Author: Emmanuel Obe

The Rivers State Administrator, His Excellency Vice Admiral (Rtd) Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, has promised to revive moribund agricultural facilities in the state to stimulate industrial growth and create employment opportunities. The Administrator made the promise after an inspection of key state-owned agricultural facilities, including PABOD Farms in Elimgbu Community, Atali Farms in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, Siat Nigeria Limited in Ubima (Ikwerre LGA), and the Port Harcourt Technical and Vocational Centre on Friday. He expresses concern over the underutilization of the facilities and emphasized the urgent need for their revival, as doing so would also diversify the state’s revenue streams.…

A collection of elder statesmen and leaders of thought in Rivers Stateunder the umbrella of Rivers Elders and Leaders Forum have called on President Bola Tinubu to lift the state of emergency imposed on Rivers State snce march, 18, 2025. In a press statement issued on Thursday in Port Harcourt, the forum noted that having achieved the desired peace deal between the suspended Governor, Mr. Siminalayi and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike, it had become apparent that the President who predctaed the declaration of the state of emergency on the rift between the two political…

Photo ops emerging from the Presidential Villa in Abuja, showed President Bola Tinubu standing between suspended Rivers State Governor, Siminilayi Fubara and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, after a meeting believed to have been held to reunite them. In other photographs, Fubara is shown shaking hands with the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Mr. Martin Amaewhule, and group photographs of Tinubu, Fubara, Wike and other supporters of Wike. The photographs were being celebrated in the social media as indicators of the end of the crisis that led to a declaration of a state…

A policeman attached to Ahoada East Local Government secretariat and a vigilante were gunned down on Monday night by people believed to be members of the Iceland cult in Ahoada.The Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Olugbenga Adepoju, who confirmed the incident on Tuesday, however vowed that the police would track down the killers and bring them to book.A press statement issued by the Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Grace Iringe-Koko, condemned the brutal attack, which was led by two notorious gang leaders in the area, Umegbewe Kingsley alias Gutam and one Opaka.The police statement said the gunmen stormed the…

The Hydrocarbons Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) has received commendations from leaders and people of Ogoniland for the pragmatic steps it has taken so far to clean up and develop the Ogoni environment and people. The commendations were made on Friday at the HYPREP Midterm Stakeholders Engagement and Scorecard presentation in Port Harcourt, where the Project Coordinator, Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, highlighted the achievements of the project since his inauguration two years ago. He told the gathering that HYPREP has been able to achieve milestones in its core mandates of remediation, livelihood support, mangrove restoration and establishment of a centre of excellence…

The Administrator of Ahoada East Local Government in Rivers State, Mr. Goodluck Iheamnacho, has resigned from his post.Iheamnacho, who was appointed two months ago by the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice-Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, said in the letter he addressed to the Sole Administrator, Government House, Port Harcourt that he was quitting to return to his business in the private sector.Though no official response has been received from Government House, Port Harcourt, observers said Iheamnacho’s resignation might not have been voluntary.He is the only administrator that has resigned since the appointment of interim administrators to man the local governments after…

Construction works on the new Bayelsa State Independent Power Project has reached about seventy per cent completion rate. Conducting newsmen round the site of the project located at Elebele in Ogbia Local Government Area, officials of the State government and the Bayelsa Electricity Company Limited say the sixty-megawatts gas turbine would be installed by August this year. Technical Adviser to the Governor on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Wisdom Ikuli reiterated the determination of the Governor Douye Diri led Administration to the completion of the State Independent Power project by December this year. Mr. Ikuli said the objective of the…

…calls on PDP leadership to take urgent action The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been urged to take a stand against the harassment of the only PDP female senator from the North, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan by authorities of the state.In a statement titled, “A Call to Action: Defending the Integrity of Our Party and the Rights of Nigerian Women” circulated on Tuesday, condemning the recent attempt to unlawfully arrest the senator, Mrs. Tari Oba, a prominent PDP women leader and advocate, decried what she described as a “brazen abuse of power” and a direct threat to the…

The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) has sounded the alarm over what it describes as a veiled move toward monopoly by the Dangote Refinery, warning that the company’s adoption of a forward integration strategy could devastate the downstream petroleum sector, eliminate competition, and trigger massive job losses nationwide. In a statement signed by its National Public Relations Officer, Dr. Joseph Obele, PETROAN expressed concern that the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery, recently commissioned and touted as one of the largest in sub-Saharan Africa, appears poised not just to meet local fuel demand and export surplus, but also to…

Prominent voices from Ogoniland have rejected the presidential pardon and national honours recently conferred on environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight others executed alongside him in 1995. The Ogoni people are instead demanding full exoneration, insisting that a pardon does not address the injustice meted out to their heroes. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had on Thursday, as part of activities marking Democracy Day, posthumously granted presidential pardons and national honours to the “Ogoni Nine,” recognizing their contribution to Nigeria’s environmental justice movement. But the gesture has been met with mixed reactions, especially from Ogoni leaders and civil society advocates.…