Author: Emmanuel Obe

Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has commenced oral interviews for over 1,050 candidates for its foreign postgraduate scholarship programme. The interviews, which is spread over 11 days, are for candidates that were successful in the computer-based test written by 5,000 applicants earlier in the month. The NDDC Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, who was at the venue of the interview with the Executive Director Finance and Administration, Alabo Boma Iyaye, the Executive Director Projects, Sir Victor Antai, and the Executive Director Corporate Services, Hon. Ifedayo Abegunde, said that the guiding principle for the interview was equity, fairness and transparency. He…

Eminent Niger Delta activist and leader of Ijaw ethnic nationality, Alabo Nengi James, has condemned the way voters in the last Off-Cycle Governorship Election in Bayelsa State sold their votes in the election. Alabo James, who spoke to National Point while monitoring the election in Yenagoa, the state capital, said he was thoroughly disappointed with the voters, who used their votes as bargaining chips in the election. “For the voters, I think I am so disappointed. I see a lot of vote buying, especially in areas that I have been to in the state capital. It has never be so…

Polling closed early in most of the polling units in the Off-Cycle Bayelsa State Governorship Election on Saturday, and action moved to the collation centres after votes counted and pasted on walls around the polling centres. Reports generally spoke of peaceful elections. But there were isolated cases of violence, particularly in Olugbobiri in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area and Ekeki in Yenagoa Local Government Area, where gunmen snatched ballot materials before voting commenced. In Yenagoa, the state capital, election materials and personnel began to arrive the polling units from 8.30 am. But turnout was generally low, about 30 percent in…

The boat mishap that threw 12 election officers into River Nun in Bayelsa State on Friday evening was caused by a wave generated by a military gunboat deployed to patrol the river. A survivor of the boat mishap, Mr. Emmanuel Choko, told National Point exclusively on Saturday in Yenagoa that 10 boats had left Amassoma with full loads of election metrials and personnel for Koluama when the incident occurred. He said a military gunboat had sped past as the 10 boats were slowly taking off from the jetty. While the other boats were able to maneouvre the waves, the tenth…

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has moved in to save the Humpback dolphins found in the coastline waters of Andoni in Rivers State. The union has already kicked off a training programme for select groups that will protect the special species of Dolphin found mainly in the coastal waters of West Africa. The inauguration of the groups took place at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital under the coordination of the Biodiversity Preservation Centre. The trainees will be known as Atlantic Humpback Dolphin guardians. Mr. Gogo Abel Ujile of the Save Andoni Forest Elephant and Ecosystem Initiative…

IN 2010, Rivers State government launched a Strategic Health Programme under which it planned to bring healthcare to the doorstep of every resident of the state. To drive that programme was the primary healthcare scheme, which would ensure that there was a health facility within 20 minutes’ walk from everybody or at most, a five-kilometre distance from the next health facility. From 2010 to 2015, the state government committed to building ultramodern primary health centres, setting aside the sum of N21 billion. The money was to include the construction of 160 ultramodern heath centres fully equip with cold chain facilities,…

The Vice-Chairman of Eleme Local Government, Mrs. Virtue Ekee, tells EMMANUEL OBE in this interview that cases of hypertension, prostate cancer are increasing among women and men in the area. Does the local government have any scheme it has put in place to enhance healthcare delivery in the area? We have a healthcare scheme. What is it all about? We have primary healthcare scheme. We are giving a total of 100 persons. The scheme covers minor and major surgeries. The scheme, 50 percent is on the council and 50 percent is on the HMOs. So, if you have a surgery…

Candidate of the Labour Party in the forthcoming Bayelsa governorship election, Comrade Udengs Eradiri, shone brilliantly on Monday evening at the governorship debate organised for candidates in the November 11 election, as the candidates of Peoples Democratic Party, Governor Douye Diri, and All Progressives Congress, Mr. Timipre Sylva, stayed away from the debate. Also absent was the candidate of the Zenith Labour Party, Simeon Karioru. Eradiri took the opportunity to showcase his manifesto and won hearts as he took his time to reel out his plans for Bayelsa State if he wins the election. The debate, which held in Yenagoa…

Delta State Government and German construction giant, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, have signed N78billion contracts for the construction of flyovers, cloverleaf and road expansion projects in Effurun and Warri metropolis of the state. The contracts include road expansion of a section of DSC/NPA Expressway, including a cloverleaf Interchange at the existing Effurun flyover, alongside two pedestrian bridges, flyover bridges from Enerhen junction to Marine Gate, DSC Roundabout and the PTI Junction. Secretary to the State Government, Dr Kingsley Emu, and the commissioner for Works (Highways and Urban Roads), Comrade Reuben Izeze, signed on behalf of the state government, while the…

For five hours, guests were glued to their seats at Eko Hotel, Lagos as they awaited the declaration of the winners of the 2023 Nigerian Prizes for Literature, Science and Literary Criticism. The prizes are the biggest in Nigeria, and indeed the whole of Africa. The annual awards sponsored by Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) have become Nigeria’s version of the Sweden-based Nobel Prizes given annually to outstanding researchers, scientists and scholars in different fields of learning and endeavour in the world. Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986. In 2004, NLNG inaugurated the Nigerian…