News
NNPC protest part of plot to undermine Tinubu’s administration – NFI
President Bola Tinubu, has been called upon, not to succumb to blackmails in form of protests and calls for sack of the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bayo Ojulari, as they are part of the grand plot by opposition elements who are working with a few disgruntled top management staff of the company to de-market and destabilize the administration.
The call was made by Nigeria First Initiative (NFI), a non-governmental organization, at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday. The organization was reacting to a protest staged in front of NNPC Towers by a group that called itself Niger Delta Youths.
The group had called for the resignation of Bashir Ojulari over what it claimed as corruption and mismanagement, and demanded that a person from Niger Delta region be appointed to head the national oil company.
Reacting to the protest, NFI dismissed it as laughable, saying first of all that the few protesters were not from Niger Delta but jobless youths hired from Abuja suburbs who were not even bold enough to show their faces on camera.
The Executive Secretary of NFI, Nelson Okpanachi Idoko, said Nigeria is a federation and that no part of the country has the right to force the President to appoint any person to a particular leadership position. It said that a southerner from Niger Delta is currently the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, which has never happened before.
NFG said claiming that the protesters were from Niger Delta was deliberately designed to provoke ethic and regional sentiments and attempt to give a dog a bad name in order to hang, since according to the organisation, the good people of Niger Delta are well informed enough to know that such mundane demand does hold water.
According to NFI, those fighting against Tinubu, have seen that the President is recording landmark achievements in several areas including economy, massive drop in the price of food and other essential commodities including petrol and other petroleum products; which made them resort to attacking his committed appointees through media insertions and protests.
NFI said it was curious that protest was organized against NNPCL just a day after the Company reported that it was close to reaching 100 percent of its OPEC quota allocation which has not happened for decades, saying the protest and call for resignation of Ojulari was therefore planned to muffle the loud ovation the achievement has attracted which is another clear evidence that those behind it are enemies of Nigeria who hate to hear good reports about the country.
The organization said it has obtained a document that contained the list of strategic federal government agencies that the sponsors have planned to attack within the next six months, all aimed at mudsling Tinubu’s administration and putting it in bad light before the country and the global community.
“It is also curious that the protest was staged while President Tinubu is in Brazil where he is wooing investors to come to Nigeria. Even the President’s statement that Nigeria is no longer a corrupt country and therefore a fertile land for business and tourism, was criticized by these opposition elements who do not wish the country well. That was part of the reasons they gathered these vulnerable youths together to protest against NNPCL, which is the nation’s number one investment product. Their underbelly motive is to counter the President by making nonsense of what he told his international audience and global investors that were excited by Tinubu’s legendary speech.
“We therefore call on the President to take decisive action against the sponsors of the orchestrated antagonism against his well- thought-out plans and ongoing reforms that are yielding positive results. We have both the names of the sponsors of the protests and media attacks on Tinubu and his committed and loyal aides and would turn the names to the appropriate agencies for investigation and prosecution,” FGI said.
It also called on the President to take action to protect his administration by fishing out enemies within who are feeding from the government and at the same time, helping opposition to bring down the system.
River State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, on Tuesday, inspected the ongoing construction work at the Creek Road Market, Port Harcourt, declaring that the project will be completed by January 2027.
The new market, which is divided into three sections is designed to provide a decent and more conducive environment for traders who had for many years extended their buying and selling activities to the road due to congestion in the old market.
The governor was conducted round the project site by Architect Opiribo West, the site engineer for E.S.T Masters Construction, the firm handling the project, alongside Hon. Tonye Belgam, the State Commissioner for Special Projects.
Addressing newsmen at the end of the inspection tour, Governor Fubara explained that the reconstruction of the market was borne out of the need to provide adequate space for the traders and clear the surrounding roads of the spillover from the market.
He noted that the ongoing rehabilitation of the network of roads in the old Port Harcourt Township had been significantly hampered by the lack of a modern market, stressing that the new market will be a promise kept and part of the high-quality infrastructure and urban renewal programme of his administration.
“You are aware that we did promise our people that all the roads in town will be fixed. But we had a very serious issue because of the Creek Road section of the township roads . Because of not having adequate space to accommodate the traders in the market, they extended their activities into the road and that became a serious issue for our construction work.
“So we decided that for us to deliver a better project that would impress our people, we must, as a matter of fact, embark on building a better and more comfortable market for our people,” he said.
In a statement signed by Onwuka Nzechi, Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Sir Fubara explained that while construction work has begun in Section A of the market, Section B is being prepared for immediate commencement of construction while Section C will require a more rigorous engineering approach because of it’s location on a borrow pit.
“As you are aware, we’ve been here once to check the activities of the contractor. Today, I’m here to see for myself the extent of work that is ongoing. And I feel very happy that they are doing a very good job.
“They just informed me that the market is divided into three sections. The section A and the section B and the section C. The A is the one we just saw here that they’ve already started from the ground. This B section is the other side which they will start soon, while the C section is the one that they discovered that it was a borrow pit.
“And you know, you can’t build on top of a borrow pit. So we had to do evacuation and filling. So I believe that once those things are done, the other part of the section of the market will also commence. They even assured me that the timeline I gave to them for January that they are going to deliver the project fully for our people to use,” he said.
Governor Fubara emphasised that the investment in a modern market is an integral part of his administration’s agenda on good governance through the delivery of legacy projects.
By Bonaventure Melah
Although the federal government is currently working on the Onitsha-Enugu expressway, one of the major interconnectivity roads in South East, concerns have continued to mount over the presence of over 32 checkpoints along the expressway which, observers say, are constitution serious barrier to smooth movement of persons and goods, thereby defeating the objective of reconstructing the road, in the first place.
Below is the list of the 32 security checkpoints along Onitsha- Enugu expressway:
1. Army Gate Onitsha
2. Nkwelle Junction
3. Awkuzu Junction Army
4. Awkuzu Junction FRSC
5. Dunukofia LG hqts Police
6. Enugwu-Ukwu Junction Police
7. Amawbia Junction Police
8. Unizik Junction Army
9. Mopol base Awka Junction Police
10. Prince and Princess hostel front army
11. Amansea boundary Police
12. Ugwuoba boundary Police
13. Ugwuoba bridge police team
14. Ugwuoba Junction Army
15. Ugwuoba Junction NDLEA
16. Ugwuoba Junction FRSC
17. Ugwuoba Central Army
18. Oji River Junction Army 1
19. Oji River Junction Army 2
20. Ezeagu express Army
21. Near Nkwo ezeagu Police
22. Near tiles factory Police
23. Umumba Ndiuno express Police 1
24. Umumba Ndiuno express Police 2
25. 9th Mile Checkpoint
26. Nude express (approach to ninth mile) Police
27. Ngwo express Army
28. Ngwo express anti terror squad
29. Onyeama Hill (near refuse dump) Army
30 Onyeama Hill (near coal mine) Army
31. Abakpa Interchange Police
32. Abakpa Junction FRSC.
Note: A traveller moving just 105 KM from Onitsha to Enugu will endure will have to endure this nightmare. A journey that should ordinarily take about 40 mins therefore ends within 3 hours.
Approximately, it stands at a ratio of one checkpoint after every 3.7 km. This is in addition to heavy extortion motorists face from the security operatives stationed at the checkpoints.
Source: Dr Amaka Oforbuike.
42 people have been killed in fighting between ethnic groups in the east of Chad, a government official said Sunday.
Government delegate said the clashes Saturday in the sub-prefecture of Guereda in Wadi Fira province began as a dispute over a water well.
Several ministers, senior local officials, and the military’s chief of staff were dispatched to the scene on Sunday.
“The situation is under control and remains so,” Limane Mahamat, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, said on the state broadcaster.
For several years, eastern Chad has been plagued by conflicts between farmers and nomadic Arab herders. Tensions have been exacerbated by refugees fleeing fighting in neighbouring Sudan.
Conflicts over farm and grazing land have caused more than a thousand deaths and 2,000 injuries between 2021 and 2024, according to estimates by the NGO International Crisis Group.
-
News1 year agoSenate to speed up conclusion of Nigeria Forest Security Service Bill
-
News9 months agoThe Many Lies Against Bashir Haske
-
News3 years agoBreaking: Tinubu’s authentic ministerial nominees
-
News3 years ago“Anytime we want to kill terrorists, President would ask us to take permission from France but they were killing our soldiers-” Niger Republic coup leader
-
News3 years ago“I’m leaving the Catholic church because Bishop Onah is oppressing me,” says Okunerere
-
News3 years agoRadio Nigeria’s veteran broadcaster Kelvin Ugwu dies three months after retirement from service
-
News3 years agoDokpesi and the Gazebo Mystique
-
News3 years agoTsunami: Tinubu orders dissolution of managements, boards of MDAs, to sack all Buhari’s political appointees