14042021 -6 Northern govs link up to fight banditry, terrorism

12 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021
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Expedite action on PIB, Diri begs Reps
•Says N-Delta needs clean-up
By Samuel
Oyadongha
Y ENOGOA—Governor
Douye Diri of Bayelsa
State has urged members of
the House of Representatives
to expedite action on the
passage of the Petroleum
Industry Bill, PIB, saying it
would correct some of the
injustices faced by oil
producing states.
Diri made the appeal,
yesterday, when members of
the House Committee on Oil
Spill Investigation, Clean-up
and Remediation in Oil
Producing States visited him
at Government House,
VISIT: The
Interim
Administrator,
Presidential
Amnesty
Programme,
PAP, Colonel
Milland Dikio
(retd) (right)
and the Pere
of Gbaramotu
Kingdom,
HRM Ogboro
Gbaraun II
Aketekpe,
Agadagba
during a
courtesy call
on the
monarch in
his palace,
Oporoza,
Delta State,
yesterday.
Yenagoa.
The governor in a
statement by his Chief Press
Secretary, Mr Daniel Alabrah,
said the PIB, when passed
into law, would be an avenue
to correct some of the wrongs
of the oil companies in host
communities, noting that the
bill had been neglected for
long by the National
Assembly.
He said: “Let me appeal that
as you go, have a very
serious interest in the PIB.
The PIB has been there from
one Assembly to the other.
“It is another way of
ameliorating what we
perceive as cheating on the
part of the oil companies and
Nigeria on the Niger Delta
and its people.”
Diri lamented the level of
negligence by oil companies
and the Federal
Government, saying the
people have suffered so much
in terms of environmental
degradation and pollution of
water bodies leading to
increase in cases of cancer
and other strange ailments.
He queried the standards
applied by oil firms in their
operations in the Niger Delta
compared to others part of the
world.
The governor also called for
clean-up of Niger Delta as a
whole, noting that the Ogoni
clean-up, which attracted
international attention, was a
mere fraction of the polluted
environment from oil spills.
“What happened in
Ogoniland is the same in the
whole of Niger Delta. That
there is a clean-up in
Ogoniland is, to say the least,
a fraction of the Niger Delta.
So the clean-up should be
the whole of the Niger Delta,”
he said, expressing optimism
that the report of the
committee would bring
succour to people of the area
if implemented.
Earlier, chairman of the
committee, Amiru Tukur, said
they were in the state on a
verification mission to some
oil spill sites to ascertain the
actual clean-up and
remediation, adding that the
outcome would form the basis
of the report it would submit
to the House.
Women in Edo protest against herdsmen's activities
By Gabriel
Enogholase &
Ozioruva Aliu
BENIN
CITY—
HUNDREDS of
women, mostly farmers, in
Ikabigbo community, in
Uzairue Kingdom, Etsako
West Local Government
Area of Edo State,
yesterday, protested the
activities of herdsmen in
their community, asking
them (herdsmen) to leave
as their presence was
causing them more harm
than good.
The women protested at
the palace of the traditional
ruler, Chief Braimah
Alegeh, to register their
displeasure over what they
described as wanton
destruction of their crops
and farmlands by the
herdsmen.
Spokesperson for the
women, Mrs Rose
Ekhalumhe, said: “The
herdsmen want to create
hunger in our
communities. They will
enter our cassava farm,
uproot the cassava to feed
their cattle and the cattle
will destroy the remaining.
“Yam barns are not
spared in this destruction
by the herdsmen and their
cattle. We are now afraid
to go to the farm because
many of us have been
beaten up and injured by
herdsmen for daring to ask
them to stop the
destruction of our crops
and farmlands.
“So, we are here to let
you know that we are tired
of their atrocities. We can’t
farm anymore and the little
we have cultivated have
been destroyed by the
herders and their cattle.
We want them to leave our
land and community. We
didn’t give them any
land.”
Responding, Alegeh,
said: “I have reported the
matter to the clan head,
Ogieneni of Uzairue, His
Royal Highness, Kadiri
Omogbai that I am
inundated with complaints
about the destruction of
crops and farmlands by
herdsmen in my
community and he
promised to look into it.”
He said the palace would
make a formal report to the
local and state
governments to intimate
them on the unwholesome
activities of the herdsmen,
adding that the community
has no land for herdsmen
and their cattle.
Alleged marginalisation: Delta community
barricades oil company's premises
By Festus Ahon &
Ochuko Akuopha
K
W A L E —
DISSATISFIED by
its conduct, the people of
Ogbeani community in
Ndokwa West Local
Government Area, Delta
State, have staged a protest
against Sterling Oil
Exploration and Energy
Production Company,
SEEPCO/Ashtavinayak
Hydrocarbon Limited over its
failure to sign a
Memorandum of
Understanding, MoU, with
the community.
The protesters, which
include old and young
indigenes of the community,
besieged the company
premises as early as 9 a.m.,
and barred all forms of
movement in and out of the
company. They chanted
songs to express their
displeasure with the
company.
The people carried placards
with different inscriptions,
such as “We need immediate
signing of MoU”, “We Need
To See The C.E.O”, “Give Us
Job”, “SANDEEP Stop
Frustrating Ogbeani,”
among others and insisted
that they would not leave the
company premises till their
demands were met.
One of the protesters, Mr
Samuel Enebeli, who spoke
to newsmen on behalf of the
people, alleged that the
company had failed to sign
an MoU with the community
since they commenced
operations, adding that the
peaceful protest was to let the
world know how the
company was treating them.
Also speaking, Mr Festus
Obodeh said the agitation by
the community for fair
treatment by the company
had attracted the intervention
of the state government.
Explaining that the
company was not respecting
the government and the host
community, Obodeh said it
was “wrong for the company
to be operating without a
Community Liaison Officer
or reaching an
understanding with their
host.”
On his part, Chief Peter
Udome, accused the
company of sidelining the
community in the scheme of
things, alleging that “the
company has engaged more
than 5,000 Indians and more
than 200 non-indigenes with
nobody employed from the
host community, Ogbeani.”
Efforts to reach the
company for comments on
the matter proved abortive at
press time.
S’South political parties
denounce FG’s plot to seize
Delta’s repatriated funds
By Emma Amaize
A SOUTH SABA—SOUTH-
Political Parties
Coalition, SSPC, a group of
about 108 registered political
parties’ chairmen in the
South-South has scoffed at
the design of the Federal
Government to take over
returned looted funds by the
British government that
rightly belongs to the
government and people of
Delta State.
Rising from a leadership
meeting in Port-Harcourt,
Rivers State, the coalition in
a communique by the
national chairman, Prince
A-Ibom sets up c'ttee over
Ibom deep seaport take-off
By Chioma
Onuegbu
UYO —Akwa Ibom State
government has set up a
committee to interface with
strategic local stakeholders to
facilitate the execution of the
Ibom Deep Seaport project.
State Commissioner for
Information and Strategy, Mr
Ini Ememobong, in a statement,
yesterday, in Uyo, said the
committee was set up during the
State Executive Council
meeting at Government House,
on Monday.
Ememobong noted that all
the ministries and bureau
presented their performance
review for the first quarter of
2021 at the meeting.
He said: “At the meeting of the
Executive Council of the Akwa
Ibom State Government held
at the Executive Council
Chambers, Government
House, Uyo, the governor
directed that the Directorate of
Solid Minerals be moved from
Ministry of Transport to the
Reuben Favour, and nine
others, said: “SSPC frowns at
the desperation of the Federal
Government to ‘rob Peter to
pay Paul' attitude in the clear
circumstance that the funds
returned is rightly and solely
a Delta State and her
people’s monies.
“It has never been heard
in history that recoveries in
this manner are generally
shared, other than refunding
and reimbursing the source
of the loot.
“We will not hesitate to
challenge any contrary action
of the Federal Government in
a competent court of law.”
Ministry of Environment to
properly align job
responsibilities and fast track
the completion agenda.
“The Technical Committee on
Ibom Deep Sea Port
implementation informed
EXCO that Nigerian Ports
Authority, NPA, had set up a joint
committee for the project and
that execution plans are on track.
“EXCO set up a committee to
interface with strategic local
stakeholders to facilitate a
smooth take-off of the project.
Also, EXCO took briefings on
the state of affairs at Ibom
Hotels and Golf Resort under
the current management of the
Icon Group.
“The chairman of the board
and the MD of the hotel
presented their first periodic
(120 days) report showing the
developments made and the
improvements sought to be
undertaken.
“EXCO expressed
appreciation on the work done
so far in the hotel and urged
them to do better in the
subsequent period.”
Bizman recovers property
after A’Court dismisses
objection by AMCON
By Onozure
Dania
FOLLOWING an Appeal
Court decision,
dismissing an appeal by
Asset Management
Corporation of Nigeria,
AMCON, in respect of a
property at Victory Park
Estate, Igbokushu, Lekki
Phase I, Lagos, a
businessman, Mr Adedayo
Shittu, has recovered the
property from “unknown
individuals.”
Justice K. Jose of a Lagos
High Court had restrained
a Receiver-Manager
appointed by AMCON,
from encroaching on the
land.
The court had on October
24, 2019, dismissed
AMCON’s preliminary
objection and granted an
interlocutory injunction in
favour of Shittu and More
and S. A. More Ltd,
authorising them to protect
their interest in the property
at Vicory Park Estate.
Dissatisfied, AMCON
challenged the ruling with
Shittu, More and S. A. More
Ltd, Knight Rook Ltd and Mr
Lanre Olaoluwa as 1st to 4th
respondents in the suit.
But, on December 15,
2020, a three-man panel of
the Court of Appeal with
Appeal Court President,
Justice Monica Dongban-
Mensem, presiding,
dismissed AMCON’s appeal
and affirmed Justice Jose’s
order in Shittu’s favour.
Shittu counsel on the take
over of the property said:
“During a routine visit to the
land on March 22, 2021, our
client discovered that some
unknown persons had
encroached on the land and
were about to commence
construction work on a
foundation for a building.
“Consequently, we filed a
petition against the said
persons at the Land
Grabbers Task Force in
Alausa on March 23, 2021.
After processing the petition,
a stop-work order was issued
by the task force directing the
persons to report to their
office for interrogation in
connection with our client’s
petition.
“Following the petition, the
police intervened and we
executed the court order and
recovered possession of the
property.”