studying without feeding’; ‘Dokubo pay our stipends’.

The leader of the protesting students, Gabriel Zuobai, a 300 level student, called on the relevant authorities to persuade the amnesty office to pay them their outstanding stipends now.

“We are begging the relevant authorities to please prevail on our agency, which is the amnesty office, to ensure that our money is paid.

“We are all students. We are hungry. What do you expect us to do in this kind of situation?

“At the initial stage, we were about one thousand plus but they decided to pay some persons and left the rest of us because they said that some of us are not captured in database.

“As a matter of fact, we did not take ourselves to these schools. The schools themselves called us and gave us admission letters.

“We did not send our names to the schools. So, we wonder why we will be deprived of our own stipends as indigenes of Niger Delta.

“We are all students from different universities and over 700 in number. They owe us for 23 months now.

“We wonder how amnesty office come to realize that some are on data base, while some are not yet they recently deployed some persons,” Zuobai said.

There was heavy traffic build up on the East-West road which stretched to several kilometers subjecting motorists and passengers to hardship while the protest lasted. (NAN)
NN/KTO/DCU
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Edited by Kamal Tayo Oropo/Donald Ugwu

Judiciary

Ex-militants Stipends: Court dismisses application seeking to stay proceedings

Ex-militants stipends: Court dismisses application seeking to stay proceedings

Stipends
By Nathan Nwakamma

Yenagoa, Feb. 4, 2020 (NAN) The Federal High Court in Yenagoa on Tuesday dismissed a motion for stay of proceedings brought before it by Messrs Aso Tambo and Stephen Ebisintei

The two ex-militants had sought to be joined in the suit sometime last year, but Justice Awogboro Abimbola dismissed their motion to be joined.

The applicants approached the court with another application for a stay of proceeding pending determination of their appeal.

Abimbola ruled on the application for stay of proceeding based on a pending appeal to her earlier ruling.

She dismissed their application to be joined, noting that what was before her was not a valid appeal but merely a proposed notice of appeal.

“The grounds for granting stay of proceedings are exhaustive but must include conflicting right to justice by the parties and the existence of a valid appeal.

“What the applicants filed is merely a proposed notice and there is no record of the appeal processes.

“The concept is that a stay of proceeding must be predicated on a valid appeal. You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand.

“It must collapse, the answer to the question if the applicants meet the requirements to be granted a stay is in the negative,” Abimbola said.

Counsel to the Plaintiffs, Richard Turner urged the court to compel the officials of the Amnesty Office, who had earlier been summoned to appear before the court on the next adjourned date.

Turner said the office had written to the court to be excused from appearing in the last hearing.

Responding, Counsel to the Amnesty Office, Mr S.P. Johnny assured the court that his client was still interested in finalising the out of court settlement terms earlier signed by the parties.

Johnny asked the judge for an adjournment to report on settlement terms.

She adjourned the case till Feb. 25 for report of settlement terms or continuation of the hearing.

Abimbola had summoned the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo, and two others over an alleged diversion of stipends for 75 ex-Niger Delta militants.

Dokubo, also the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger Delta Matters, however, wrote to the court explaining his inability to appear and answer to allegations on Jan 14.

He said that he was attending a retreat with his management team in Dubai.

The claimants in the suit are 75 ex-militants under the Benuwolo Camp in the second phase of the programme who accepted the Presidential Amnesty in 2010.

They are demanding payment of outstanding N492m for the 75 members of the camp from January 2011 to May 2019 when they instituted the suit. (NAN)

NN/CHIN/AFA

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Edited by Chnyere Bassey/Felix Ajide

 

Defence/Security

Lorry crushes 5 in commercial tricycle to death in Yenagoa

Death

By Nathan Nwakamma

Yenagoa, Feb. 4, 2020 (NAN) Four passengers in a commercial tricycle and the operator died  in a fatal accident on Tombia-Amasoma road in Yenagoa, Bayelsa, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports..

The accident victims were crushed by a tipper driver along the Tombia-Amassoma Road in Yenagoa, the state capital.

Mr Ikechukwu Igwe, Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Bayelsa, who confirmed the incident to  NAN Correspondent on Tuesday,  said the incident occurred on Monday night.

He said  the prompt intervention of the Police led to the recovery of the remains of the victims and clearance of the mangled tricycle and lorry.

“The incident occurred late on Monday night and we deployed our operational team to the incident site.

“By the time they got there, the Police had responded and cleared the road and we are closely working with them on the accident.

“That is the beauty of the inter-service cooperation amongst security agencies in Bayelsa at work,” Igwe said.

A sand dealer in the area, Tobis Diseye, said the tipper driver was trying to evade a heap of chippings on his lane when he ran over the tricycle operator and his passengers on the opposite lane..

In reaction,  tricycle operators under the aegis  of Tombia Along Keke Unit (TAKU) on Tuesday, protested the killing of their member by the tipper driver.

They blocked a section of the Tombia-Amassoma Road and stopped other operators from plying the road during the protest.

A former chairman of TAKU, Henry Mbu, said in an interview with newsmen that they were saddened by the incident.

Mbu, who stated that his successor died two weeks ago, said:  “We are not happy. We are not happy. After the day’s work, yesterday, in the evening, we saw one of our drivers and four passengers dead.

“Their bodies were scattered. If you saw the dead bodies, you would pity them. It was a tipper driver that caused the accident yesterday.

“We are doing this protest to tell the whole world that we are not happy about the killing of our member and his passengers by the tipper driver,” he said. (NAN)

NN/CHOM/DCU

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Edited by Chioma Ugboma/Donald Ugwu