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Another Agip Oil Spill Hits Kalaba Community
Another oil spillage has been reported in Kalaba, a riverine community in Okordia clan, of Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
This is the second time in this year the community will be witnessing serious oil pollution in their environment, the first one happened around January.
The leaking pipes which belong to Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) occurred at Anukudaba swam has further improvised the mainly farm and fishing community which had been suffering oil spillage at random in the fast five years.
Conducting news men and officials of Environment Rights/Friends of Earth, a non-governmental group, round the polluted sites, the Community’s Development Chairman, Mr. Roman Orukari, said the incident was noticed by some fishermen and reported to the community.
Consequently, the report was communicated to officials of NAOC, but for the first three days, the spillage occurred, none of the officials of the company has visited the site.
He claimed that because of the rising level of water as a result of the raining season, the spillage is fast extending to other areas, saying that already, the community has suffered great loss in their fishing prowess and the food crops have been affected adversly.
The Paramount Ruler of the community, Chief Idoniboye Awalia, said since the laying of pipelines by Agip, the community has suffered over 30 spillages, calling on government and other relevant authorities to compel the Italian Oil giant to do something about it.
Chief Nwalia, however expressed gratitude to officials of ERA for bringing their sufferings to limelight, saying that without their frequent reports about the hazards confronting the community would have been worst as government doesn’t know the atrocity of the oil companies exploiting crude oil in the area.
Speaking to journalists later, the ERA representative in Bayelsa, Mr. Morris Alagoa said although the information of fresh spill in Kalaba community environment didn’t come to ERA as an entirely strange phenomenon, ERA was surprised that the current spill points were up to five.
Although the ERA’s team confirmed four points, after visiting three of the spill sites along the pipeline, a fourth one was heard further away with a high pitch sound, in the direction toward the Agip Taylor Creek Well 1 and further away from the community.
“While the third spill point was from the side of an exposed 6 inches pipe on the ground and spraying crude oil seriously into the air], the first two points were spewing crude oil from areas submerged in water; swampy sections of the pipeline owing to the rains,” it was learnt.
“Thick crude oil slick has spread in the surrounding swamps. Due to the swampy nature of the environment [water everywhere], it was not easy to see the entire area covered by the crude oil or make an estimate as per spread. But it was obvious that the volume of crude oil spewed is high, even as it continued as the ERA team was leaving.
Another observation was the fact that the impact on trees, shrubs and other plants around the spill sites is grave as they display wilting leaves and different stages of dying off.
Even the birds on tree tops are not spared as the escaping crude oil in gaseous form comes with a characteristic sound and rises far above the trees and spread all around the environment; presenting a kind of misty scenario that impedes visibility.
“This may influence forced migration of birds or death of young ones and abandonment of eggs in nest; besides affecting the respiratory tract of indigenes who inhale same. And, for sure,
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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