Nation
THE STATES
FCT
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is to demolish 19 villages in the territory, an official of the authority said on Thursday in Abuja.
Head of Public Relations Unit, Department of Development Control, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), Mrs Josie Mudashiru, told newsmen last Thursday in Abuja.
Mudashiru said the affected villages comprised Idu, Karmo-Dape, Tasha, Gwagwa, Suburi, Zauda, Jahi, Gishiri, Mabushi, Mpape, Kuchigoro, Chika, Aleita, Piwoyi, Lugbe, Pyakassa, Tudun-wada, Dei-dei and Guzape.
She said that AMMC had begun a two-month sensitisation programme for residents of the areas. “We have commenced sensitisation programmes in Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba, Gbagi and pidgin English in the affected areas before the demolition exercise.
“We have involved chiefs, youths and other stakeholders in the sensitisation programme. We will proceed for marking after the programme, and hopefully, the demolition will commence before the end of 2012,” Mudashiru stressed.
Gombe
The Deputy Governor of Gombe State, Mr Thanda Rubainu, has advised the Ashaka Cement Company to increase its production to four million tonnes annually.
Rubainu gave the advice in Gombe on Thursday when the company’s Board of Directors paid him a courtesy call, stressing that increased production would boost the company’s profile and position it better to retain the market shares.
Earlier, the Chairman, Ashaka Board of Directors, Alhaji Umaru Kwairanga, said they were in Gombe for the company’s 37th Annual General Meeting. He said the company was planning to increase its production from 900,000 tonnes to 1.3 million annually.
Kwairanga assured the state government of the company’s continued support to the host communities in terms of social amenities.
He said the company dug boreholes, constructed health care centres and built schools to the communities around it, and also gave scholarship to 50 Gombe indigenes studying in various universities in the country.
Kano
Animal feeds prices have increased around Kano metropolis due to scarcity of the product, The Tide’s correspondent reports.
The demand for the product had increased since the state government began the empowerment of women and youths in poultry farming.
The price of a 50 kg bag of the feed formerly sold at about N1,200 now goes for between N1,500 and N1,600, depending on the selling point.
Consumers of the product have expressed concern over the sudden increase, saying that it would also impact on the prices of chicken and eggs.
A dealer in animal feeds, Malam Habibu Balarabe, attributed the development to low production at the factories due to the rainy season.
“During the rainy season, the storage of the product is a bit difficult so people use other methods to feed their animals as the feeds easily got spoilt during this season.”
A consumer of the product, Hajiya Khadija Nura, said that the development would translate to an increase in the prices of chicken and eggs, as well as other animals.
Katsina
Fifty-four victims of food poisoning in Gatakawa village in Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State have survived it.
The Chief Nursing Officer of the Kankara General Hospital, Mr Joshua Danjuma, said last Thursday in Kankara that they were brought to the hospital same day and put on admission.
He said the victims reportedly consumed a local cake prepared with treated beans meant for planting.
Danjuma said that all the victims had survived what could have been a tragedy after series of medications, stressing that they were admitted at the stage of convulsion.
He said the victims, who included school children and adults, were brought to the clinic unconscious with most of them vomiting and excreting some substances.
The Primary Health Care Coordinator of Kanakara Local Government Area, Alhaji Sani Kusada, confirmed the incident.
Kebbi
The Kebbi Government has commenced the training of female Muslim Guides to assist pilgrims in this year’s Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
The Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Nuruddeen Kangiwa, who addressed the trainees in Birnin Kebbi on Thursday, said adequate provisions would be made to ensure smooth pilgrimage.
“The utmost care and guidance for the pilgrims of the state must be your priority and I urge you to shun any anti-social and illegal activities while in the Holy Land for the pilgrimage.”
The Chairman of the state Muslim Pilgrims Board, Alhaji Usman Suru, said the training of female guides was in line with the directives of the National Pilgrims Board.
“We would ensure that our pilgrims are properly guided. “Part of your responsibility is to ensure that Pilgrims especially women abide by the rules as well as conduct themselves in an orderly manner during the pilgrimage.”
Kogi
Kogi urgently requires additional 2,000 for effective teaching in its 238 public secondary schools, the acting Chairman of the State Teaching Service Commission, Alhaji Salu Aliu, said on Thursday in Lokoja.
Aliu told newsmen that 3,000 teachers currently engaged in the schools were inadequate for quality teaching.
He said the situation had been compounded by the fact that many teachers would soon retire.
He blamed the predicament on the staff auditing exercise carried out by the state government in 2009 during which more than 2,000 secondary school teachers were “shown the way out of service.”
He said that the effect of the shortage was being felt badly in core subjects of Mathematics, English language and the sciences.
He said a proposal to recruit teachers to fill the vacancies had been sent to Gov. Idris Wada and appealed to the government to quickly accede to the request.
Aliu called on all stakeholders in the nation’s education sector, especially the government, teachers and parents, to come together to rescue the sector from total collapse.
Lagos
Two tanker drivers and a conductor were on Thursday charged before an Igbosere Magistrates’ Court in Lagos for allegedly stealing aviation fuel worth N4 million.
The accused — Abdulsalami Tirimisiyn, 42; Kodiri Murina, 27; and Kodiri Oladele, 21 — are standing trial on a two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing. Tirimisiyn and Murina were the tanker drivers while Oladele was the conductor.
The trio, whose addresses were unknown, however, pleaded not guilty.
The prosecutor, Insp. Marcus Okon, told the court that the trio committed the offences sometime on June 7 and 8 at Coconut Bus Stop, Apapa.
He said the accused stole 36, 000 litres of Jet A (aviation fuel) worth N4 million, property of S-Kay Haulage and Transport Services Nig. Ltd.
“The accused stole the product while in transit from Lagos to Abuja,’’Okon said.
Ondo
An Akure Senior Magistrate’s Court on Thursday remanded a com-mercial motorcyclist, Friday David, in prison for alleged indecent assault.
The presiding magistrate, Mrs. Funke Adegoroye, ordered the remand of the 23-years-old man who is standing trial on a two-count charge of unlawful and indecent assault on a 12-years-old girl.
According to the police, the offence was allegedly committed on June 18, at Irawo Street, Akure, in the Akure magisterial district.
David was accused of unlawfully taking the girl into custody against the wish of her parents for three days, and indecently assaulted her.
Police said the accused person touched the girl’s breasts and private part and had carnal knowledge of her without her consent.
This, the police said, was contrary to and punishable under Section 222 of the Criminal Code Cap 30 Vol. I Laws of Ondo State 2006.
The accused person pleaded not guilty to the charges, and told the court that the girl’s mother was actually his girl friend.
He also told the court that both the girl and her mother had spent up to three days with him, and that the mother usually sends the girl on errands to his house.
Plateau
The Plateau House of Assembly has threatened to sanction Heads of Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs) that fail to furnish it with their Financial Report for the first quarter of the year.
The House had allotted a one-week grace period for accomplishment of the assignment, failing which defaulting heads would be summoned.
The Speaker, Mr John Dabwan, who issued the order on Thursday, expressed surprise that most MDAs had yet to submit their first quarter reports to the legislature as stipulated by law.
The member representing Jos-South, Mr Dalyop Mancha, had called attention of the House to lapses in its over-sight function, occasioned by the inability of the MDAs to furnish it with their quarterly financial reports.
Mancha said that the action of the MDAs had denied the various committees of their role of tracking the performance of the budget.
Sokoto
Sokoto State Government on Thursday doled out 2,300 bags of grains worth N2.5 million to the poor in the state.
Gov. Aliyu Wamakko said in Goronyo while inaugurating the distribution of the grains that each of the beneficiaries would also receive N5,000. He said the gesture was aimed at alleviating their suffering.
The governor also said that the government was spending N45 million monthly on physically challenged persons across the state.
“I have also directed the state Zakat and Endowment Committee to get the census of all those physically challenged persons not currently benefiting from the monthly gesture.
“This is with the view to bringing all of them on board to benefit from the N6,500 each receives as monthly allowance, as a way of reducing begging in the society,” he said.
Also speaking, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, commended the state government for its commitment to improving the welfare of the people.
Abubakar called for fervent prayers by the people for peace to prevail in the state and the nation.
The Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Lawal Maidoki, who is also the Commissioner for Religious Affairs, Prof. Musa Maitafsir, commended the administration for giving priority to the welfare and comfort of the people.
Yobe
The new National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, said the Federal Government would give top priority to dialogue and negotiation to tackle the current security challenges in the country.
Dasuki stated this in Damaturu on Thursday, when he paid a courtesy visit on Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam, at the Government House.
He said that government was committed to working with all stakeholders to bring a final solution to the prevailing security challenges posed by insurgency.
In his remarks, Gaidam urged the Federal Government to consider the option of dialogue and negotiation to provide solution to the security challenges.
The governor called on the Federal Government to introduce special welfare packages for security men “in the event of death, injury and accidents while on duty”.
He commended the professionalism and gallantry of the Joint Task Force team during the four major attacks on Damaturu in less than one year, noting that their sacrificial efforts had succeeded in reducing casualties.
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.
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.
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
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