Author: Constance Meju

Niger Deltans especially, communities hosting oil and gas negatively impacted by oil pollution in furtherance of their rejection of attempts by International Oil Companies, IOCs operating in their area with Shell Petroleum Development Company leading the campaign for divestment from onshore extraction, on Wednesday December 17, staged a march to the Rivers State Government House in Port Harcourt where they called for an immediate halt to divestment proceedings pending a clean-up of the mess created in the region.The congregation of community youths and women as well as civil society members working on environment, called on President Tinubu to stop Shell…

Otive Oguzor, founding executive director, Centre LSD School, said leadership is a critical missing element in Nigeria’s governance which has resulted in the continued dwindling state of affairs in the country. Dr Otive, senior special adviser to the immediate past deputy Senate president, Senator Omo-Agege, was guest speaker at the sixth graduation ceremony of Kebetkache Center Leadership and Strategic Development, LSD, Port Harcourt on Saturday November 9, 2024. Decrying the lack of good leadership in the country, he said, “This is very important; over the past 10 years, we have had leaders who are not able lead with the challenges…

For Okwuzi Community people, the rising flood this 2024 is not only unwelcomed but a harbinger of a revolving round of dislocation, discomfort, waste and pain that keeps them in the bondage of poverty. As long-term host of oil extractive activities and the devastating marks that have left on their environment and livelihood, yearly flood forces them to prematurely harvest poor yielding crops leading to months of emptiness and hunger after the floods. With the flood back, the past week has seen community members frantically uprooting their cassava to hurriedly sell what they can and cheaply too, keeping the little…

With the erratic rain timetable occasioned by climate change, watching the flood or guarding against it has become a hectic task for many, especially those in coastal communities. While it had been predicted severally that there would be heavy flooding this year and that Niger Delta States would be affected, there was hope among many that Rivers State would escape this year especially as the year had come into the third quarter without much incident. That hope was dashed following the heavy rains of Friday, October 26, 2024. After many hours of rainfall, many places in the city and the…

Amnesty International has expressed serious concern over the state of corporate accountability in oil and gas operations in the Niger Delta and,  the fact that the health, wealth and agricultural resources of the Niger Delta are taken for granted even though it hosts the economy of the country. The international human rights body expressed these concerns at a press briefing to unveil its research finding on Shell’s divestment moves from Niger Delta onshore oil communities. The event held in Port Harcourt on October 24. Country director of Amnesty International, Nigeria, Isa Sanusi said the press event which, had community leaders…

There is serious anxiety in the flood prone communities of Rivers State, following a series of heavy rain in the week around the country and in most parts of the state, which is now pushing flood into Okwuzi Community in Orashi Kingdom (Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area). The federal government had on Monday, issued a flood alert announcing that there would be five days of heavy rains which is expected to result to serious flooding in 22 states of the country. Although, Rivers State was not specifically mentioned on the list of potential victim states which left some trace of hope…

…as Women Plot Improved Representation in Politics To halt the declining state of women representation in Politics, a She Persists Coalition has been inaugurated in the South-South by Baobab for Women’s Human Right, a foremost women organisation in the country. The event, a strategic workshop on Women’s Participation in Politics and Leadership in the South South, which held September 26, 2024 in Asaba; Delta State, drew participants from former and current political office holders, aspiring young females, civil society and media practitioners from the six South-South states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Edo, Delta and Rivers States. There was,…

Founder and President General of Akwa Ibom Oil Producing Community Development Network (AKIPCON), Apostle Ufot Phenson has raised alarm on ecosystem destruction by the extractive industry in Akwa Ibom and the likelihood of fish scarcity in the country. Apostle Phenson said the incessant oil spills with attendant contamination of water bodies and gas flares that scare wild life and rain down as acids, continue to rob the locals of livelihoods and force many to abandon fishing and farming. Ufot warned that the unchecked pollutions including the most recent in Ibeno Local Government Area of the state, would worsen the food…

The day of reckoning seems to have caught up with a supposedly well-grounded pastor manning a big church in Woji with two other branches, all in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. The Imo State-born pastor was nabbed by the police on Sunday for impregnating a 19 year old Akwa Ibom girl who he lured into a clandestine affair. He is said to be fond of having illicit affairs with girls and women in his church while showing a pious face to the public. He often publicly flogs his members according to those living around the church area. Sources…

Even as the oil spill that erupted in Rumuwhere, Elelenwo in Obio Akpor Local Government of Rivers State is still waiting to be addressed, another spill has occurred in another community in the same LGA, raises fears among oil host communities in that area. Residents of densely populated Rumuewhara Community woke up August 29, to see their environment heavily flooded with crude oil spewing from an oil pipeline belonging to Shell. Further investigations by a team from Pilex Centre, an environmental justice advocacy organization following a visit to the spill site on August 29, revealed that, “the spill was basically as a result of characteristic lack of maintenance of oil facilities by Shell resulting to…