Business

Return East-West Road Project To IDF, Reps Tell Minister Assure HYPREP Of Support On Clean-Up

Published

3 years ago

October 8, 2021

Miffed by the poor state of the Ogoni axis of the East-West Road in Rivers State, the House of Representatives Committee on Host Communities, has lent its voice to the need for the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio to return the construction of the road project to the Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF) where it was originally placed by the Federal Government to facilitate its timely execution and completion.
This is even as the committee has promised to support the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) on the ongoing Ogoni clean-up project and other interventionist activities embarked upon by the agency to improve the wellbeing of the people.
The committee, which gave this indication during an oversight visit to some project sites in Eleme and Gokana Local Government Areas on Wednesday, strongly condemned the deplorable condition of the Ogoni axis of the East-West Road, and directed Senator Akpabio to return the road project to the IDF without further delay.
Speaking to newsmen on behalf of the committee members in Eleme, Chairman of the committee and member representing Khana/Gokana Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Dumnamene Dekor said the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs does not have the capacity to handle the road project, and therefore, directed the Minister to return it to the IDF forthwith.
He wondered why the road project was in the first place removed from the IDF by the Minister, stressing that the people of the Niger Delta deserve some measure of respect from the Federal Government, particularly in terms of giving them what rightly belongs to them and ameliorating their sufferings.
Dekor decried the poor state of the Ogoni axis of the East-West Road, irrespective of the fact that huge revenue resources are coming from the area, going by the calibre of companies and federal agencies and instructions located within the area.
The lawmaker noted that he had personally led protest over the deplorable state of the road, and regretted that nothing concrete was still being done by the Federal Government to change the trend, contending that the situation, as observed by the committee members during the oversight tour, wherein trailers and other heavy duty trucks were frequently falling on the road, was indicative of the number of lives being lost on the road on a daily basis.
Consequent upon this, Dekor affirmed that the East-West Road as it is today is terribly bad, and urged the Federal Government to do something urgently to ameliorate the sufferings of the people.
He placed on record that the road is an important carriageway leading to several states and communities within the Niger Delta region and even beyond, and therefore, contended that it deserves priority attention from the Federal Government.
Dekor, however, commended the new HYPREP team led by Prof. Philip Shekwolo for the good works it is doing in Ogoniland, and expressed delight that the committee members were able to visit some ongoing water project sites as well as clean-up sites in the area.
He assured that the committee would do what is right legislatively to ensure that the remediation project succeeds.
Dekor particularly praised the Rivers State Government and HYPREP for the massive water project in Eleme, and expressed the hope that the facility would be made functional soonest in order to provide potable drinking water to Ogoni people.
On his part, HYPREP’s Director of Operations, who is also overseeing the Coordinating Office in Port Harcourt, Prof. Philip Shekwolo thanked members of the committee for the oversight visit, and assured that the agency would continue to discharge its core mandate of improving the wellbeing including the health and other needs of the Ogoni people.
He said HYPREP had embarked on several interventionist activities and projects, geared towards improving the living conditions of the people, and listed the Centre of Excellence project, provision of training to the people, among other initiatives as some of the bold steps taken by the agency to better the lot of the people.
The committee members also paid a courtesy visit to the Chairman of Gokana Local Government Area,Hon Confidence Deko who assured that the council would work with the lawmakers to ensure that Ogoni people are given the best in the clean-up project, asserting that the local government was the worst hit by environmental degradation.
He, however, appealed to HYPREP to make its presence felt more in the local government, and assured of his administration’s readiness to work with it to give Ogoni people all that they deserve in the remediation project.
The committee visit ongoing clean-up sites in Kpor and B-Dere Communities in Gokana Local Government Area and the water project site in Eleme Local Government Area.

By: Donatus Ebi

Business

Expert Tasks Government On Civil Maritime Security Unit

Published

2 days ago

February 5, 2025

The Tide

As part of measures to ensure safety along waterways in Rivers State, a Marintime safety and security expert, Capt. Eke Ifeanyi Laurence, has called for the establishment of a civil maritime And Safety unit in the state.

Laurence, who said this in an exclusive interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, said the unit should be stationed in jetties across the state.

He said the outfit will not only check insecurity along the maritime environment, but also create both direct and indirect jobs for the teeming unemployed youths of the state.

“My message to the Governor of the state is for the State Government to help train the youths on maritime safety and security, and engage them positively”, he said.

He argued that once this is done the happenings along the waterways, especially the incessant boat mishaps and piracy will be reduced to the barest minimum.

“All of you know about what is happening now, every day you wake up, the first news you hear is boat mishaps.

“Boat capsizes in Bonny, boat capsizes in Nembe, boat capsizes in Andoni. Boat mishaps all over the state and people are dying every day and goods worth millions being lost.

“So, I want the present Government to train our youths and establish a civil maritime safety and security unit. It will be all over the jetties”, he stated.

Lawrence stated the benefits of the proposed agency to include, monitoring and enforcement of compulsory wearing of lifebuoys or life jackets by boat passengers and drivers, generation of over twenty thousand direct and fifty thousand indirect jobs, and bringing the benefits of the Federal Government’s blue economy programme to the state.

He said Rivers State, which is the second largest maritime state in the country after Lagos, should be able to upgrade safety along its maritime environment to international standard, noting that the trend of sea piracy along the Gulf of Guinea is on the rise

According to him, “Rivers State should play a crucial role in preventing the citizens from dying, and goods from getting lost every day”.

The expert, who is the President of El Bravo Marine And Coast Guard Services Limited, said the proposal will also check the incessant fire incidents in Nembe waterside that have cost many lives and other water fronts in the state.

John Bibor

Business

Bayelsa Recommits To Infrastructure, Sectoral Dev … Rakes In N227.185b From IGR

Published

2 days ago

February 5, 2025

The Tide

The Bayelsa State Government has expressed willingness to continue infrastructure and sectoral development of the state under the leadership of the Senator Douye Diri-led “Prosperity Assured” administration.

Speaking to newsmen, last Friday, in Yenagoa, the state capital, during the October–December 2024 monthly transparency briefing, the State Commissioner for Information, Strategy and Orientation, Mrs. Ebiowou Koku-Obiyai, said the exercise became imperative as Government was ready to update the citizenry on the income and expenditures of the state.

She noted that all ongoing projects under the Governor Diri-led administration would be completed, urging citizens of the state to see and appreciate efforts the Government was making in the provision of critical infrastructure projects and sectoral development in all spheres of the state.

“Transparency briefing, so far so good, is all about reporting back to the citizens of the state the income and expenditures of the Government under the watch of our Dear Governor, the distinguished Senator Douye Diri.

“As a Government we’ve a direction, and if you watch closely you’ll better understand where the Government is going. We’ve earmarked critical projects to execute and key among these projects is the nine storey, new State Secretariat complex, which would make workers more productive and their jobs more worthwhile.

“We’ve issues with power, and very soon we’ll also have our own independent power plant to solve the problem of incessant power blackout in the state”, she said.

Rendering stewardship of financial accruals to the State for the three months of October, November and December 2024, the State Commissioner for Finance, Mr Maxwell Ebibai, gave details of the receipt and expenditures.

He said in October, Statutory allocation was N509milliin, Derivation was N8.335million, VAT N5.291billion, exchange rate gains -N11.28billion, non-oil revenue – N905m, electronic transfer levy -N175m, while total gross inflow from the Federation account allocation committee (FAAC) for the month, according to the Commissioner, amounted to N26.514billion, just as he said FAAC deductions gulped 1.735b.

He noted that, total net inflow after FAAC deductions stood at N24.779billion, while other receipts were N86.431billion, making sum total of receipt in the month N101.2billion, with outflows gulping a total of N16.971billion.

Ebibai also declared net balance upon the outflows as N94.238billion, noting that actual recurrent payment took N5.284billion, capital expenditure totalled N38.355billion, while the sum total of both capital and recurrent expenses made in the month amounted to N43.64billion, and balance after capital and recurrent expenditures stood at N50.598billion.

The Finance Commissioner further stated that total balance carried from September to October was N135.446billion, while balance at the close of November was N186.44billikn respectively.

In November, according to the Finance Ministry, gross receipt from FAAC was N37.982,141,546billion, while deductions at FAAC gulped N1.734billion, leaving balance after FAAC deductions at N36.247,717,577billion.

Other receipts for the month of November, including Internally generated revenue (IGR), was N39.254,383billion; cumulative receipt from FAAC and other receipts for the month stood at N75.5billion, while total outflows in November, was N24.275billion; balance before capital and recurrent expenses stood at N51.226billion; the balance after capital and recurrent expenses was N8.302billion; actual capital expenditure gulped N35.8billion; actual recurrent expenditure took N7.1billion, making the sum total of capital and recurrent expenses N42.9billion.

“Balance brought forward from October was N186.44billion, total balance as at the end of November was N194.346billion. Balance at the end of December receipts and expenditures ended in the negative.

“Gross receipts from FAAC in the month stood at N52.269billion, statutory deductions was N1.783billion, revenue from IGR and other sources totalled N35.990billion, while sum total of receipts in the month amounted to N86.476billion.

“Outflows gulped N17.543billon, balance from FAAC and other receipts before capital and recurrent expenses was N68.932billon, while actual capital expenditure took N62.8billion, recurrent expenditure gulped N6.889billion, bringing total expenditure for the month of December to a total N69.7billion, leaving a negative balance of N773million.

“Balance brought forward from November was N194.3billion, total balance as at January 2025 is N193.573billion”, the Finance Commissioner declared.

Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa

Business

NDYC Seeks NDDC Commercialisation … Uncompleted Projects Completion

Published

2 days ago

February 5, 2025

The Tide

A non-governmental organization, the Niger Delta Youth Coalition, (NDYC), is set to write to the National Assembly for amendment of the Act establishing the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC) to enable it go into the establishment of large scale farming, to meet up its huge financial needs in developing the region.

Founder and National Co-ordinator of the NDYC, Prince Emmanuel Samuel Ogba, who disclosed this in an interview in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said if amended, it would enable the NDDC to be commercialized in various sectors of its activities, particularly in agriculture, for internal generation of funds to augment its soaring financial needs.

Prince Ogba, an economist and politician, said to this end, his organization would send a private bill to the National Assembly seeking to amend the 2001 Act establishing the NDDC.

He noted that with the present economic challenges in the country, and to provide food for the populace, there is urgent need for the NDDC to be empowered by law to go into agriculture.

Ogba said, “if this happens, it would also provide more employment opportunities for the youths, as most of them would work in the farms, including staff of the Commission”.

The NDYC boss expressed the belief that such additional funds would enable the NDDC to partner with other relevant organizations in agriculture and also help in completing uncompleted projects executed by the NDDC several years ago by past managements of the Commission.

Prince Ogba recalled that by analysis some years back, the NDDC required about five trillion Naira as against a budget of N1.9trillion to complete numerous uncompleted projects of the Commission, adding that such situation was an impediment to its efforts to meet the increasing challenges to accomplish an integrated development of the peoples of the Niger Delta region.

He, however, applauded the present management of the NDDC led by Samuel Ugbuku for carrying out the completion of projects that were not completed by the commission.

He noted that with the NDDC going into food production and processing of farm produce, in a space of three years, the Niger Delta region would have enough food for the region to feed its over thirty million people and the rest of the country.

The current management of the NDDC has completed and commissioned a considerable number of uncomplete projects across the nine states in the region with its mandate to facilitate the rapid, even, and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful, to offer a lasting solution to the socio-econimic difficulties of the Niger Delta region.