Politics
Replicating Wike Projects Agenda In DELGA

The Rivers State chapter Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ambassador Desmond Akawor, recently re-echoed the governor of the state, Chief Nyesom Wike, when he challenged local government chairmen in the state to positively affect the lives of the people in their various jurisdictions by executing projects that address the needs of the people.
The Rivers State PDP boss was said to have re-emphasised the charge of the state chief executive while representing the governor at the commissioning of the Eke Ukwu Ultramodern market at Ulakwo built by the chairman of Etche Local Government Area.
Amb. Akawor who was reported to have expressed happiness about the project’s capacity to boost economic activities in the area, commended the chairman and encouraged him not to relent in delivering people-oriented projects after the example set by Governor Wike at the state level.
Indeed, the impressive developmental story at Etche Local Government Area is but a tip of the iceberg of what true disciples and political scions of Governor Wike are doing in other local government areas across the state, a shining example of which is Hon. Michael John Williams of Degema Local Government Area who could scarcely wait to assume office before unleashing the Wike trademark of quality projects that directly impact the lives of the people in all the nooks and crannies of the LGA.
The DELGA boss who has not only commenced a string of projects in the area but has also made it a habit to visit work sites regularly, visited ongoing projects in Bakana and adjourning communities, last week.
According to a statement released by the Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman, Daerefa-a Christopher Braide, the Executive Chairman of Degema Local Government Area, Hon. Michael John Williams, condemned the recent vandalisation and carting away of armoured cables at the Bakana Power Station by yet to be identified vandals, warning the perpetrators to quietly return the stolen items or face the full weight of the law.
The Chairman, who made the condemnation while addressing community members after an inspection tour of various project sites in Bakana, also stated that his administration will not sit back and watch anyone or group of persons sabotage government’s huge investments in the LGA.
While urging parents to encourage their children and wards to shun criminality and be worthy ambassadors of the community, the Chairman vowed that the Council authority will not spare any effort at apprehending and bringing to book, perpetrators of the crime.
The Council boss who dismissed critics of the ongoing Ekine Sekiapu Society building, noted that the project was very relevant because the Kalabari Ekine Sekiapu Society were the custodians of the customs and traditions of the people, and are also the local arbitrators of disputes across Kalabari land.
He said that aside the aesthetics the project when completed will add to the community, given its strategic location, it was an aberration for an important traditional institution to be kept in a structure that looked like a shrine.
Speaking on the continued loss of man-hours, occasioned by the perennial low tide lockdown experienced by commuters on the Bakana-Port Harcourt waterways due to accumulated silt, the Chairman assured the people of Bakana that his administration will permanently address the situation before the festive season in December.
While acknowledging the earlier effort of the DAA-3 Cluster Development Board Chairman, Hon. Mpaka Botoye, at finding solution to the problem, Hon. Michael John Williams thanked him for his good intention for the community, adding that the Council will now undertake the project and bring to an end, the continued suffering of the people plying the route.
In the meantime, worried about the inability of the officials of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to adequately enrol Bakana residents in the ongoing National Identity Number (NIN) Registration, the DELGA Chairman extended the exercise by a week.
This, according to the Chairman, was to give the people of the area who daily turned out in their large numbers, the opportunity to be captured by the Commission.
In the same vein, the Council boss also disclosed that his administration would soon embark on the rehabilitation of the dilapidated Bakana Footbridge linking the island on the Oguruama end.
While inspecting the Footbridge, the Council boss stated that the intervention was necessary to avert its imminent collapse, loss of lives and interruption of business activities.
Meanwhile, the Council Chairman has also approved the construction of a security sentry post and lodge for officers of the security Joint Taskforce (JTF) at the new site in Bakana.
The structures, which will be completed before December, is expected to address the perennial pirate attacks along the Bakana-Port Harcourt waterways.
The Chairman, while inspecting the location of the proposed military base, re-iterated his administration’s zero tolerance for criminal elements and their activities across all communities of the LGA.
The LGA Chairman as well visited other project sites including the ongoing Oguruama Community Footbridge and Pedro’s Compound Memorial Hall.
The excited community members on their part, gave glory to God for blessing them with a kind-hearted, proactive, compassionate and projects-oriented Chairman, whom they described as a ‘Godsent’ leader, on a mission to return DELGA to its lost glory.
Indigenes of the area who are closely monitoring the activities of the chairman, Michael John Williams, who is less than two months old in office, commend him for first engaging with the locals and determining their most pressing needs, instead of just throwing projects at them. The people of DELGA are indeed hopeful that an administration that is committed to changing their age-long story of neglect and abandonment may be here after all.
By: Opaka Dokubo
Politics
APC Lawyers Express Security Concerns At Benue LG Polls Tribunal Venues
Lawyers representing the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the ongoing local government election tribunals in Benue State have written to the panels’ chairmen over growing security concerns at the tribunal venues.
The lawyers expressed their fears in three separate letters signed by Matthew Burkaa (SAN), Mohammed Ndarani (SAN), and Sunday Ameh (SAN) for Zone A, B and C senatorial districts, addressed to the tribunal chairpersons and made available to journalists in Makurdi.
The local government councils election petitions tribunals were all sitting in Makurdi, the state capital.
In their letters titled “Re: Notice of Tribunal Sitting on Monday 24th February 2025, and Our Security Concerns”, the lawyers urged the court not to sit because of the security concerns.
Mr Burkaa, who is representing the Zone B senatorial district in his letter, said he and his team were representing 294 respondents in all the pending 104 petitions before the tribunal in the zone.
He stated that they received notice through the tribunal secretary, Emmanuel Awuhe, via the ‘Local Government Petition Tribunal Makurdi’ WhatsApp group of the tribunal’s intention to sit on February 24.
Mr Burkaa said the lawyers had received a directive that the tribunal would not sit on February 21, the initially scheduled date and would be heard Monday, February 24.
“We hereby, with regard to the hearing notice against Monday, state our reservation against the said sitting of the tribunal on the following grounds:
“We have noted the brewing tense security situation around the court premises and within the state in the past few days.
“The state of affairs has created a serious security concern for us, as we fear for the safety of our team of lawyers and our clients should they attend the sitting on the said date.
“Consequent upon the above, we hereby respectfully request that the tribunal sitting be adjourned to a further and tentative date when adequate security measures would have been put in place to guarantee our collective security.
“We will be delighted if our request is granted with immediate and adequate consideration,” he said.
Also, Mr Ndarani, representing respondents in the 93 petitions pending before the Zone A senatorial district tribunal, aligned completely with Mr Burkaa.
Mr Ameh, counsel for Zone C respondents in the pending petitions at the tribunal, said the issue of security raised in his letter was a serious one.
Politics
PDP Member Wants Court To Declare Nwoko’s Senate Seat Vacant

A member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Marvis Ossai, on Monday prayed a Federal High Court in Abuja to declare the Delta North Senatorial seat vacant, following the defection of Sen. Ned Nwoko to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mr Ossai, filed the suit marked: FCH/ABJ/CS/325/2025, seeking the lawmaker’s removal, having defected from the party on which platform he came into the Senate.
The plaintiff also urged the court to direct the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to, within 60 days from the delivery of judgement in the matter, conduct a by-election into the Delta North Senatorial District.
Aside from Nwoko, the INEC, PDP and the Senate, were cited as defendants in the matter.
Specifically, the plaintiff, through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Johnmary Jideobi, posed a lone question for the determination of the court.
He prayed among other reliefs, for: “An order of this Honourable Court, directing the INEC (the 2nd defendant) to conduct a bye-election into the Delta North Senatorial District of the Nigerian Senate within sixty (60) days from the date of the delivery of judgment herein.
“An order of this Honourable Court declaring vacant the seat of Ned Munir Nwoko and cancelling his Certificate of Return issued to him by INEC.
“An order of this Honourable Court mandating the 1st Defendant, Nwoko, to refund into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, forthwith, all the salaries, emoluments and allowances received by him since January, 2025 until the date of the final judgment in this matter.
“An order disqualifying the 1st defendant from standing election into any elective post under the amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria until and unless he complies with every terms of the judgment in this suit.
“An order mandating the 4th defendant (Senate) to immediately give effect to the judgment of this Honourable Court.”
In a five-paragraph affidavit deposed to by one Ibrahim Isa, the plaintiff, told the court that Sen. Nwoko had on Jan. 30, resigned from the PDP which was the political party on whose platform he was elected to occupy the Delta North Senatorial seat till 2027.
According to the plaintiff, who told the court that he is from Oshimili North Local Government Area in Delta North Senatorial District, Sen. Nwoko’s continued stay in office after his defection, would amount to a gross violation of the constitution.
“That since when the 1st defendant decamped from the PDP up to the present moment of initiating the instant suit, there is never any division in the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“That the ideology of the 1st defendant’s new party, APC, to which the 1st defendant now fully subscribes, does not bear any similarity or represent the political philosophy of the PDP (which is the basis upon which the Plaintiff resolved to cast his vote for and elected the Defendant in 2023).
“That the conduct of the defendant in defecting from the PDP to APC has dealt a major blow to the fortunes of the plaintiff’s party, the PDP.
“That the conduct of the 1st defendant being challenged herein if not condemned and upturned by this Honourable Court will continue to encourage political harlotry, legislative rascality and destroys the reasons for the laws made to regulate the defection of National Assembly Members by the Constitution of Nigeria itself.
“That the continuous stay of the 1st defendant at the Federal Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria does no longer represent the Plaintiff’s interest or that of thousands of other members of our constituency who voted him in on the basis of our faith in our Party’s manifesto which they believed the 1st Defendant was capable of representing in the Federal Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“That the defendant is now representing adverse interests of the people who fought the Plaintiff’s party tooth and nail [in the year 2023] to forestall the emergence of the 1st Defendant as the Member Representing Delta North Senatorial District Federal Constituency on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP).
“That time is of the greatest essence in the instant application.
“It will be in the interest of justice for this Honourable Court to grant the prayers contained on the face of this Originating Summons,” the affidavit further read.
The suit is yet to be assigned to any judge for hearing.
Politics
Tax Reform Bills To Shape Nigeria’s Economy -Akpabio

President of the Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, on Monday, defended the tax reform bills introduced to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu, saying that the bills would shape the future of the country’s economy.
He spoke in Abuja as the Senate Committee on Finance opened the long-awaited public hearing on the bills, urging all stakeholders to thoroughly examine the bills, considering the impact they would make on revenue generation and redistribution in the country.
The tax reform bills are, The Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) 2024; The Nigeria Tax Administration Bill (NTAB) 2024; The Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill (NRSEB) 2024; and The Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill (JRBEB) 2024.
Sen. Akpabio noted that the misconceptions and fears about the bills were spread mostly by persons and groups that had hardly read the provisions.
He called all those opposing the bills to seize the opportunity of the public hearing to tell Nigerians why they believed the bills were bad for their well-being.
The Senate President stated, “The four bills, some leaders and elders have never read them. They only rush to the television to make comments.
“I call on all Nigerians, who are against the bills, to come and make their contributions. Don’t follow social media commentaries to act, read the bills.
“This is the future of Nigeria, these tax reform bills. All oversights by the Senate are suspended for now for us to devote enough time to the public hearing.”
Sen. Akpabio observed that while discussions or pronouncements about tax scare people, the truth remains that less than 30% of Nigerians pay taxes.
According to him, over-reliance on crude oil revenue has made many Nigerians to assume that paying taxes is unnecessary.
“At a time when oil revenue is dwindling, we have to think out of the box by sourcing money from other areas. This is a fact.
“I don’t think up to 30% of Nigerians pay tax. Yet, everyone wants good services and good governance.
“This is Nigeria. Nobody believes in the rule of law and nobody believes that tax works”, he added.
A long list of stakeholders attended the opening of the hearing on Monday.