15092022

26 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2022
N-Delta militants at war over
pipelines surveillance contract
Continues from Page 5
and be sending people or even
if he sent people, did he ask
all of them to come to Ode-
Itsekiri or to Warri to meet
him in his palace?”
Reverse contract or
wait for anarchy, Lori-
Ogbebor tells FG
Reacting to the contract
awarded Tompolo yesterday,
Chief Lori-Ogbebor lambasted
the Federal Government
for failing in its responsibility
to manage oil resources in the
Niger Delta and maintaining
peace in the country.
Addressing newsmen in
Abuja, she said: “I have called
you because of the anarchy in
our land. There is anarchy in
Niger Delta. Some weeks ago,
I was a guest at national television
and they sought my position
on insecurity in the
country. ‘’What they asked
was connected to the train
tragedy. But I told him then
that the instability in the country,
which is in the Northern
areas of the country is little
compared to what was coming
in Niger Delta.
“I said there will be anarchy
and it will be very serious.
I told the anchor people should
be worried about what is happening
in the Niger Delta for
two reasons. One, the Niger
Delta is where the food is produced,
the food basket of the
nation and is also what gives
us foreign exchange. Till today,
people have been crying
about foreign exchange and
it keeps worsening every day.
“It is not only that our food
basket will stop, our food production,
even the foreign exchange
of Nigeria will keep
going down the drains. I told
them, kidnapping is one thing
but killing, bloodshed and
kidnapping, alongside lack
of foreign exchange will be
double tragedy. At the time I
said it, they said I did not understand
the question posed
to me.
‘’But I am sure now that they
understand. It is not more than
four weeks and everyone is
running amok, with revelations
coming out. When I
talked about small and big
thieves, they did not understand
me. When I talked
about vessels being used to
take our oil to the high seas
and oil bunkering, they did
not understand me. I warned
then that it is not the small
thieves that they should worry
about but the big thieves
and since then, they have pursued
vessels out of our waters.
“Mallam Kyari, GMD of
NNPC agreed that everybody
is involved in the stealing, that
they even found pipelines in
churches and mosques. That
is how bad it is. I said then
that the problem we have is
FG, all they do, instead of
tackling this problem, is to
give few people money to go
and give few boys in the communities.”
She noted that the award of
the humongous contract sum
to one individual in the Niger
Delta is a clear demonstration
of government abdicating its
responsibilities to the people.
Chief Lori-Egbebor cautioned
that both state and federal
governments must demonstrate
the needed political
will to implement the NDDC
Master Plan and avoid enriching
few individuals to the
detriment of the common
good of the people of Niger
Delta, insisting that failure to
heed the advice could spell
doom for the country.
“In fact, it is unable to manage
oil in Niger Delta, take
control of the country. They
now went back to what we
cried against some years ago,
dumping money in the hands
of some people, abdicating
their responsibility to the people
to take care of Niger Delta.
This was why a week ago,
they handed over pipeline surveillance
to Tompolo and another
man who is part of them,
Dokubo has come out to say
no, that Tompolo is nobody,
and that he dared not come to
his area.
“I am not to say who is right
or who is wrong but the truth
is that you dare not go to another
man’s land to take care
of what he laboured to plant.
So, Dokubo has said it, that
when they were fighting the
Itsekiris, they knew that the oil
in Delta State belong to Itsekiris
but they all converged
to fight the Itsekiris, that the
main oil is in Ijaw land —
Bayelsa, Rivers, Kalabari and
other areas.
“Now, Dokubo has said
Tompolo should not come to
his area, whose area will
Tompolo go with money being
paid to him to look after?
Because it is clear now that
Itsekiri people have more oil
in Delta State than anybody
else? What is the Federal Government
going to do? Now the
house is divided against itself?
The Federal Government is
busy creating NNPC Limited
to come and carry oil in the
Niger Delta, and they want to
do that very quickly, and talk
unequivocally as if all is well
but all is not well.
“Recently, Dokubo was brandishing
assorted weapons and
the Federal Government kept
quiet. If this is allowed to continue,
anarchy will consume
Naira depreciates to N436.5/
$ in I&E window
By Elizabeth Adegbesan
The naira yesterday depreciated to N436.50 per dollar
in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window.
Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative exchange
rate for the window rose to N436.5 per dollar from
N436.04 per dollar on Tuesday, indicating 46 kobo
depreciation for the naira. Similarly, the naira
depreciated by N2 in the parallel market yesterday.
Vanguard findings from black market traders showed
that the indicative exchange rate for the market rose to
N707 per dollar from N705 per dollar on Tuesday.
the nation. The Federal Government
must stand up to its
responsibility against any
form of lawlessness and do the
needful, so that peace will return
to Niger Delta and Nigeria
in general. To achieve a
lasting peace in the region,
FG must withdraw the Tompolo
pipeline contract award,
constitute NDDC board properly
and ensure a holistic implementation
of the Petroleum
Industry Act.”
Ignore Lori-Ogbebor’s
call to revoke
Tompolo contract
—IPDI
Tackling Lori-Ogbebor yesterday,
the National president
of IPDI, Austin Ozobo, said in
a statement: “We have studied
Chief Lori-Ogbebor’s
statement and wish to state
that it did not come as a surprise
because she is on record
to have opposed every effort
to attract development and
positive appointments to Warri
area, Delta State and the
Niger Delta region.
“The IPDI calls on the
Buhari to present N19.76trn budget next month
•As Gbajabiamila inspects Reps’ temporary chamber for plenary
By Levinus
Nwabughiogu
ABUJA — Speaker of the
House of Representatives,
Femi Gbajabiamila,
yesterday gave a tentative
date of first week in October,
2022 as the time President
Muhammadu Buhari is expected
to lay the proposed
budget of N19.76 trillion for
2023 fiscal year.
He dropped the hint while
inspecting the level of work
on the conversion of two hearing
rooms, 028 and 231, to a
temporary chamber for plenary
as the construction of the
National Assembly Service
Commission office.
It will be recalled that the
old chamber as well as the
dome in the White House area
of the National Assembly
building leaked seriously during
rainfall, to which the parliament
had appropriated
N37 billion for renovation.
The renovation, which will
include other critical areas of
the building will be handled
by the Federal Capital Development
Authority, FCDA.
However the budget was later
pruned to N9 billion.
Gbajabiamila, who stated
that the job which started in
August this year, will be completed
within one year, added
that the incoming 10th assem-
losses
By Prince Okafor
NIGERIAN business
men have cried out
over the unfavourable trade
imbalance between them and
their foreign counterparts.
The Nigerian Agricultural
Quarantine Service, NAQS,
had disclosed that the country
loses about $362.5 million
annually in terms of foreign
exchange to the ban on the
exportation of dried beans in
the last eight years.
Similarly, the National
Agency for Food and Drug
Administration and Control,
From left: National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, Chief of Staff to the
President, Professor Agboola Gambari and Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the
Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, yesterday.
bly would take off at the temporary
chamber.
He said: “The renovation
work started in August. It started
few weeks behind time but
for a good reason. So far, between
August and now, giant
strides have been made.
“You see that the old chamber
have been ripped apart.
The innovations are going to
be like state of the art. We will
at the end of the day be proud
to have chamber that match
the best standard all over the
world. I’m quite impressed
with the work so far. I will encourage
them to double the
pace. Because as it is, unfortunately
or fortunately, this is
not for the benefit of the 9th
Assembly it is for the benefit
of the 10th Assembly.
“The old chamber is not
going to be ready until sometimes
in August 2023. So, we
are talking about close to one
year. But so far so good, we
are happy and this temporary
site where we will be sitting
for the next 9, 10 months is
honestly a far cry from where
we used to be but they have
done well in adapting, this
used to be hearing room to a
legislative chamber. Adaptation
- you made a lot of innovations.
We are ready to work.
“The 10th Assembly is most
likely (taking off here) unless
NNPC and FG to ignore Chief
Lori-Ogbebor. She is neither
a Niger Delta activist nor a
leader in the region. Also, she
does not live in the Niger Delta
to feel the devastating effect
of the activities of oil theft
nor has any stake in the region
through investments.
“All her investments are in
Abuja and Lagos, from where
she addressed press conferences
from time to time to
promote her selfish interests
at the expense of the ordinary
Itsekiri people that she claims
to be fighting for. Let her invest
in rural Itsekiri communities
like Ogheye and Ebrohimi
to develop the communities
as Chief Tompolo did
with Kurutie, if she loves her
people.
“Niger Deltans from across
the nine states of the region
have wholeheartedly embraced
the award of the surveillance
contract to Tompolo
and are ready to work with
him. This is evident in the
thousands of people that have
paid solidarity and consultative
visits to him at Oporoza,
Delta State.
MARKETING Edge,
Nigeria’s leading and
authoritative brand and marketing
publication has announced
its annual 2022 National
Marketing Stakeholders’
Summit & Brands & Advertising
Awards of Excellence.
The iconic two-in-one event,
which will also mark its 10th
anniversary, is scheduled to be
held on 16th September, 2022
at the exquisite Harbor Point
Hall in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Export rejects: Nigerian traders cry out over
NAFDAC, lamented that over
76 per cent of the country’s
commodities were often rejected
by the European Union
for not meeting required standards.
Vanguard’s finding equally
revealed that the European
Union had banned beans,
sesame seeds, melon seeds,
dried fish, dried meat, peanut
ships, groundnut oil, palm oil
and yam, for not meeting the
required standards.
The EU also claimed that
beans contained between
0.03mg kilograms to 4.6mg/
kg of dichlorvos (pesticides)
contrary to acceptable limits,
“The fact that Tompolo can
deliver on this very sensitive
national assignment is not in
doubt and key stakeholders
are all behind him to stop the
environmental genocide in
the Niger -Delta, increase the
nation’s oil production and
protect the environment.
“IPDI strongly believes that
this contract would lead to the
employment of thousands of
youths and help in addressing
youth restiveness in the region;
hence well-meaning Niger
Deltans support him.’’
work can be accelerated but
we don’t want to accelerate
work and compromise quality
of work. So, it’s better late
but done well, everything
worth doing is worth doing
well. “So, right now they bill
to open that place in August.
If we are lucky and they are
able to move faster and work
24/7 round the clock, may be
a month or two earlier in
which case the 10th Assembly
will come into new chamber.”
Speaking on the capacity
of the temporary chamber
to accommodate the 360 lawmakers,
Gbajabiamila said:
“You can see the configuration,
it is not just this place, it
is also upstairs.
“So, I think it is about 100
and something here and
about 200 and something
upstairs but it has been configured
in such a way that everything
is connected and you
can see the screens, I can see
everybody upstairs, everybody
presiding can see everybody
upstairs, can see everybody
downstairs.”
On his part, a national commissioner
in the National Assembly
Service Commission,
Bassey Olusegun Etuk, said
the 400 capacity building
would cost government N11.6
billion.
Marketing Edge announces
2022 awards, taps Sanwo-Olu
as keynote speaker
stressing that they constitute
a danger to human health
because of high levels of pesticides.
Available statistics showed
that in 2013, a total of 24 agroproducts
originating from
Nigeria but exported to the
United Kingdom were rejected,
while the figure increased
to 42 in 2014. In 2016, 24 exported
food products were
also rejected.
It would also be recalled
that the Minister of Industry,
Trade and Investment, Otunba
Niyi Adebayo, recently inaugurated
a technical committee
to address incidences
of export rejects.
The hybrid event will feature
a Summit in the morning
with the theme: “Technological
Explosion in the Digital
Age: Imperative for the Marketing
Communications Industry”,
while the Award
Night commences at exactly
5 PM at the same venue.
Dignitaries lined up for this
year’s event include Mr. Babajide
Sanwo-Olu, Governor
of Lagos State as a Special
Guest of Honour and Keynote
Speaker; Prince Dapo Abiodun,
Governor of Ogun State
as Special Guest of Honour;
Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, Executive
Governor of Ekiti
State and Chairman Nigeria
Governors’ Forum (NGF)
and Mr. Udeme Ufot, a seasoned
advertising practitioner,
business leader and
former President of Association
of Advertising Practitioner
of Nigeria.
In addition, the summit will
be led by an impressive array
of iconic personalities, including
Guest Speaker, Tolulope
Adedeji, Marketing Director,
ABInbev, West Africa; Emeka
Chris Okeke, Group MD/
CEO, MediaFuse Dentsu International
and Director of
Dentsu Ghana; Ozone
Mbanefo and others.