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Ogoni Youths Reject Shekwolo As HYPREP PC
Except an urgent step is taken, there may be another round of crisis in Ogoni, Rivers State as a concerned youth group under the aegis of Ogoni Development Drive (ODD) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Acting Project Coordinator of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Programme (HYPREP), Prof. Philip Shekwolo.
The group said the call for Shekwolo’s sack became necessary because of what they described as ‘injustice’, noting that “Ogonis did not die for a Kogi man to come and head their affairs.”
The youth group, at a media briefing in Bori, Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, at the weekend, called on Buhari to replace Shekwolo with a qualified Ogoni son to head HYPREP, stressing that Ogoni has a good number of people academically qualified to head the agency.
A statement signed by the leader of the group, Solomon Lenu, stated that as an ethnic group that wears the shoe of deprivation, they know where it pinches them.
Lenu argued that Shekwolo lacked the moral ground to oversee a remediation programme which he had in the past defended Shell’s complicity in the oil spill in Ogoniland.
He demanded that the Federal Government urgently investigate how the clean-up money collected by HYPREP has been spent.
Lenu, however, disclosed the group’s readiness to sacrifice everything legally and otherwise available to them to stop Shekwolo from becoming a substantive project coordinator of HYPREP.
“I am sad today because the present Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Professor Phillip Shekwolo, a former staff of Shell, the company at the epicentre of the oil crisis in Ogoni land, was made an acting PC to correct the wrongs generated by his predecessor, Dr Marvin Dekil, but he (Shekwolo) had since deviated to fest his nest on the common patrimony of the dying Ogoni people.
“It will interest you to know that since his appointment in an acting capacity, rather than focusing on what would bring solution to the myriad of problems confronting Ogonis, Shekwolo only devotes his stay in HYPREP to bribe people to support his confirmation as the HYPREP substantive PC.
“On this note, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari to remove Prof. Phillip Shekwolo as the PC of HYPREP and replace him with a qualified Ogoni son because we have a good number of Ogonis who are academically qualified with decades of field experience to head that agency. It is also important to state that, he who wears the shoes knows where it pinches. We know our problems, and we know how to go about it but Phillip Shekwolo does not.
“We want the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, investigate how the clean-up money so far collected by HYPREP has been spent. This is imperative because the so-called clean-up is all about a political gimmick controlled and influenced by politicians from within and without Ogoni.
“Ogoni youths and elders say capital ‘NO’ to Philip Shekwolo as substantive HYPREP coordinator.
“Philip Shekwolo is a Shell surrogate who, in the past, defended Shell that there was no oil spill in Ogoniland, that if there was any, it was the orchestration of Ogonis themselves to blackmail Shell.
“Ogonis did not die for a Kogi man to come and head HYPREP for us, when no non-indigene has ever headed the North East Development Commission. So, HYPREP and Ogoni Trust fund will not be the first.
“We are equally ready to sacrifice everything legally and otherwise available to us to ensure we stop this sacrilegious appetite of Shekwolo,” Lenu said in the statement.
The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this yesterday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.
“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.
“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.
“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.
He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.
He said the centralised production system aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for better service delivery.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disbursed N2.225 trillion as federation revenue for the month of August 2025, the highest ever allocation to the three tiers of government and other statutory recipients.
This marks the second consecutive month that FAAC disbursements have crossed the N2 trillion mark.
The revenue, shared at the August 2025 FAAC meeting in Abuja, was buoyed by increases in oil and gas royalty, value-added tax (VAT), and common external tariff (CET) levies, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.
Out of the N2.225 trillion total distributable revenue, FAAC said N1,478.593 trillion came from statutory revenue, N672.903 billion from VAT, N32.338 billion from the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N41.284 billion from Exchange Difference.
The communiqué revealed that gross federation revenue for the month stood at N3.635 trillion. From this amount, N124.839 billion was deducted as cost of collection, while N1,285.845 trillion was set aside for transfers, interventions, refunds, and savings.
From the statutory revenue of N1.478 trillion, the Federal Government received N684.462 billion, State Governments received N347.168 billion, and Local Government Councils received N267.652 billion. A further N179.311 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) went to oil-producing states as derivation revenue.
From the distributable VAT revenue of N672.903 billion, the Federal Government received N100.935 billion, the states received N336.452 billion, while the local governments got N235.516 billion.
Of the N32.338 billion shared from EMTL, the Federal Government received N4.851 billion, the States received N16.169 billion, and the Local Governments received N11.318 billion.
From the N41.284 billion exchange difference, the Federal Government received N19.799 billion, the states received N10.042 billion, and the local governments received N7.742 billion, while N3.701 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) was shared to the oil-producing states as derivation.
The Governing Council of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, has decried the inadequate power supply and poor state of infrastructural facilities and equipment at the institution.
The Council also appealed to the government, including Non-Governmental Organisations, agencies, as well as well-meaning Rivers people to intervene to restore and sustain the laudable gesture, dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the polytechnic.
The Chairman of the newly inaugurated Council, Professor Friday B. Sigalo, made this appeal during a tour of facilities at the Polytechnic, recently.
Accompanied by members of the team, Prof Sigalo emphasised the position of technology, technical and vocational education in sustainable development.
He noted that with the prospects on ground, and the programmes and activities undertaken in the polytechnic, there is no doubt that the institution would add values to the educational system in our society and foster the desired development, if the existing challenges are jointly tackled.
This was contained in a statement signed by Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Kenpoly, Innocent Ogbonda-Nwanwu, and made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt.
The chairman who restated the intention of his team of technocrats to ensure that KenPoly enjoys desirable face-lift, said the Council would deliver on its core mandates, accordingly.
Earlier, the Rector, KenPoly Engr. Dr. Ledum S. Gwarah, commended the appointment of Professor Friday B. Sigalo as Chairman of the KenPoly Governing Council.
He described him and his team as seasoned technocrats and expressed confidence in their ability to succeed.
The Rector pledged the management’s support to the Council to ensure that KenPoly resumes its rightful place in the comity of polytechnics in the country.
Facilities visited by the Governing Council include KenPoly workshops, laboratories, skills acquisition centre, library, hostels and medical centre.
Chinedu Wosu
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