Author: nationalpoint

Dateline: August 18, 2022, an indigenous crude oil production company, Oriental Energy Resources Limited commissioned and handed over new and upgraded essential teaching and learning facilities to Community Primary School, Ibuot Utan in Effiat, Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State; a Demonstration of the company’s commitment to education and human capital development in the state, especially in Effiat community. National Point learned that before the project by the oil company, the Community Primary School, with more than sixty children were receiving instruction from dilapidated structure. It was further gathered that the restoration and provision of new facilities by…

The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has called on the Akwa Ibom state government to partner the association to establish a research farm for pharmaceutical growth in the state. Speaking during a visit to the Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Offiong Samuel Offor, the Akwa Ibom State Chairman of PSN, Dr. Akwaowo Akpabio stated that local plants and herbs such as Artemesia Anua could be used in medical research and provision of locally produced clinical drugs. The PSN noted that the Ministry of Agriculture was saddled with the responsibility to plan, devise and implement the State policies on agricultural resources; hence…

Police in Akwa Ibom State have nabbed a fake officer and recover substance suspected to be Indian hemp. This happens as the Commissioner of Police, Olatoye Durosinmi decorated 37 Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs) to the next rank of Superintendents of Police (SPs). The CP, while decorating the Senior Officers charged them to always discharge their duties professionally in consonance with extant laws. He urged them to be civil to members of the public and eschew every form of corruption in line with the directives of the Inspector General of Police, while respecting the fundamental human rights of the people.…

Oilwatch Africa (OWA) held the 2022 Conference and Annual General Meeting at Accra, Ghana between 8th -12th August. The theme of the continental gathering was Stop Gassing the continent: Pipelines of Discontent. The Conference had presentations and representation from CSOs, activists, scholars, journalists, fisherfolks and Eco-defenders from fossil fuels-affected communities across the continent and provided another opportunity to deepen OWA’s mission as a network of peoples and organisations building solidarity to end expansion of oil and gas activities given its negative impacts on people and the environment in Africa. Key observations made by delegates included: That the current rush for…

Edo State deputy governor, Hon. Philip Shaibu, has faulted claims by former governor of the state, Comrade Adams Aliu Oshiomhole, that Governor Godwin Obaseki, lied about his certificates when he was in the All Progressives Congress (APC). Shaibu spoke in Benin City when he received top members of the APC and kinsfolk of Oshiomhole, who defected with Senator Francis Alimikhena from APC to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The deputy governor said it was Oshiomhole’s overbearing dictatorship as a political godfather that made him and Obaseki to defect from APC to PDP just before the 2020 governorship reelection. He said…

Edo State commissioner of Police, Abutu Yaro, has said logistics provided the command by the state government have helped in stopping kidnapping along the Benin – Ekpoma road. CP Yaro said in Benin City during a meeting with members of the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and other relevant stakeholders in the state, that in the last three months, the only kidnapping activity witnessed in the state occurred on the Benin-Lagos express near Ogbemudia Farm and was repelled by the police. “I can confidently attest that in the past 90 days, the roads between Benin and Ekpoma…

A legal practitioner and President, Ijaw Community Law Centre, Dotimi Tawari, has urged the National Assembly to throw the controversial Water Resources Bill recently re-introduced into the dust-bin, arguing that if they let go, it will deny Nigerians of their identities and ‘kill’ them. Tawari’s said rather than concentrating on true federalism, the Bill is anti-federal but unitary, adding that if passed into law, it will take Nigerians back to the old days of unitary system of government where everything is concentrated at the centre (Federal Government) The lawyer and environmental rights activist who made these assertions in Benin city,…

Nearly one year after the Bayelsa State government promised students of Gbarain-owei Grammar School in Yenagoa Local Government Area provision of school chairs, the chairs are yet to be seen, forcing the students to continue to improvise with makeshift seats others brace the windows to learn in one of the richest oil states in the country. A visit to the school months after the executive promise by National Point reveal that there were still no chairs from the government for the students. What is available are some wooden benches provided by parents of the students, who contributed N1000 each to…

The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) has cautioned the Arewa Youth Assembly over the use of derogatory comments against Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo in handling the crude oil surveillance contract awarded to him by the federal government. According to the IYC, despite the vexatious and provocative nature of the comment and threat of protest by the Arewa Youths Assembly, the youths of the six states of the Niger Delta region are totally in support of the award the surveillance contract to Tompolo. The IYC, through its national spokesman, Ebilade Ekerefe, warned that instead of the northern youths becoming hired…

The chairman of traditional Rulers Council Bayelsa State, King Bubaraye Dakolo has advised oil and gas host communities in the Niger Delta region to first of all kick against the portion of the Petroleum Industry Act which states that any oil disruption that takes place in their domain will be counted for them as loss against the three per cent yearly funds that will accrue to them from the oil companies operating in their domain. King Dakolo who, is the Ibenanaowei IV of Ekpetiama Kingdom argued that the PIA was not actually meant to help the people of the Niger…