Politics
Rep Faults Siting Of NLNG’s Ship Yard In Lagos
Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Martin Amaewhule (right), presenting to the House an Amendment Law on Kidnapping in Rivers State at the sitting of the House in Port Harcourt, recently.
Photo: Chris Monyanaga
The member representing
Bonny/Degema Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Randolph Iwo Oruene Brown, has criticised the concluded plans by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited to site its proposed ship yard building in Lagos State rather than site it at the key operational base in Bonny Island in Rivers State.
Hon Brown who stated this through his political pressure group, “Advocacy 2015’’, expressed disappointment over the planned relocation describing it as a gross violation of the Nigerian content Act of 2000 and a great injustice on the people of Bonny Kingdom and Rivers State in general.
According to him, ‘’ This is a clear violation of the Nigerian Content Act 2010 sections 25-27 and the psychological contract of the good people of Grand Bonny Kingdom and the entire Niger Delta region.
The People of Bonny and Rivers State are deeply concerned that a project of this magnitude that would have a direct positive impact on the socio-economic well-being of our people will be sighted elsewhere.
Bonny Island, despite her strategic role in the Nigerian project has not yet been connected to the national grid, even as the potential for economic sustainability has been increasingly threatened by the continuous exploitation and degradation of our environment with gas flaring and emissions from other industrial sources’’, he said.
He reminded that the people of Bonny Kingdom where relocated from their ancestral homes for the purpose of the construction of the NLNG facility, and have since continued to live peacefully in spite of the pain of vacating their ancestral land and the sacrifice for the economic well being of the nation.
The lawmaker said it is sad to note that the plans have already been designed and concluded, adding that it is not only unjustifiable but morally wrong and totally unacceptable by the people.
He also said that, the proposed project, if cited as planned will not only rob the state and local government of opportunities, it will further increase unemployment level and untold hardship.
Hon. Brown however called for the immediate
reversal of the proposed plan by the management of NLNG to site the
shipyard project away from where they have significant operations.
“The people of the Niger Delta have been neglected for too long. The gas is from this region; our environment is the most exploited and degraded, our ecosystem destroyed. Yet we are the most marginalised people in the scheme of things. Further, it is quiet disheartening that whilst our people bear the risk of the everyday pollution, from gas flaring and emission from other industrial sources, the management of NLNG will contemplate to indulge in such an irresponsible act to site a project of this magnitude that will ameliorate the plight of our people’’ away from where they have major operation.
“The people will resist by any means necessary the plans by NLNG and their partners to further impoverish the people of Rivers State’’, he said.
Prof. Amupitan gave the warning on Saturday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during the South-South Zonal Readiness Assessment and Interactive Staff Engagement organised ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said insecurity remained a potential challenge to the electoral process but stressed that the Commission would not allow threats against its personnel to undermine its constitutional responsibilities.
“Insecurity may pose a challenge, but our collective constitutional resolve is far stronger. Let me again send a clear message from Port Harcourt: anyone who attempts to threaten, intimidate, or harm our ad-hoc staff, NYSC members, or permanent personnel will be brought to justice under the full weight of the law,” he said.
The INEC Chairman, who was accompanied by National Commissioners, directors and technical aides, disclosed that the South-South engagement was the fifth in a series of zonal assessments, following similar exercises in the South-West, North-West, South-East and North-East.
He explained that his physical presence across the geopolitical zones reflected the Commission’s field-first approach, emphasising that electoral integrity must be established through effective operations at the grassroots.
According to him, the assessment would cover operational preparedness across the 123 Local Government Areas in the six South-South states.
On election security, Prof. Amupitan said INEC had moved away from reactive security arrangements traditionally activated around election day to a proactive, intelligence-driven framework known as the “ICCES Tentacle”.
He explained that the framework was designed to extend inter-agency security coordination from national and state headquarters to local government areas and Registration Area Centres, including remote communities.
He identified three critical pillars of the framework as mapping and mitigating security threats, protecting electoral personnel and infrastructure, and guaranteeing safe access to polling units.
The INEC boss said the security arrangement would provide comprehensive protection for electoral personnel, technological infrastructure, including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices and server infrastructure, as well as voters.
He added that the framework was intended to ensure that every polling unit, irrespective of its geographical location or history of security challenges, remained safe and accessible for the exercise of democratic rights.
Prof. Amupitan disclosed that the South-South security architecture comprised approximately 60 major operational formations, headquarters and state commands operating under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
The network, he said, brings together military, naval, air, police and other security and intelligence agencies across the six states.
“Together, this integrated multi-agency network represents the operational backbone that guarantees intelligence-led protection across every riverine creek, coastal axis, and land-based polling unit in the Niger Delta,” he stated.
Providing an overview of the region’s electoral significance, the INEC Chairman said the South-South had the fourth-largest voting bloc in the country, with 15,823,550 registered voters, representing 15.30 per cent of the national register.
Rivers State alone, he said, accounts for 3,736,434 registered voters spread across the 23 local government areas.
Alhaji Abubakar made the demand following revelations that some INEC registration officers allegedly abused their access to the voter registration system to introduce irregular records into the database.
In a statement issued by his Director of Strategic Communications, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the former vice-president described the development as a serious breach of the Commission’s internal safeguards and raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.
He urged INEC to identify the officials implicated in the alleged misconduct and explain what disciplinary or legal measures had been taken against them.
Alhaji Abubakar also called for an independent forensic audit of the preliminary voters’ register to establish the scale of the alleged manipulation, identify affected records and determine how the questionable entries were introduced into the system.
He further insisted that INEC preserve all relevant voter records, image files, system access logs and electronic audit trails to prevent the destruction or alteration of evidence before an independent examination could be conducted.
The former vice-president also demanded that the Commission disclose the identities of companies contracted to produce sensitive election materials ahead of the 2027 polls, arguing that transparency was essential to building public confidence in the electoral process.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, had earlier disclosed during a television interview that some registration officers across the country allegedly used their official login credentials to introduce irregularities into the voters’ database.
Dr Bayode explained that the Commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System helped identify questionable records and establish how some irregularities entered the system.
He, however, clarified that not all suspicious photographs were AI-generated, as some resulted from poor registration procedures.
The development followed public concerns over suspected AI-generated photographs, alleged duplicate entries and other inconsistencies discovered in the preliminary voters’ register published online on October 26, 2026.
INEC has maintained that the published document is a preliminary register and that it is reviewing questionable records ahead of the certification of the final Register of Voters.
The controversy has intensified calls for greater transparency and accountability in the management of the voters’ register as preparations gather momentum for the 2027 general elections.
-
Opinion4 days ago
Ancestorial Worship: My Take (1)
-
Education23 hours agoPAMO MEDICAL UNIVERSITY -Nullifies Arrest warrant on VC
-
Niger Delta23 hours ago
PANDEF Seeks 50% Oil Derivation Allocation Increase
-
Rivers22 hours ago
Don Seeks Repositioning Of Tech Education For Dev
-
Education23 hours agoIAUE MOVES TO END GHOST WORKERS SYNDROME AS 400 NEW NON-TEACHING STAFF UNDERGO MANDATORY ETHICS TRAINING
-
News1 day agoFresh Ebola Scare As NCDC Records Two Cases
-
News1 day ago
Customs Partners EFCC, NDLEA, Others To Tackle Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing
-
News4 days agoFG Must Address Nigerians’ Concerns On Reforms -Shettima …Warns Against Misuse of AI, Social Media