Author: Emmanuel Obe

Operatives of the Rivers State Police Command of the Nigeria Police Force have killed one Silas Oderereke, popularly known as ‘General,’ a notorious armed robber and cult leader in Ahoada West area of the state. Oderereke, who was the leader of the Greenlanders Cult group in the area had been on the wanted list of the police for over four years. He was killed along with one of his gang members while two others, Danger Man and 2-Man escaped. According to the Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Grace Iringe-Koko, the confrontation with the police took place at Oderereke,…

The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, has condemned the quality on the Eleme section of the East-West, saying it was unacceptable having not been done according to specifications. The minister, who was on site to inspect the level of work that has been done, said the base material the contractor, Reynolds Construction Company Limited, was using to pile the road was substandard and ordered that the contractor should stop using it. “We paid N33 billion on this job since September (2023). Nothing reasonable has been done on the job. And then we are here under our nose and this…

Ijaw women from five states of the Niger Delta have rejected the planned sale of the onshore assets of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited in the Niger Delta to Renaissance African Energy.The women, who addressed a press conference on Wednesday in Port Harcourt under the aegis of Coalition of Ijaw Women Voices (CIWV), said the proposed sale of the assets was “shocking and unacceptable”.The text of the conference was read by Ms. Annkio Briggs, a prominent voice in the Niger Delta. SPDC had announced the decision to sell off its onshore assets in the Niger Delta to Renaissance Africa Energy,…

Contractors working on the turnaround of the Old Port Harcourt Refinery have commenced the test-run of the facilities of the plant preparatory to resumption of production of petroleum products. The workers shouted in jubilation on Thursday December 21 morning, as the flare of the old plant was lighted. It had been more than 20 years since the old refinery was last in operation. Though the old plant is part of the entire project to return the Port Harcourt Refinery to operation after a comprehensive turnaround maintenance, the procedures for the new plant had been slowed down to allow workers concentrate…

The Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Rivers State Chapter, has expressed worries over the current spate of political crisis rocking the State, and called on the warring factions to give peace a chance. In a release signed by Susan Serekara-Nwikhana, chairperson, NAWOJ Rivers State and Ngozi Anosike, the secretary, women journalists regretted the negative social and political impacts the crisis will have on the state, women and children, reiterating the importance of politicians not allowing personal interest to override the general interest and prosperity of the people and the state at large. “No investment would thrive in a political…

Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr. Joe Johnson, has disclosed that the House of Assembly building being demolished by the state government was no longer fit for human habitation since an explosion occurred there on October 29, 2023. Speaking at the Dinner Night of the 2023 Correspondents’ Week of Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Rivers State, last Friday, the commissioner said that the building consultants engaged to study the state of the building after the explosion returned a verdict that the structure be pulled down because it had been weakened. “When there was a…

Rivers State Elders and Leaders Forum has vowed to resist the move by a faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly to impeach Governor Siminalayi Fubara. In a communique issued at the end of their meeting in Port Harcourt on Monday, condemned the impeachment notice on the governor, saying the impeachment notice coming barely six months after the governor assumed office was not acceptable. The meeting was presided over by former Governor of the state, Chief Rufus Ada-George, and attended by former Deputy Governor, Sir Gabriel Toby, former Senate Minority Leader, Dr. Bennett Birabi, Admiral Promise Fingesi, Ms. Annkio…

The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr Samuel Ogbuku, has said that peace and security were needed to create the necessary environment for the rapid development of the Niger Delta region. Speaking when a delegation from the Nigerian Airforce, led by the Commander 115 Special Operations, Group Captain Ali Idris, visited him at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt, Ogbuku promised that the Commission would continue to assist the security agencies in the Niger Delta region. He said that NDDC needed the support of security agencies to succeed, noting that security was very important in every…

Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Siminalayi Fubara, has declared that his administration is committed to catering to the needs of the people and not in taking on personality battles. The governor made the declaration while flagging off the 20,000 housing units for low-income earners project along Obiri -Ikwerre- International Airport road on Friday. Fubara said his administration would continue to do what was right while encouraging a robust participation of the people in governance. He said, “For our people, I want to assure you, our government has nothing to do with fighting anybody. Our governance is to take care of…

For more than eight years, the people of Rivers were not privileged to see the details of the budget of their state government. All they heard were the budget summaries that were sent to the House of Assembly for approval and subsequently assented to by the government. Try as much as they could, the civil society could not get the government to open up the details of the budgets and their sectoral allocations for all the years that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government of Chief Nyesom Wike, held sway. If they could not access the budget, which was the…