Author: Constance Meju

…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…

The push for environmental justice by highly deprived and traumatized Niger Delta community women, who are victims of pollution from oil and gas operators in the region, has deepened following a capacity building on seeking justice through legislation via a mock tribunal r conducted by a frontline women organization, Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Center. The mock tribunal conducted August 7 in Port Harcourt, witnessed presentations of petitions by aggrieved community women from four host communities seeking redress from oil majors-Agip, Shell, Total E &P, for years of unaddressed pollution in their areas and the attendant negative impacts. The women…

Efforts to gain respite from the harsh effects of hosting gas flaring in Gelegele Community appears to be yielding result. After advocacy visits and petition to the governor of Edo State and key ministries in the state against Dubril Oil Company operations in Gelegele Community highlighting the negative impacts of its operations on the environment and health of the women in the community by a non-governmental organization, Gbolekekro Women Empowerment and Development Organization, GWEDO, a stakeholders meeting was  held with community leaders from the impacted community, community women, representatives of the oil company, the Edo State governor’s representatives, and the media  to deliberate on the issues raised with the objective of proffering possible solutions, especially  the negative gas flare impact on the health and livelihood of the women.  GWEDO’s research…

As the 10-day nationwide protest against bad governance in Nigeria successfully kicked off, the umbrella body of Ijaw youths, the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, which hitherto had distanced itself from the protest, has thrown its weight behind the mass action declaring that, “Enough is Enough!” In a press statement by the president of the global body, Comrade Alaye Tari Theophilus on Thursday, day one of the action, noted that bad governance was hurting seriously, the people of the Niger Delta who, bear the brunt of unregulated oil and gas extraction in the region, feeding the nation without evidence of positive…

As the World Celebrates the 2024 World Environment Day with the theme “Land restoration, desertification and drought resilience”, the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) joins the world in advocating for an end to Land degradation, desertification and drought which are critical issues that pose significant problem to global sustainability, global ecosystem, human livelihood, sustainable development and environment health. In a press statement signed by DR TAMMY ALOMA COOKEY, HEAD of the Environment and Conservation Unit of the organization, CEHRD also enjoins environmental fights crusaders to unite and step up actions aimed at ending human activities such as…

As concerned Niger Deltans and environmental activists within and outside the country continue to kick against the clandestine moves by oil majors in the country to divest onshore for off shore operations, oil host communities in Abia and Rivers states whose areas have already been divested, are calling on the federal government to revisit the pull-out while knocking the new operators for lacking both technical ability and respect for their hosts. A visit to Obehi in Abia State where a dialogue session was held with members of oil host communities on May 21, 2024, revealed that contrary to claims by…

Civil Society activists in the Niger Delta have called for the release of the report of the federal government forensic investigation on activities at the Niger Delta Development Commission following revelations of massive corruption in the intervention agency. Stakeholders at the 2024 Situation Room put together by HEDA in collaboration with the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC in Port Harcourt Thursday April 18, 2024, decried the silence over the report to a critical agency to develop Niger Delta communities. Raising the call, Comrade Celestine Akpobari, member of the governing board of HYPRE lamented that everything in the region is being…