The relative peace in the Niger Delta region has been attributed to the cordial relationship between the military Joint Task Force (JTF) and governors of states in the region.
Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State made the observation while receiving the out-going Commander of JTF, Maj-Gen. Lawrence Ngobane and his successor, Brig. Gen. Namved Riptick in Yenagoa.
Sylva said the operation of JTF was made easier and less confrontational due to the peace moves initiated by his administration.
He said he initiated the move in his belief that dialogue and peaceful discussion among contending forces would lead to lasting peace in the area.
“I always believe in dialogue and peaceful discussion among contending forces would lead to lasting peace in the area.
“I always believe in dialogue and peaceful discussion, We have been able to maintain peace so far,” he said.
“This does not mean that we are managing the threat but it shows that if we want to get started we have to ensure that all aggrieved persons drop their guns,” he added.
While praising the men of the task force, he said that even when he was not around, they responded to situations and briefed him later.
“They have done well,” he said.
The out-going JTF Commander, Maj-Gen. Lawrence Ngobane, said the governors of the region had been wonderful in their support for the operations of JTF.
He noted that the Bayelsa State governor’s peace initiatives had played “ a tremendous and wonderful role in ensuring peace in the area”.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
GROUP PLANS MATCH AGAINST ABDUCTIONS IN P/H
A socio-political organisation known as Rivers Solidarity Forum, says it is planning a one million-man march to protest the spate of kidnappings in Rivers State. The group's chairman, Mr. Ibanichuka Edwin, said the march would be staged in Port Harcourt and in all the 23 council areas of the state. He said the Forum was determined to restore peace in the state through an enlightenment campaign and fostering of peace, love and unity among indigenes and non-indigenes. Edwin said the Forum intends to partner with government to curb the spate of cultism, militancy and hostage taking.
RESIDENTS LAMENT NON-NUMBERING OF HOUSES IN YENAGOA
ALMOST twelve years after the creation of Bayelsa State, residential and commercial buildings in Yenagoa the capital city are yet to be numbered making it a difficult task for visitors and courier firms to locate their destinations.
This lack of properly defined street names and numbered houses for easy identification and location has became a lamentation for residents as they lament that this does not befit the status of Yenagoa as a state capital.
Although the State House of Assembly had two years ago passed a motion calling on the state government to commence the naming and numbering of streets and houses in the capital city, the executive arm has not done anything to remedy the situation.
Presently, it is a Herculean task for a first time visitor to the capital city to locate his destination on account of the absence of street names and house numbers occasioned by the haphazard way buildings were erected.
Vanguard findings revealed that because of the absence of street names and house numbers many residents have resorted to using landmark features to identify their abode whenever they are giving out their addresses to would be visitors.
Some residents who spoke to Vanguard described as embarrassing and sad the situation where the state capital does not have properly defined street names and numbered houses for easy identification and location as obtained in cities all over the world.
Others blamed the situation on the Yenagoa city council which they claimed did not leave up to its primary responsibility by failing to name and number streets and houses under its jurisdiction.
They lamented that the council could have used street naming and selling of number tags as a veritable source of revenue and called on the state government to take over the task describing the marking of street names and house numbers as a road map to development.
Efforts to get the comment of the state commissioner for Lands and Housing, Chief Ayakeme Whisky as well as that of the Executive Secretary, Capital City Development Authority, Chief Amatale Turner proved abortive as they were not in their offices.
This lack of properly defined street names and numbered houses for easy identification and location has became a lamentation for residents as they lament that this does not befit the status of Yenagoa as a state capital.
Although the State House of Assembly had two years ago passed a motion calling on the state government to commence the naming and numbering of streets and houses in the capital city, the executive arm has not done anything to remedy the situation.
Presently, it is a Herculean task for a first time visitor to the capital city to locate his destination on account of the absence of street names and house numbers occasioned by the haphazard way buildings were erected.
Vanguard findings revealed that because of the absence of street names and house numbers many residents have resorted to using landmark features to identify their abode whenever they are giving out their addresses to would be visitors.
Some residents who spoke to Vanguard described as embarrassing and sad the situation where the state capital does not have properly defined street names and numbered houses for easy identification and location as obtained in cities all over the world.
Others blamed the situation on the Yenagoa city council which they claimed did not leave up to its primary responsibility by failing to name and number streets and houses under its jurisdiction.
They lamented that the council could have used street naming and selling of number tags as a veritable source of revenue and called on the state government to take over the task describing the marking of street names and house numbers as a road map to development.
Efforts to get the comment of the state commissioner for Lands and Housing, Chief Ayakeme Whisky as well as that of the Executive Secretary, Capital City Development Authority, Chief Amatale Turner proved abortive as they were not in their offices.
Asari Dokubo Explodes Again
*Wants Maurice Iwu, Nuhu Ribadu Arrested, Prosecuted
The leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo has called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu for his role as an accomplice to former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in the 2007 election. Asari who was speaking in Abuja to a select group of journalists inside his Abuja home was in his usual vituperative candour when asked on the recent outcry against the posting of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to the NIPPS for a routine course, as he thundered "I don't understand the hue and cry about Ribadu's posting, as far as I am concerned Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Maurice Iwu, Sunday Ehindeiro (former IG of Police) should be arrested and prosecuted for their appalling roles in the 2007 election, together with their grandmaster chief Olusegun Obasanjo."The blood of all those that lost their lives during the 2007election will not rest until these people are tried and executed. Imagine the number of elections that are being annulled in several parts of the country just because Ribadu was doing his master’s (OBJ) bidding and propped up a fake corruption list for Maurice Iwu to capitalize on and disqualify all the potential threats to all Obasanjo's candidates in that election` On the situation in Rivers State as regards Ateke Tom and the governor, Chibuike Amaechi, he thundered "who made Amaechi the governor of River State, as far as I am concerned Amaechi is at best the Supreme Court governor of River State, because what was expected, like it is obtained in other similar situations was for the court to declare a fresh election with Amaechi as the candidate of the PDP but they chose to impose him on the people of River state" On Ateke Tom, "I think I would have loved to sympathize with him, if not that he fought back in a wrong way. Why should you kill innocent people because of a provocation from a governor. Ateke Tom reacted wrongly especially after he had embraced peace and denounced such activities; I was not impressed by that act" Does he still believe that the judiciary is the last hope for the common man"?"Which common man? Is it not the same judiciary that condemned Saro Wiwa? Was it not the same judiciary that was sent on a mercenary by Obasanjo when I was falsely accused of plotting to over throw the government, an event they claimed took place in Benin, but I was taken to Abuja for trial, outside the jurisdiction of where the event was purported to have taken place, is it not the same judiciary? That kind of judiciary that imposes a governor on a people can not give any hope to that people". Asked what has inspired him to this struggle and if he was going to quit, he was quick to say "as a little boy growing up with my grandmother, I read about Isaac Boro and I remember telling people that I would like to be like him, he was a major source of inspiration for me. Another person was Nelson Mandela of South Africa his anti-apartheid struggle really impressed me a lot. The truth is that I cannot quit this struggle, like I use to tell some of my brothers in the struggle, I am not in this because I lack any of the basic necessities of life. My parents were not very rich but we were not poor either. I had all I needed as a young growing boy. I entered the struggle because of the injustice in the land against my people and the struggle has brought me fame and fortune because I did not sell out like some of my colleagues, I enjoy enormous goodwill from people I had not met before just because they believe in the cause I am fighting. So why should I abandon the struggle" On what he does aside the struggle, Asari said, he is a trader who trades in books and is into import and export and is currently planning to establish the first purely automobile polytechnic in Nigeria.
The leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo has called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu for his role as an accomplice to former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in the 2007 election. Asari who was speaking in Abuja to a select group of journalists inside his Abuja home was in his usual vituperative candour when asked on the recent outcry against the posting of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to the NIPPS for a routine course, as he thundered "I don't understand the hue and cry about Ribadu's posting, as far as I am concerned Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Maurice Iwu, Sunday Ehindeiro (former IG of Police) should be arrested and prosecuted for their appalling roles in the 2007 election, together with their grandmaster chief Olusegun Obasanjo."The blood of all those that lost their lives during the 2007election will not rest until these people are tried and executed. Imagine the number of elections that are being annulled in several parts of the country just because Ribadu was doing his master’s (OBJ) bidding and propped up a fake corruption list for Maurice Iwu to capitalize on and disqualify all the potential threats to all Obasanjo's candidates in that election` On the situation in Rivers State as regards Ateke Tom and the governor, Chibuike Amaechi, he thundered "who made Amaechi the governor of River State, as far as I am concerned Amaechi is at best the Supreme Court governor of River State, because what was expected, like it is obtained in other similar situations was for the court to declare a fresh election with Amaechi as the candidate of the PDP but they chose to impose him on the people of River state" On Ateke Tom, "I think I would have loved to sympathize with him, if not that he fought back in a wrong way. Why should you kill innocent people because of a provocation from a governor. Ateke Tom reacted wrongly especially after he had embraced peace and denounced such activities; I was not impressed by that act" Does he still believe that the judiciary is the last hope for the common man"?"Which common man? Is it not the same judiciary that condemned Saro Wiwa? Was it not the same judiciary that was sent on a mercenary by Obasanjo when I was falsely accused of plotting to over throw the government, an event they claimed took place in Benin, but I was taken to Abuja for trial, outside the jurisdiction of where the event was purported to have taken place, is it not the same judiciary? That kind of judiciary that imposes a governor on a people can not give any hope to that people". Asked what has inspired him to this struggle and if he was going to quit, he was quick to say "as a little boy growing up with my grandmother, I read about Isaac Boro and I remember telling people that I would like to be like him, he was a major source of inspiration for me. Another person was Nelson Mandela of South Africa his anti-apartheid struggle really impressed me a lot. The truth is that I cannot quit this struggle, like I use to tell some of my brothers in the struggle, I am not in this because I lack any of the basic necessities of life. My parents were not very rich but we were not poor either. I had all I needed as a young growing boy. I entered the struggle because of the injustice in the land against my people and the struggle has brought me fame and fortune because I did not sell out like some of my colleagues, I enjoy enormous goodwill from people I had not met before just because they believe in the cause I am fighting. So why should I abandon the struggle" On what he does aside the struggle, Asari said, he is a trader who trades in books and is into import and export and is currently planning to establish the first purely automobile polytechnic in Nigeria.
OCEAN MGT READS RIOT ACT
Following the 3-0 loss recorded against Kano Pillars in Kano last Saturday, the mgt of Ocean Boys FC,Brass led by Hon. Nathaniel Sylva has handed down a strong warning to both players and officials. Speaking to BAYELSANEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM on Monday, the club spokesman Olayiwola Ogunbona hinted that, "our chairman has issued a very strong warning to the technical crew and players of our team over their poor display in their match against Kano Pillars last weekend. The chairman condemned the defeatsaying that the result does not portray the team as an ambitious side, though he added that such is bound to happen in football a times, but he was not expecting such bad outing from the team, who he said should have maintained a respectable scoreline" The former Brass LG boss handed down a strong warning to the team to be up and doingin their responsibility or he will be forced to act. The chairman, while addressing the team gave a strong warning to the technical crew and players to lift up to their full potentials or he will be force to take drastic actions, though he still hold the belief that the boys can still turn things around for good. But it doesn’t mean things should be taken forgranted. While reiterating the position of the management to always meet up with their welfare. It would be recalled that prior to the 3-0 loss toPillars, the team drew 1-1 at home to Niger Tornadoes.
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