Nation

THE STATES

Published

14 years ago

June 22, 2011

Benue

The price of Dangote Portland Cement in Benue has gone down from N2,600 to N2,250 while Bua Cement has also gone down from N2,700 to N2,250.

The drop in the prices of the product became necessary as a result of the Federal Government’s ultimatum to cement companies to cut down their prices. Mr Ejike Okafor, a dealer told newsmen that the cost of manufacturing the product was still very high but that companies had opted to cut down their prices in line with government’s order. Okafor said that the cost of transporting the product from the factories to warehouses was still high. Another dealer, Mrs Veronica Nwabueze, blamed the high prices of cement on the high cost of diesel.

“Cement companies use diesel in their production machines and it is also used by the articulated vehicles that transport the product to dealers,” Nwabueze said. Mr Timothy Gbin, a trader, urged the Federal Government to prevail on the oil companies to cut down the prices of their products. “If that is done, the cost of producing and transporting the product would be drastically reduced.

FCT

The Muslim Media Watch Group (MMWG), has called on the Federal Government to declare Friday, June 23 and Sunday, June 25 as work-free days for special prayers and fasting. The call was contained in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja and signed by Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, the Co-ordinator of the group. The statement described Thursday’s bomb blast at the Force Headquarters as unacceptable, saying the work-free days would enable Muslims and Christians to pray, to avert such incident in the country in future.

It said that the security challenges of the nation were beyond what government and security agencies alone could cope with and that there was a need for prayers to deliver the country from evil doers.

The statement urged the government to go beyond its security agencies and seek assistance from foreign security experts who could provide clues in addressing the challenges. “Since it is now clear that the security challenges of this nation are beyond what the government and the security agencies can cope with, let us go back to our creator to deliver us from evil-doers by changing their minds. “Government needs to go deeper into our security problems by not only replying on our nation’s security agencies but conduct its own investigation by the help of foreign-based experts,’’ it said.

Kano

Some women in Kano have called on Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso to appoint more women into his cabinet.

Hajiya Uwani Bako, a politician in Kano noted that only one woman made the list of 12 commissioners the Governor submitted to the State House of Assembly for approval.

She said that the appointment of one woman was against the governor’s promise to women during his campaign.

Malama Hauwa Usman, a housewife, also expressed concern over the appointment. She urged the Governor to appoint more women for gender balance. PDP’s women leader, Hajiya Umma Garba, who commended the Governor for appointing a worthy woman into the cabinet, urged him to appoint more.

Speaking with newsmen in Kano, Garba reminded the Governor about his promise to take the issue of women empowerment seriously.

Kaduna

The Kaduna State Government on Friday said it would soon commence the payment of the N18,000 minimum wage to its workers. Briefing newsmen to mark the beginning of this year’s Civil Service Week in the state, the Head of Service, Mrs Hannatu Ugah, said the State Government was waiting for the release of guidelines for the implementation of the new salary. Ugah said the State Government had taken proactive measures to boost its internal revenue base. She said the government had also taken measures to improve the living condition of its workers, adding, “we have given workers welfare a top priority.

“The State Government did not shy away from implementing the previous salary structures and will still not shy away from implementing the minimum wage once the guideline is available to government,” she added.

The Head of Service said the State Government had so far invested N900 million into the staff micro-credit loan scheme, which would be available to all categories of workers. “The scheme has disbursed loans to 4, 570 workers to the tune of N1.430 billion as well as distributed 400 units of laptops to workers at a subsidised rate.’’

To enable workers own houses, Ugah said the State Government had in collaboration with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, built and allocated 165 housing units to serving civil servants on ownership basis.

She disclosed that an additional batch of 1,500 housing units were under construction at Kaduna New City Layout, Zaria and Kafanchan.

Kwara

The Code of Conduct Bureau has directed new political office holders in Kwara to submit their assets declaration forms within 30 days to avoid prosecution.

The state Director of the Bureau, Mr Joseph Olajide Adeoye, told newsmen in Ilorin on Saturday that political office holders must respect the law on asset declaration in their own interest.

According to him, a special committee from the bureau’s headquarters in Abuja is expected in Ilorin between July 5 and July 8 to verify assets declared by such persons.

The director said the committee would screen every asset declared to ascertain the authenticity of the documents.

He stated that many defaulters in Kwara were currently being tried by the agency and more than150 staff of Kwara State Polytechnic had been prosecuted at the tribunal.

“Political office holders and other public officers are cooperating with us. It was only Kwara State Polytechnic lecturers that were dragged before the tribunal three years ago for failing to declare their assets.

“They were subsequently fined N4.8 million after being found guilty with each of them paying the sum of N30, 000,” he said.

Lagos

The Ikeja Electricity Distribution Zone of PHCN says more than N120 million has been spent to repair the burnt injector sub-station at Maryland, Lagos.

Mr Chris Akamnonu, Chief Executive Officer of the zone, disclosed this to newsmen after the inspection of the burnt transmission sub-station in Maryland. The sub-station was on Tuesday gutted by fire.

Akamnonu, however, assured affected customers that power would be restored back fully on Monday with the replacement of the burnt equipment.

He also said the zone would commence test run on Saturday and Sunday to confirm the effectiveness of the equipment. To guard against a recurrence, he said PHCN management had constituted a six-man panel to look into the incessant burning of the sub-station.

Oyo

The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) has condemned the spate of bombings in the country, describing it as “a great tsunami capable of threatening the foundation of the country.’’ A statement signed by the National Chairman, Mr Moshood Erubami, in Ibadan on Sunday stated that the bombings were gradually becoming the official means of expressing dissent “which is dangerously assuming an intolerable dimension’’.

It noted that the act must be condemned by all peace-loving Nigerians, pleading with law abiding citizens to resist the temptation of using bombs to ventilate their grievances on innocent co-Nigerians.

The statement added that “the bombings in Abuja and Maiduguri, which claimed innocent lives, is a big challenge to the intelligence gathering capacity of the country’s security agencies’’.

The group expressed regret over the ease with which crimes of bombing and kidnapping were committed in the face of unwholesome excuses from agencies saddled with the responsibility to safeguard the citizenry.

Plateau

Monsignor Cletus Gotan, the Parish Priest of Church of Immaculate Conception, Zaramangada, Jos, has advised parishioners to be the policemen and women of their lives by being security conscious.

Gotan told the congregation during Sunday mass that “security is the collective responsibility of all and everybody must play his or her part.

“Don’t leave your lives in the hands of accredited security agents alone; do what you can do on your own to remain alive. “If you see somebody you don’t know around you, feel free to ask who that person is.

If you are not comfortable with the person’s response, raise an alarm.’’ The priest also told the parishioners to always be conscious of cars parked around their vicinities, as well as bags dropped around them, saying such were the things used by people who planted bombs.

The church had acquired security gadgets which it uses to screen members before letting them in.

Sokoto

The Federal Ministry of Environment has commenced a training programme for 240 refrigeration and air conditioning practitioners in Sokoto State.

The workshop is being sponsored by the United Nation Development Programme. A UNDP consultant, Alhaji Sikiru Rufaí, told newsmen in Sokoto on Saturday that the workshop was to sensitise participants on the need to protect the ozone layer. “ This is to reduce the emission of ultra violet rays which negatively affects the environment and leads to an array of consequences,’’ Rufaí added. “The environment needed to be protected from danger and by so doing, protecting the living organisms against danger,’’ Rufaí, said.

He said some of the negative consequences of ozone layer depletion included desertification, flooding, as well as ailments like trachoma.

Taraba

Alhaji Abdullahi Gambo, a reporter with Taraba State Broadcasting Service (TSBS), has emerged the winner of the chairmanship election of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Taraba State Council. Declaring the results on Saturday in Jalingo, the NUJ Deputy National Secretary, Mr Gbenga Bamidele, said Gambo polled 80 votes to defeat his only challenger, Mr Kefas Sule of the NTA, who polled 72 votes.

In his acceptance speech, Gambo, who said his victory was from God, added that he could even lay down his life to ensure that the past glory of NUJ in Taraba was restored.

He said “I am ready to do anything humanly possibly even if it means laying down my life to ensure that the past glory of the NUJ in Taraba is restored.’’

He urged Sule and his supporters to join hands with him to take Taraba NUJ to greater hights.

Nation

Accolades, Fanfare As Ogbakor Ikwerre President General Celebrates 80th Birthday

Published

3 weeks ago

September 1, 2025

The Tide

The President General of Ogbakor Ikwerre Cultural Organisation Worldwide and the Mgboh XIII of the Mgboh Royal Family of Emohua Kingdom in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, Eze (Barrister) Godspower Onuekwa, penultimate Friday celebrated his 80th birthday with pomp, pageantry and fanfare.

The celebration, which commenced with a symposium organised in his honour at Rivers State University on Thursday, August 21,2025, got to a resounding climax on Friday at Suntai Event Centre in Port Harcourt, where people from all walks of life, including business associates, friends, well-wishers, relatives, community folks, traditional rulers, and admirers, gathered to pay glowing tributes to the celebrant.

Before then, a well attended thanksgiving service was held that same Friday at Emmanuel Anglican Church, Okoro-Nu-Odo, to honour him and return gratitude to God Almighty for the fruitful and eventful life and accomplishments of the Emohua leader and icon.

The service which was officiated by Rt Rev Wisdom Budu Ihunwo, Bishop of Niger Delta North had other renowned and respected clerics like Most Rev(Dr) Blessing Enyindah, Dean, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion); Rt Rev(Dr) Emmanuel Oko-Jaja, Bishop, Diocese of Niger Delta; Rt Rev Innocent Ordu, Bishop, Diocese of Evo; and Ven Solomon Eze Nelson, Archdeacon, Okoro-Nu-Odo; among others lined up as officiating ministers.

The service lived up to its billing, as it featured powerful and soul-lifting praise and worship; point-blank prayers; and beautiful renditions, which electrified the entire atmosphere, essentially packaged to thank God for the life of the celebrant.

However, the crowning moment actually came when the who is who, the crème de la crème of the society, thronged the terraces and fabulously decorated expansive hall of Suntai Event Centre, to celebrate Eze Onuekwa, amid accolades, aplomb and panache, wining and dining, and clinking of glasses with him and all.

The chairman of the colourful ceremony, Chief Evans Woherem, who was represented by Eze(Prof) Christian Akani of the prestigious Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, praised the celebrant for his youthfulness in spite of clocking 80 years, generosity, humility, humaneness and selfless services to the Ikwerre ethnic nationality, the Niger Delta and Nigeria, and called on all and sundry to emulate his good legacies and simple disposition towards life and existence.

Goodwill messages also poured in in torrents to underscore and salute the doggedness, resilience, astuteness and uniqueness of the endearing life of the celebrant, with Prof Emenike Wami, the Ochia Ohna Ikwerre(XIV), taking the lead.

Prof Priye Iyalla, the wife of late renowned writer, novelist and playwright, Dr Elechi Amadi, held the audience spellbound as she masterfully reeled out the profile of the celebrant, amid intermittent applause from the crowd.

The Tiv Community from Benue State, resident in Rivers State, were not left out, as they honoured and decorated Eze Onuekwa in their complete traditional regalia.

Cultural displays from Baptist Church, Rumuowhor; ADNA Wogbuji Dancing Group, Egbeda; Tiv Dancing Group; and Promoter Eze and Rumu-Mgboh Emohua Wrestling Group, equally added colour and grace to the occasion, with the celebrant and his wife, Dame Ann Onuekwa, joining them to wriggle their waists and bodies in ecstasy.

In his response, the highly elated celebrant, Eze Onuekwa thanked all those gathered to celebrate with him, saying, celebrations would never cease in their homes, and attributed everything he represents in life, including his modest accomplishments to God.

Eze Onuekwa, while addressing newsmen, harped on the need for hard work among the youths and members of Ogbakor Ikwerre Cultural Organisation Worldwide, as a way of sustaining and giving meaning to the motto of the organisation, which he noted is anchored on peace, unity and progress.

He specially thanked God for sustaining his life, and for making everything possible for him and his family, saying, he was joyous that he has today become an octogenarian and elder statesman in Rivers State.

His son and medical practitioner, Dr Samuel Chizia Onuekwa expressed delight that people from far and near had come together to celebrate the father, whom he described as a role model and great inspirator.

He said it was a good thing that the children were celebrating their father when he is alive, stressing that the last time Eze Onuekwa was celebrated in such magnitude was 20 years ago, during his 60th birthday celebration, and prayed God to grant him many more years in good health.

Among dignitaries who graced the event were Senator Andrew Uchendu; Chief Sampson Agbaru; Prof Emenike Wami; Dr Peter Didia; Eze(Prof) Samuel Ugo Onyeka; and a host of others. Justice Iche Ndu(rtd); and C O Kattey were among personalities that attended the thanksgiving service, while the Vice Chancellor of Rivers State University, Prof Isaac Zeb-Obipi led the academics who graced the symposium, alongside Eze G A O Omodu.

Nation

Ensure That Ogoni Is Heard In The Right Way, HYPREP Urges Creative Arts Trainees

Published

1 month ago

August 22, 2025

The Tide

As the 100 Ogoni youths trained by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) in Creative Arts close out their training on Tuesday at the Theatre Arts Department, University of Port Harcourt, the Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Prof Nenibarini Zabbey, has urged the beneficiaries to use the skills acquired to ensure that the Ogoni stories are told and heard in the right way.

The trainees, who had completed a four- month training in script writing, film production and make-up are beneficiaries of the HYPREP sustainable livelihood programme, aimed at providing high demand skills to Ogoni youths in the lucrative creative arts and entertainment industry.

Zabbey described the Creative Arts training as well as other programmes and interventions as HYPREP’s strategic sustained effort to create alternative sources of livelihood.

”Targeted capacity building for Ogoni youths and women remains a central strategy in HYPREP’s livelihood restoration and improvement efforts. Our goal is to reach every part of the Ogoni community and ensure that no group or talent pool is left behind. This training is a deliberate step to empower young people who aspire to make their mark in the creative and entertainment industry”, he said.

While commending the trainees for producing four short films within the training period, one of which was premiered at the ceremony-Dirty Festival, the Project Coordinator noted that the training would serve as a springboard into the industry, and enable them earn a living, become entrepreneurs, and open new doors of opportunities for themselves and their communities. The three other movies are Open Pain, Bomu and Green War.

He enjoined them to utilise their skills and platforms to promote civic responsibility, peace, and environmental sustainability, urging them to ensure that Ogoni is heard in the right way, speak for HYPREP and highlight the progress being made in implementing the recommendations of the UNEP Report.

Other speakers at the event, including the Director of Technical Services of HYPREP, Prof. Damian-Paul Aguiyi; Dr Ovunda Ihunwo, Head of the Theatre Arts Department of the University of Port Harcourt; Chief Douglas Experience, the Project Coordinator of Halibiz Consult Limited; and Mrs Josephine Nzidee, Head, Sustainable Livelihood of HYPREP, all applauded HYPREP for the training, and charged the trainees to maximise the opportunity.

The trainees were later presented certificates of participation.

Visibly elated Ms Lebee Tornwe, one of the beneficiaries, thanked HYPREP and the Project Coordinator for offering the trainees the rare opportunity to acquire skills in the creative arts and entertainment industry, and expressed delight that Dr Ihunwo and Halibiz Consult Limited gave their all in grooming them.

With the wrapping up of the Creative Arts training(100), HYPREP has trained 230 Ogoni youths in high demand skill sets ,viz; seafaring(100); and aviation (30). The Project will this year, commence training in other skill areas, including Mechatronic, Aviation, Full-Stack Development, Commercial Diving, Underwater Welding and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Still in the offing is the training for Ogoni Persons Living with Disabilities in five skill sets- fish farming; basic computer skills; photography; fashion and design; and shoemaking in line with their Needs Assessment and HYPREP’s policy of inclusivity.

Nation

NYCOP Urges Stakeholders To Develop, Empower Ogoni Youths

Published

1 month ago

August 18, 2025

The Tide

The National Youth Council of Ogoni People (NYCOP) had called on stakeholders to work collaboratively towards the development and empowerment of Ogoni youths.

NYCOP made the call in a communique issue over the weekend after an emergency Congress in Port Harcourt and signed by its President, Comrade Raymond Nwibani Marcus.

In the communique, NYCOP endorsed President Bola Tinubu’s appointments of the Governing Council and Board of Trustees (BOT) members of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), particularly Rt. Hon. Emmanuel Nwika Deeyah as Chairman of HYPREP’s BOT.

It respectfully appealed to the President to consider appointing a representative from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) under the leadership of Engr. Olu Andah Wai-Ogosu, being the pioneering social vehicle for Ogoni advocacy since the inception of the Ogoni struggle, adding that it would significantly contribute to the decision-making process.

The body commended the overall management of HYPREP and urges the President to continue funding the HYPREP project.

NYCOP furthermore recommended considering the conversion of HYPREP from a project to a full-fledged agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The communique also stated that NYCOP thanked President Tinubu for establishing the Federal University of Environmental Technology, and for appointing key staff, forming a dialogue committee, and initiating infrastructural projects like the Eleme axis of the East-West Road and the Bonny-Bodo Road, significantly enhancing regional connectivity and economic prospects.

In solidarity with the Renewed Hope Agenda, the endorsed President Tinubu’s second-term bid, saying it believes his leadership embodies the aspirations of the Ogoni people and Nigerians at large.

“After thorough consideration of the Disciplinary Committee’s report, NYCOP resolves:

” To indefinitely suspend Comrade Nade Nade Burale from his position as Secretary General due to misconduct.

“To declare Comrade Saviour Imeabe persona non grata on Ogoni youth issues, given his actions’ potential to instigate crisis in Ogoni and beyond” the communique stated.

NYCOP in his resolution issued a 7-day ultimatum to former HYPREP BOT Chairman Mike Nwialeghi to explain the $100 million HYPREP fund investment, warning of potential litigation.

NYCOP reaffirmed its commitment to safeguarding Ogoni youth interests and preventing personal aggrandizement.

According to the communique the resolutions demonstrate NYCOP’s efforts to promote the collective welfare and advancement of Ogoni youth.

“We will no longer tolerate any individual or group using the name or issues of Ogoni youth for personal aggrandizement.

” Our mandate is clear: to promote the collective welfare and advancement of Ogoni youth” the communique said.

NYCOP passes a vote of confidence in Hon. Emmanuel Nwika Deeyah, acknowledging his impeccable credentials and credibility to lead the BOT of HYPREP effectively.

Kiadum Edookor