11052021 - Insecurity: Bandits attack Katsina mosque, abduct 10

12 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021
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Fresh oil spill hits Bayelsa community
By Samuel
Oyadongha
YENAGOA — A fresh oil
spill has reportedly
rocked Egbebiri community,
Biseni Kingdom in
Yenagoa Local Government
Area of Bayelsa
State.
According to
Environment Rights
Action/Friends of the
Earth Nigeria, ERA/
FoEN, field reports, the
spill, which was attributed
to equipment failure,
occurred at Idu Well 11, a
facility owned by Nigerian
Agip Oil Company,
NAOC.
The leak, ERA head in
Bayelsa, Alagoa Morris,
noted, was noticed last
Friday at 10 p.m., by
residents of the
predominantly fishing and
farming settlement.
According to the report,
“The people of Egbebiri in
the Biseni Kingdom have
experienced several oil
spills over the years. And
all the oil spill incidents
documented by ERA/
FoEN in this community
occurred as a result of
equipment failure and on
Wellheads.
“ERA/FoEN has had
cause to visit the
environment of Idu Wells
5 and 11 located within the
same place in the past and
it has always been Idu
Well 11 spewing crude oil
into the environment.
“Available records from
ERA/FoEN indicate that
there have been previous
oil spills from this
particular Idu Well 11
operated by Agip.
“These include: on
January 7, 2012, around
10 pm-11pm (this
occurred after replacement
of some pipelines), spill
also occurred on June 25,
2014, and very closely on
October 22, 2018, and on
November 4, 2018, before
the current incident. All
were due to equipment
failure.
“Before concluding this
field report, ERA/FoEN
confirmed that Joint
Investigation Visit, JIV,
was carried out on May 9,
2021. This is why the
official Spill Reference No
2021/ LAR/028/058 is
indicated in this report
sourced from the JIV
report. Cause of spill was
attributed to equipment
failure.”
Narrating the
community's experience,
an indigene simply
identified as Georgie said
NAOC is the owner of the
facility, Wells 5 and 11,
where the spill happened
on May 7, around 10 pm
till about 8 am before they
came and tried to stop it.
And the level of damage
is something terrible.
“You can see the level of
damage all over, of which
we don’t know what to do.
But for now, we are calling
on relevant agencies to
ensure that prompt action
is taken to prevent the spill
from spreading to the
water bodies in the
environment. You can see
all the trees are changing
colours.
“So, I am calling on
Agip, the federal and state
governments to come to
our aid with actions that
would enable the
Wike reviews curfew in Rivers to
end attacks on security formations
By Davies
Iheamnachor
PORT HARCOURT—
Governor Nyesom Wike
of Rivers State has reviewed
the night curfew imposed on
the state from 7p.m. to 6a.m.,
with effect from today.
The governor said the
decision was to stem attacks
on security formations in the
state, noting that the decision
was taken following the
multiple ambushes on police
checkpoints on the East-West
Road, which resulted in the
killing of police officers.
Wike in a state broadcast,
yesterday, said the State
Security Council took a review
of the way and manner the
recent attacks were executed
and discovered that the
perpetrators, who disguised
as security officers, moved in
unhindered from Oyigbo to
launch the attacks.
He said: “However, as a
further step towards
enhancing our collective
safety, we have reviewed the
existing night-time curfew
across the 23 local
government areas, which will
now start from 7 p.m. and end
at 6 a.m. until further notice
from May 11, 2021.
“The security agencies are
hereby, directed to note the
new curfew time, ensure strict
compliance and effectively
deal with any person or group
that violates or attempts to
violate it.
“We have reviewed, and for
the moment, declined the
pressure on the state
government to activate our
youths to defend the state
from these terrorists because
we don’t want to complicate
our very delicate security
situation by creating
opportunities for some other
monsters to emerge.”
environment to regain its
natural glory.
“We have bush mango
(Irvinga gabonensis), we
also have what we call
bush rice all over. This is
a forest where our people
The governor, who
consoled the families of the
dead officers and the state’s
Police Command for the
irreparable loss, said that the
government and security
agencies were determined to
deploy everything at their
disposal to advance the safety
and security of lives and
property in the state.
He explained that security
agencies were on the trail of
the gunmen, who attacked
security formations in the
state, expressing optimism
that the culprits would all be
arrested soon and brought to
justice.
He reiterated that nothing
would stop the government
from defeating the evil forces
presently threatening
individual and collective
security of the state.
You're enslaving oil host
communities, Reps tell oil
companies
By Levinus
Nwabughiogu
ABUJA —THE House
of Representatives,
yesterday, said some of the
multinational oil
companies operating in
Niger Delta were enslaving
the host communities.
The House, therefore,
declared an end to any form
of slavery, vowing to protect
the rights, lives and
livelihoods of the people of
the coastal region.
Chairman, House
Committee
on
Communities,
Dumnamene Dekor, made
the disclosure at a
stakeholders and the
General Public Interactive
Session at the National
Assembly complex.
The meeting was to
engage the oil companies
on many allegations of
marginalisation and other
related matters raised
overtime by the oil host
communities.
The chairman who
expressed regrets over the
non appearance of many
companies invited before
the committee, warned
come to earn their living.
We have snails and
different animals too. But
now, as I am saying, the
environment is polluted.
So, we need an urgent
response from NAOC.”
RITE OF PASSAGE: Prominent Itsekiri Chiefs and Leaders at
Jalla in Warri South Local Government Area, Delta State for one of
the rites of passage of the late Olu of Warri, His Majesty, Ikenwoli,
yesterday.
against treating the
lawmakers with levity.
Dekor also charged the
companies to make all the
relevant documents
conveying their position on
the issues available to the
committee to enable it
engage the host
communities.
He said: “It appears that
the same level of levity with
which the host
communities are treated is
the same they are bringing
here and we take exception
to that. So, for those
companies that have no
submissions and those we
are expecting to bring their
submissions and even
those who have made their
submissions, by the next
hearing, we hope to see
your MDs and it does
appear you were aware that
we are even on a short
break but you can see the
members who have come
out today for this hearing.
“We will no longer accept
slavery because what I
think most of the
companies are doing, they
are enslaving people and
we won’t take it anymore.
We have the right to protect
their rights, lives and
livelihoods and we will stop
at nothing in doing that.”
Olu-designate proceeds
to Idaniken after rites for
late monarch
By Jimitota
Onoyume
W
A R R I —
PROMINENT Itsekiri
Chiefs and Leaders were at
Jalla in Warri South Local
Government Area, Delta
State, yesterday, for one of the
rites of the late Olu of Warri,
His Majesty, Ikenwoli, at the
end of which the Oludesignate,
Omoba Tsola
Emiko, proceeded to another
level of traditional rites called
Idaniken.
Chief Robinson Ariyo, the
Egogo of Warri Kingdom,
who spoke to Vanguard at the
end of the traditional rites at
Jalla, said the Omoba would
be at Idaniken for some
period, not exceeding three
months, adding that the
ceremony at Jalla went on
smoothly.
He dismissed as
speculation, media reports
that the rites at Jalla was
postponed over
disagreements. According to
him, the postponements had
to do with analysis from
traditional meteorologists.
He said: “We have gone
to Jalla and back. The Omoba
has gone to Idaniken now.
Edo Assembly passes law
ceding administration of AAU
to Obaseki
By Ozioruva Aliu
BENIN CITY —THE
Edo State House of
Assembly, yesterday, passed
a law ceding the
administration of the state
Ambrose Alli University,
Ekpoma to Governor Godwin
Obaseki through what it
called Special Intervention
Powers for the Visitor to the
university.
The passage was sequel to
the consideration of the bill
as requested by Governor
That is the seclusion, he will
be there for some months.
This period, he will learn
some traditional things and
at the end of it, he will be
crowned.
“For you to go to Jalla, you
have to study the tide, the one
that will take you down and
bring you back must agree
with a time. You don’t move
against the tide as you are
going and coming back. All
these are followed for a
proper funeral. There are also
certain times of the day you
knock on the invisible door
at Jalla. You put all these
together and if any of these
does not fall into place, you
postpone.
“On Saturday, we were to
go when they did the reading a
day before the day, it was not
convenient, so it had to be
cancelled.
“You also look at market days,
you can’t go there on market
days. So, you have to do all these
calculations to get a conducive
date. If the tide is convenient but
it is on a market day, you cancel
it. You can take a date and if it is
not convenient, you drop that
day. Today, everything fell in
place, it was perfectly right.
Most of the chiefs were there. It
was a successful one.”
Buhari making efforts to end
poor energy supply —Omo-Agege
By Ochuko
Akuopha & Obas
Esiedesa
UGHELLI —DEPUTY
Senate President,
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege,
has said President
Muhammadu Buhari was
making significant efforts to
end poor energy supply in
Nigeria by facilitating the
provision of electricity to rural
communities across the
country.
Speaking at a groundbreaking
ceremony for the
construction of Niger Delta
Power Holding Company,
NDPHC, distribution
substation in Orogun, Delta
State, Omo-Agege said:
“The objective has been to
ensure that the number of
people, who use modern
energy increases to reduce
social costs and increase
social benefits.”
He noted that the
establishment of the power
substation was one of the
several initiatives of the
administration aimed at
addressing energy poverty in
the country.
Omo-Agege said:
“Substations play a critical
role in the power industry.
Substations support the
transmission grid in moving
power from generation
sources to customers’ load,
while electrical utilities use
them for system protection,
switching capabilities and
more importantly, voltage
transformations.
“It is thus my hope that the
construction of the power
substation will boost access to
energy in the region and
consequently bring about
enhanced economic activities
and poverty reduction
through enhanced income,
health, education and
improved environment.”
In his remarks, Managing
Director/CEO, NDPHC, Mr
Chiedu Ugbo, said when
completed, the project would
boost economic activities in
the community.
Obaseki.
At the House’ sitting,
yesterday, Majority Leader of
the House, Henry
Okhuarobo, moved a motion
that the House go into
committee of the whole and
suspend House Rules 27, 42
to 48 to consider the bill and
the motion was seconded by
the Deputy Speaker, Roland
Asoro.
The Chief Whip of the
House, Emma Okoduwa
said the bill was timely
following the crisis in the
University.