News
EFCC Vs Jonathan’s Family …Ijaw Youth Shutdown Bayesla
Commercial activities were yesterday crippled in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital as hundreds of Ijaw youths blocked the Sanni Abacha expressway, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, to protest alleged constant harassment of former President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The youths, who were seen chanting solidarity songs, lamented that Jonathan’s account had been frozen, his allowances withdrawn and his security personnel starved of their payments by the Federal Government.
The protest, which was led by the President of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Worldwide, Mr. Udengs Eradiri, temporarily stopped vehicular movement, forcing commuters to trek for miles to reach their destinations.
Eradiri was joined in the protest by women groups, various youth leaders, including youths from Jonathan’s Ogbia Local Government Area of the state.
They displayed Ijaw flags and placards with inscriptions such as “Leave Patience Jonathan alone”, “LNG must be bought by Bonny people”, “If you must probe, all First Ladies must be probed”, “We need projects not soldiers”, “unfreeze Jonathan’s account”, among others.
Eradiri said: “This country has produced many presidents but the only one from the Niger Delta is constantly harassed by the mercenaries of state, especially the EFCC.
“We want to call on the President to please respect former President Jonathan, at least for the fact that he brought peace to this country, handed over peacefully to him. He didn’t go to court. He allowed him to run this country, President Buhari should please focus on leadership and stop vilifying the first family.
“We appeal to Buhari to respect Jonathan the way he respects other past presidents. They have frozen his account; they are not paying his allowances. Even the security agencies around him do not get what is due them. Why is the Presidency victimizing Goodluck Jonathan?
“Patience Jonathan is is not the first First Lady in this country. A wife to former deputy governor, governor, Vice-President and President, are you expecting her to be a poor woman? There are other First Ladies in this country.
“In recent time, a former First Lady was awarded a university licence. So, we are using this medium to send a message, leave our first family alone. Some people are not happy about Jonathan’s rising profile and they want to destroy it”.
He said the Ijaw people would not negotiate for other ethnic groups in the region, adding that each region must answer its name.
Eradiri said: “Until President Buhari sits on the table by himself to address the Niger Delta issues, all these committees that he is setting up will not make any progress. President Obasanjo has it on record that he started the discussion with the Niger Delta.
“Late Yar’Adua started the discussion directly with the people. Former President Goodluck Jonathan continued that discussion, so oil flowed 2.2million barrels unfettered for six years.
“How come one year after this administration, everything has gone back to zero. We call on Mr. President, we do not want your ministers to come and be interpreting your body language in different dimensions.
“You must sit by yourself on the table. Ijaw people are not negotiating for Itsekiri people. We are not negotiating for Urhobo or any other tribe. We will be sitting as Ijaw people. We want Urhobo to sit as Urhobo, Isoko as Isoko, Itesikir as Itsekiri, Ikwere as Ikwere and Ogoni as Ogoni.
“Because of N2bn take-off fund for Maritime University, some people misinterpreted Mr. President’s body language. So instead of spending N2bn, we lost two trillion naira and precious lives of security operatives.
“Mr. President, it is time to take the right decision. We know that we are five per cent of the votes, we are not expecting anything different. But we are an integral part and a very important five per cent.
“Since you love 95 per cent and you want the 95 per cent to have peace, light in Abuja and Lagos, then you must respect five per cent. You must treat five percent equally so that your 95 per cent that you so love can have light in Abuja”, Eradiri said.
Also speaking, a youth leader from Ogbia, Osanya B. Osanya, said the entire Ogbia youths condemned the probe of Jonathan and his immediate family.
“We call on the EFCC and the present administration to tread with caution because the Niger Delta people are losing their patience of this hunting of our leaders. We call for equal rights and equity”, he said.
Nigerians may experience an increase in the prices of premium energy products diesel and petrol as the Dangote Petroleum Refinery temporarily halts the sale of petroleum products in Naira.
“This decision is necessary to avoid a mismatch between our sales proceeds and our crude oil purchase obligations, which are currently denominated in US dollars,” the company said in a statement yesterday.
The $20billion refinery based in Lagos said the sales of its products in Naira have exceeded the value of Naira-denominated crude it has received from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
“As a result, we must temporarily adjust our sales currency to align with our crude procurement currency,” the company explained.
The refinery said it remained committed to serving the Nigerian market and would resume the sale of its product to the local market in Naira as soon as it received crude cargoes from the NNPCL in Naira.
“As soon as we receive an allocation of Naira-denominated crude cargoes from NNPC, we will promptly resume petroleum product sales in Naira,” it said.
The announcement by the refinery comes amid its price war with the NNPCL.
As part of moves to reduce the strain on the US dollars, and guarantee price stability of petroleum products, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in July 2024, directed the NNPCL to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other local refineries in naira and not in United States’ greenback.
In the beginning of March 2025, the NNPCL said its Naira-denominated crude sales agreement with the Dangote Refinery was structured for six months with March 2025 as the expiration date.
The state company, however, said that talks were on to replace the contract, and that over 48 million barrels of crude oil have been made available to Dangote Refinery since October 2024 under the Naira-denominated arrangement.
The NNPCL also said it had made over 84 million barrels of crude oil available to the private refinery since it commenced operations in 2023.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces energy challenges, with all its state-owned refineries non-operational for decades until 2024. The country was heavily reliant on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-run NNPCL being the major importer of the essential commodities.
Fuel queues are commonplace in the country. Prices of petrol more than quadrupled since the removal of subsidy in May 2023 by President Bola Tinubu, from around ¦ 200/litre to about ¦ 1,000/litre, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.
Last December, the billionaire industrialist commenced operations at the facility situated in Lagos with 350,000 barrels a day. The refinery, which was initially bogged by regulatory battles, hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year. The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country and now petrol.
Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna has overtaken Egypt’s Omar Assar to become Africa’s highest-ranked player in the world, now sitting at 18th in the week 12 ranking released on Tuesday.
Aruna moved up from 19th place in week 11 to 18th in the latest ranking, while Assar dropped from 17th to 19th.
Denmark’s Jonathan Groth took over Assar’s 17th place, moving up from 18th.
Despite finishing as runner-up at the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup, Aruna’s impressive performances at the WTT tournaments this year have boosted his ranking.
Aruna remains the only African male player to have reached the semi-finals of the WTT Contender Doha, repeating his 2023 feat earlier this year in January.
This achievement has propelled him ahead of Assar, who beat him to become the champion of the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup.
Aruna’s next tournament is the WTT Contender Chennai which serves off in India from March 23 to 20.
In the women’s singles, Egypt’s Hana Goda maintained her top spot in Africa, moving up one place to 26th in the week 12 ITTF ranking. Her compatriot, Dina Meshref, remained static at 33rd, holding her position as the second-best-ranked female player in Africa.
China’s Wang Chuqin retained his position as the second-best player globally, behind his compatriot Lin Shidong, who continues to hold the top spot. Japanese superstar Tomokazu Harimoto dethroned China’s Liang Jingkun as the third-best player in the world after his semifinal finish in Chongqing.
In the women’s ranking, the top five remained unchanged, with China’s Sun Yingsha holding onto her top spot after retaining her WTT Champions Chongqing title.
-
Business5 days agoW’Bank Likely To Grant Nigeria’s $1.1bn Loan Request
-
Rivers5 days agoMOSIEND Urges RSHA To Reconcile Differences With Gov
-
Rivers16 hours ago
NAFDAC’s Greenbook App’ll Curb Fake Drugs, Substandard Products’
-
World15 hours ago
W/Cup Qualifiers: Eswatini Hold Cameroon To Shock Draw
-
Maritime5 days agoNAFDAC Uncovers $1.4m Fraud Syndicate
-
News5 days agoTinubu’s Wife Wins ‘Woman Of The Year’ Award
-
News15 hours ago
NSPRI Empowers Agri-preneurs For Independence, Postharvest Loss Reduction
-
Entertainment14 hours ago
Late Mohbad’s Brother, Adura Arrested