Rivers
Rehabilitation of PH Refinery To End, New Year
By: Theresa Frederick & Wokoma Emmanuel
Assurance has been given that the rehabilitation of the Old Port Harcourt Refinery with a refining capacity of 60, 000 barrels per day will be completed and put to use by the first quarter of 2023.
Managing Director of the Refinery, Ahmed Dikko, gave the assurance when the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on the state of the country’s refineries visited the facility recently in Rivers State for an on-the-spot assessment of the $1.5 billion rehabilitation project of the facility.
Dikko said the Old Port Harcourt refinery, referred to as Area Five, would be the first of three phases of the project.
He said by the time the entire project is completed by the end of 2024, the facility would have a refining capacity of 210 bpd.
Dikko expressed confidence that they would stick to the timelines and within the cost approved for the project, adding that, despite costing more, some of the equipment required for the rehabilitation had to be air freighted to ensure that they stick as much as possible to the schedule that they have.
“We plan to finish Area 5 by the first quarter of next year, so we can begin to run it. It is an old refinery. It is a 60, 000 barrels per day capacity plant and it is a priority for us at this point.
“The other parts of the refinery would come a few months after that. We are on track and managing the process very well, and would continue to do the best we can at all times to ensure that we meet these expectations we put on ourselves.
“So, we all would be proud of all these activities and begin to have some refining capacity in Port Harcourt,” he said.
He expressed gratitude to the House of Representatives for their support.
Chairman of the House Ad-Hoc Committee, Hon Ganiyu Johnson, who was conducted round the facility along with his members by the MD expressed satisfaction with the level of work done so far.
He said, “So far on behalf of my committee members, we are satisfied with the level of work because we did not expect this level of performance when we left Abuja. But after going round we are satisfied with the level of performance.
”Nigerians should bear with the company. We know that the solution to all oil subsidy is the refineries. The oil subsidy would be a thing of the past. We should be able to reduce it to the barest minimum.
”We owe Nigerians the duty to ensure this place is working. Because if these refineries are not working, we would continue to suffer and we hope it would not get to a stage where an average man cannot buy fuel.
“That is why we really want to encourage you and support you and make sure you complete this refinery. Even if it is just Port Harcourt for now, it means we would be able to deliver 210, 000 bpd”, he said.
He urged the MD to fast-track the completion of the refinery and make sure it is delivered on schedule.
Judges of the High Court Port Harcourt Rivers state will on Monday July 21, 2025 commence this year’s annual vacation.
The State Chief Judge, Justice Simeon Chibuzor Amadi in a statement signed by the Chief Registrar High Court Port Harcourt, David Ihua_ Maduenyi (esq) made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt over the weekend, said that the 2025 annual vacation for judges of the State High Court will begin on Monday, July 21, 2025 and end on Wednesday ,September 17, 2025
The statement said the vacation is in pursuant to Order 49, Rule 4 (d) of High Court of Rivers State (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2023, as altered, adding that all the judicial divisions of the State High Court shall remain closed during the period of the vacation.
The statement further disclosed that normal court sessions will resume on Thursday 18, July 2025 across all the divisions.
The statement however, noted that during the period, a vacation judge shall be appointed by the chief judge to sit on urgent matters and applications and advice litigants and lawyers to take notice of the information.
The International Federation Of Women Lawyers,(FIDA )in collaboration with the Police Community Relations Committee,(PCRC ) have held a one day training on paralegal exposure aimed at equipping police officers across the Rivers state police command on ways of handling gender based violence cases in the state.
The one-day capacity training workshop organised by the two humanitarian organisations in the state, the FIDA and PCRC was designed to boost the knowledge and capacity of the police echelons in the state on how to deal with gender” based violence cases reported in there various Divisions and areas.
Speaking at the event held at the police officers mess in Port Harcourt, yesterday, the state Commissioner of Police ,CP Olugbenga Adepoju emphasized the importance of capacity building for Police Officers, stressing the need for continuous training and development for the officers to stay abreast of emerging trends and best practices in law enforcement.
Adepoju noted the police have being having lectures like this from time to time as directed by the Inspector General of Police and urge the police officers to turn out in their numbers to come and gain one thing or the other.
“There is nothing as good as building our capacity to ensure we deliver service to mankind and let Rivers be a different. to others.
“We have people who have the capacity that can deliver and they are here with us. And we will not hesitate to ensure we employ and use them. What ever we have learnt here, jot it down and ensure you use it judiciously”.
Also speaking, the Chairperson of FIDA Rivers, Life Jim George stressed that
the paralegal training offers the opportunity where retired Police officers, desk officers and different division in charge of gender based crime are assembled to educate them on how to handle with the gender violence and abused public ,how to deal with reporters of all kinds of Gender Based Violence.
“They need to be empathetic, they need not to judge them as they move into them. They need not to throw them away immediately or to make the atmosphere very toxic so that they will just go away and at the end of the day extort them and make known that Police is not your friend is only in the book””.
“We remind you all that you are not just a Police officer,there is a duty imposed on you to look at the laws. Not just to drive people away because We have reports where, once you approach a Police station and say my husband or wife beat me up,they drive you away, please madam this one is husband and wife matter, go and settle with your husband or wife. They began to judge you.”
“We are saying no,that is not what the law is.
Please show empathy, if you throw them away like that, most of them can take their life. Some go into third degree depression and is difficult to bring them out.They will now began to blame themselves for going to the Police station.
In his speech,the Chairman of PCRC in the state, Mr Voke Emore explained that One primary responsibilities of the PCRC is to bring the community closer to the Police, while FIDA as an international organization cares for the less privilege and handle cases involving women and children.
“The police only protect women and children in talking of gender abuse in the society rather taking the issue of gender violence as wholistic that includes men,women and children in every strata of the society.So that is the essence why the two humanitarian organisations ,FIDA and PCRC decided to partner to ensure that the things are done rightly in line with global practices.”
“And the only way to do that is to give training We always talk about training and re-training of Police officers.he stated.
The training focused on key areas such as
The Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) of Rivers State,
Dehumanizing and Harmful Traditional Practices Laws,
Prohibition of the Curtailment of Women’s Rights to Share in Family Property Law and
Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law amongst others.
The Rivers State University (RSU), Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, has unveiled a new feature – Student-Sponsor Account, called SponsorsLink as part of its ongoing re-engineering efforts. This innovation is to address the problems of students collecting funds but not paying fees, leaving school but still pretending to be in school and inability of parents, guardians and sponsors to ascertain progress and performance of their children, wards and beneficiaries.
The platform is also designed to strengthen transparency, accountability, and communication between students and their parents, guardians and sponsors.
SponsorsLink is available on the university’s portal (www.rsu.edu.ng) and offers a range of benefits. Sponsors can track academic performance, monitor outstanding fees, make payments, and access detailed student profiles from a single dashboard. This centralized system ensures that sponsors are no longer left in the dark regarding the academic and financial status of their wards.
To utilize SponsorsLink, sponsors need to create an account on the RSU eCampus platform. This involves selecting a sponsorship type, filling out a registration form, and verifying their email address using a confirmation code. Upon successful registration, sponsors pay a one-time onboarding fee based on the number of wards they intend to manage.
Once registered, sponsors can add a ward by searching with the student’s registration number, matriculation number, or full name. After the student approves the request, the sponsor gains access to various features. These include checking results, which requires a result-checking fee, viewing student profiles, and making tuition or related payments directly through the platform.
The introduction of SponsorsLink demonstrates RSU’s commitment to enhance the educational experience of students. This initiative is expected to foster better communication between students, sponsors, and the university, ultimately contributing to the success of RSU students.