The Rivers State Government Reconciliation Committee on Lockup Shops at Mile 1, Rumuwoji Market in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area has denied allocating stalls to any one.
Chairman of the commitee, Mrs Ibiwari Clapton-Ogolo, said this in an interview with The Tide during the commencement of the first phase verification of the market allottees in Port Harcourt.
Mrs Clapton-Ogolo also insisted that original owners of shops will be given automatic allocations as long as they can prove themselves.
“No allocations for now. We are here to verify the allottees. Original owners of shops will have automatic allocations as long as they can prove themselves”, she said.
Mrs Clapton-Ogolo, who is the Permanent Secretary/Solicitor General of Rivers State, said the traders are happy that they are getting back to business.
She insisted that all prospective allottees must come with all required documents, including their National Identification number (NIN) before verification.
She also commended Governor Siminalayi Fubara for his efforts in getting the traders back to business.
Other members of the committee who also participated in the verification exercise are the Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Housing, Mr Boma Wakama, who is the Secretary of the committee; Mr Lawson Ikuru, Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Commerce and Industry, amongst others.
Some of the allottees, who spoke to The Tide shortly after the verification exercise, described the process as fair and transperant.
They told their colleagues not to embark on further protest, but follow the template put in place by the Committee to get verified.
Over six hundred allottees participated in the verification exercise.

John Bibor

Cross River on Saturday dismissed as untrue a survey report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that it had the highest incidence of child labour in the country.
The NBS had stated in the report that of the 24.6 million children in child labour in Nigeria, Cross River recorded the highest incidence of 67.4 per cent, followed by Yobe with 62.6 per cent.
In the survey entitled: “Nigeria Child Labour Survey 2022’’, the NBS rated Lagos State has having the lowest incidence of 8.9 per cent.
The NBS described child labour as any work that robbed children less than 18 years of age of their childhood, potential, and dignity or had deleterious impact on their physical and mental development.
It stated that its survey showed that children between the ages of five years and 17 years were engaged in economic activities that amounted to child labour in Nigeria.
Dismissing the report, Cross River’s Commissioner for Information, Mr Erasmus Ekpang told The Tide’s source in Calabar that the figures released did not represent the true position in Cross River.
He said the figure for Cross River was not tenable since government had put measures in place since assumption of office in May 2023 to discourage child labour and to uplift vulnerable segments of the population.
He explained that the measures put in place centred on health, education, agriculture and other empowerment initiatives.
Ekpang stressed that government had also put in place programmes that empowered women economically and discouraged them from sending their children and wards out as child labourers.
“Women are empowered to take care of themselves and their families. Youths are also not left out of these policies and programmes.
“The initiatives are mostly in the areas of agriculture and small-scale enterprises.
“We also initiated programmes like school feeding to retain every child in school”, he stated.
Ekpang advised the NBS to revisit its 2022 figures and make amends.
The NBS report also stated that more than 14 million of affected children were engaged in hazardous work.
The survey also showed that child labour was considerably higher in the rural areas, with 17.5 million or 44.8 per cent of children involved.
In the urban areas, however, only 7.1 million children, or 30 per cent were involved in child labour.
Hazardous work is also more frequent in the rural areas according to the NBS.
“More than 10.5 million children or 26.8 per cent of those of them in the rural areas are in hazardous work.
“In urban areas, only about four million children or 16.3 per cent are in hazardous work”, it stated.
The report also indicated that the Northwest geopolitical zone had the highest of 6,407,102 children engaged in labour, followed by the Northeast with 4,466,808; North Central (3,884,576); South-South (3,682,773); Southwest (3,227,559) and Southeast (3,004,669).

The Bayelsa State Government has indicated readiness to work with the National Boundary Commission (NBC) to have its littoral communities lying within 500 metres from the Atlantic Ocean coastline captured in the ongoing mapping exercise.
The State’s Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, stated this at a meeting with critical stakeholders, including local government officials and the leadership of Host Communities Development Trust in the state at Government House in Yenagoa.
A statement issued by the media aide to the Deputy Governor, Mr Doubara Atasi, quoted him underscoring the importance of the mapping exercise, stressing that it would enable communities that are yet to be recognized as oil and gas bearing communities along the Atlantic coastline.
According to the statement, the ongoing mapping exercise is pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 3 of the Nigerian Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) aimed at enabling affected communities to form development trusts.
Senator Ewhrudjakpo, who expressed concern that Bayelsa was the only oil-producing state where littoral communities were yet to be captured by the National Boundary Commission, urged community leaders to take the exercise seriously.
Emphasizing the urgency required to carry out the delineation exercise, the Deputy Governor noted that failure to capture the Bayelsa littoral communities would deny them the immediate and long-term benefits as stipulated in the PIA.
To this end, he directed the Office of the state Surveyor General to liaise with local government chairmen, and other critical stakeholders to identify communities that are located within 500 metres from the coastline before the arrival of the NBC officials.
He appealed to local government authorities and traditional rulers of the various communities to create an enabling environment for the NBC to successfully carry out the exercise which is expected to commence soon.
“The delineation of littoral communities in oil producing states in respect of Chapter 3 of the Petroleum Industry Act is yet to be conducted in our state.
“The exercise is being carried out by the National Boundary Commission to capture communities that lie within 500 metres from the coastline as provided by the PIA.
“Our communities must be captured for them to benefit from the exercise. Therefore, our local government chairmen and traditional rulers have a role to play to create an enabling environment for the work to be done.
“Coastline communities in five other oil producing states have been successfully captured in the exercise. So, we should know we are running against time and act accordingly in order not to be left out in the programme”, he said.
In their separate remarks, the Chairman of the Host Communities Development Trust (HCDT), Barrister Ebikese Okoko, and the Chairman of KEFFES Rural Development Foundation (KRDF), Chief Christopher Tuduo, explained that they were prepared to collaborate with government and the NBC to ensure the success of the exercise.
The meeting was also attended by the Secretary to State Government, Professor Nimibofa Ayawei; the Chairman, Bayelsa Traditional Rulers Council, HRM King Bubaraye Dakolo; the Deputy Chief of Staff, Deputy Governor’s Office, Comrade Gowon Toruyouyei; local government caretaker chairmen, and Permanent Secretaries from the Ministries of Justice, Local Government, and Mineral Resources.

Ariwera Ibibo-Howells,
Yenagoa