24092020 - BLACK WEDNESDAY: 30 killed in Kogi petrol tanker explosion

12—Vanguard, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2020
:Vanguard News
:@vanguardnews
:@vanguardnews
NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
AGREEMENT: From left, Mahendra Pratap, Business Head, Simba TVS, Nigerian football
legend, Nwankwo Kanu, and Karthik Govindrajan, Head, Marketing, Simba Group, when
Kanu signed as the company's Ambassador, in Lagos, yesterday.
Allocating 13% derivation to govs
fuelling N-Delta’s crisis, Enang insists
•N20trn allocated to region in 15 years was mismanaged — HOSCON
derivation should go for the N20trn allocated
development of the oilproducing
communities,
to region in 15
through special purpose years was
vehicles to be created. mismanaged
“Since we have seen the — HOSCON
way and manner the Also speaking, Chairman of
governors had utilised the 13 HOSCON, Dr Mike Emuh,
per cent derivation fund, I lamented that oil and gas
think it is time we go back and bearing communities had
obey the provisions of the been consistently denied their
constitution and cause that rights in the area of the 13 per
these monies be used for the cent derivation fund, stating
development of oil and gas that paying the money to the
producing communities states was against the law.
directly for their development He appealed to Ita Enang
so that this affliction would be to help escalate the demands
arrested.”
of HOSCON in the area of
By Michael Eboh
SENIOR
Special
Assistant to the President
on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator
Ita Enang, yesterday, insisted
that the allocation of the 13 per
cent derivation fund to the
governors of oil-producing
states was fuelling underdevelopment,
bitterness and
rancour in host communities
and Niger Delta in general.
Enang stated this in Abuja,
when members of the Host
Communities of Nigeria,
HOSCON, producing oil
and gas, visited his office to
present a paper, stating their
position on the 13 per cent
derivation fund and other
issues bordering on the
development of oil-bearing
communities.
He said: “It will be
inappropriate for the state
governors to take the 13 per
cent derivation money and
apply it only for building new
governor's lodge, buying
private aircraft, increasing the
number of vehicles in their
convoys or doing any other
things, which are sometimes
obscene, making the oilproducing
communities
angry and forcing them to
disrupt crude oil and gas
production.”
He noted that even the
Revenue Mobilisation
Allocation and Fiscal
Commission, RMAFC, had
considered, examined and
concluded that the 13 per cent
derivation fund was
exclusively for the host
communities and that there
were a misapplication and
misdirection of the fund.
Enang stated that concrete
steps needed to be taken at
the federal level to redeem the
oil-bearing communities from
the squalor that they are faced
with, noting that over the
years, governors of the Niger
Delta had treated derivation
funds the way they treated
local government allocation
He said: “What ought to be
done now is that the money is
not given to the respective
states. The governors should
take the same allocation as
other states of the federation,
which is the statutory
allocation, taxes and Value
Added Tax, VAT; but the
the derivation fund to
President Muhammadu
Buhari, as well as in the area
of ensuring the setting up of a
trust fund for the management
of the gas flare penalty money
and the award of pipeline
surveillance and protection
contracts to host communities.
He bemoaned the fact that
over the last 15 years, about
N20 trillion had been allocated
to oil and gas producing states
without any form of
accountability from the
governors and concrete
development in the Niger
Delta.
AkwaIbom@33: Emmanuel attributes
achievements in healthcare, others to
proactive leadership
By Chioma
Onuegbu
UYO
—GOVERNOR
Udom Emmanuel of
Akwa Ibom State, has
attributed the achievements of
his administration particularly
in heathcare delivery in the
past five and half years despite
the turbulent economic climate
to proactive leadership.
Emmanuel, yesterday,
during his 7am state wide
broadcast for the 33rd state
creation anniversary,
explained that the state
recorded one of the lowest
rates of infections and fatalities
in the country because of the
leadership provided by his
administration.
He said: “For more than five
years, and counting, with your
prayers and support, and
despite the turbulent
economic climate that has
defined most of the years I
have been in the saddle, we
have experienced great and
wonderful years of
renaissance, of the
reawakening of the Akwa
Ibom identity.
“We have seen five and half
years of great developmental
strides that have confounded
the cynics, and drawn
admirations even from those
on the opposite side of the
political divide. It could only
have been God. Because we
are a proactive government,
the COVID- 19 pandemic did
not meet us unprepared.
“Our huge investments in
healthcare delivery came in
handy. Before the world was
confronted with this
pandemic, we had already set
up a fully functional isolation
centre equipped with the most
modern amenities at the Ibom
Specialist Hospital, supported
by a functional Intensive Care
Unit, ICU.
“We did that because long
before COVID-19 had
arrived our shores, we were
prepared for other deadly
diseases such as lassa fever,
chicken pox, monkey pox etc.
Compatriots, in healthcare
delivery, I am proud to
announce that our
investments have paid off.
“As part of our completion
agenda, healthcare will
remain a key priority of this
government because as I have
always said, we need a
healthy population to drive
our industrialization agenda."
Hike in fuel, electricity tariff,
economic suicide —Ijaw leader
By Etop Ekanem
IJAW LEADER and
GMD/CEO of Tamfel Global
Resource, Chief Julius
Babogha, has condemned the
recent increase in prices of
petroleum products and electricity
tariff by the Federal
Government, describing it as
economic suicide.
Babogha, while speaking
with newsmen, appealed to
the Federal Government to
pay attention to the plight of
the low income earners in the
country.
He said the hike in the prices
of petroleum products and
electricity was ill timed,
"mostly at this period that the
country is gradually recovering
from the coronavirus pandemic,
which has crumbled
the country's economy."
He lamented that the "common
man will continue to suffer
because the government of
the day has deliberately refused
to consciously produce
petroleum in the country
when it is the producer of the
raw materials."
He said it would be economic
suicide and a calculated
emotional blackmail to deregulate
the downstream sector
when the country has the
capacity to own more refineries,
reiterating that the country
"has all it takes to export
both petroleum products and
raw materials to the whole
world, and it is wrong for the
country to be exporting crude
only to import petroleum
products to the country."
We’ll resist implementation
of Water Resource Bill,
Urhobo youths tells FG
By Perez Brisibe
UGHELLI— YOUTHS
from Urhobo ethnic
nationality under the
umbrella body of Urhobo
Progress Union, UPU, Youth
Wing also known as Ukoko
R’Ighele R’Urhobo, have
described the insistence of the
Federal Government to go
ahead with the National
Water Resource bill as
insensitive and a threat to
peace and insecurity in the
country.
Minister of Information,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had
on Tuesday during a press
conference on the
government’s position on the
bill amidst criticisms, insisted
that “there is no going back
on the bill.”
President of UPU Youth
Wing, Ovie Ebireri, while
reacting to the outburst of the
minister, advised the Federal
Government to listen to the
voice of reason and discard
the proposed bill in the
interest of national peace and
unity, adding that as youths,
he and others will resist its
implementation in their
areas.
He said: “The insistence on
the bill despite the outcry from
Nigerians that has greeted it
is insensitive and capable of
causing more chaos and is a
threat to the security and
peace in the Niger Delta
region.
“The bill is capable of
causing further
discontentment and conflicts
in Niger Delta, especially the
Urhobo nation as it will
dispossess our people of their
inheritance, ancestral,
traditional and cultural rights
and ownership of her water
resources, and we align with
the stand of our fathers, UPU
worldwide, in unequivocally
and categorically rejecting
this bill."
Dikio resumes as PAP
coordinator, vows to change
narrative of programme
By Davies
Iheamnachor
PORT HARCOURT —
The new Interim
Coordinator of the
Presidential Amnesty
Programme, PAP, Col.
Milland Dikio (retd) has
resumed duty at the
Amnesty Office, Abuja.
This was disclosed in a
statement in Port Harcourt,
Rivers State, by Dibiaezue-
Eke Florence, Director,
Information, Amnesty Office.
Dikio, who addressed
members of the senior staff of
the office, promised to work
with all stakeholders and
complementary agencies to
the PAP, to ensure that the
programme benefits the
people of Niger Delta.
He said a lot of fictions and
misconceptions had been put
out in the public about what
the Amnesty Programme is,
adding that such narratives
would be changed.
Dikio, while noting that the
new administration did not
intend to dwell on the past,
said: "We shall not neglect the
lessons of the past; if we learn
well, we will do better.
“The programme will be
focused on service delivery.
The primary purpose shall be
to focus on the reintegration
of the ex-agitators and seek
the input of relevant
stakeholders in the region to
realise the objectives for
which this programme was
set up.
“PAP entails disarmament,
demobilization and
reintegration, DDR, a subset
of the amnesty package. The
amnesty package is a basket
of government avowed plans
to address and ameliorate the
grievances that led to the
agitations and subsequent
armed struggle in the Niger
Delta.”
Delta monarchs urge govt to
devise harsher measures to deal
with fake traditional rulers
By Onozore Dania
THE Delta State Council
of Traditional Rulers has
urged the Delta State
government and security
agencies to adopt more
stringent measures to curb the
excesses of fake and selfimposed
traditional rulers in
various communities across
Delta State.
In a communiqué at the
end of their meeting in Asaba,
the monarchs applauded the
current prosecution of some
self-styled traditional rulers
but called on the police to
intensify its efforts at bringing
the culprits to book.
Chairman of the council
and Obi of Owa, Dr
Emmanuel Efeizomor 11,
who read the communiqué
decried the “unwholesome
activities of the fake royal
fathers, whose actions tend
to threaten the peace and
security of communities across
Delta State.”
The royal fathers also
questioned the integrity of
town planners in Delta State
Ministry of Land and
Surveys, accusing them of
compromising town
planning laws for selfish
reasons.
The communique said the
monarchs frowned “at
inconsistencies arising from
non-adherence to laid down
rural and urban development
laws. We insist that the rules
should not be bent by town
planning officers to the
detriment of the economic
interest of the Delta State and
Deltans generally."