Author: nationalpoint

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Rivers State Command of the Nigeria Police Force have given conflicting final figures of the casualties recorded in the May 28, 2022 stampede that occurred at the Port Harcourt Polo Club field. While NEMA said a total of 39 people died, the police said the final figure is 34. The South-South Zonal coordinator of NEMA, Mr. Godwin Tepikor, said 30 of the deceased victims were female while nine were male. Families of the deceased persons have however lamented the stringent requirements placed before them before they can collect the corpses of their…

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Rivers State Command has reiterated unwavering commitment to the fight against oil theft, illegally oil bunkering and illegal dealings in petroleum products in Rivers State. While signing the handover notes at the Command Headquarters in Port Harcourt, the former commandant who is now promoted to the rank of Assistant Commandant General Abu Tambuwal FCAI expressed overwhelming joy and fulfillment in pursuant of the Corps mandate with a renewed vigour to combat all acts involving the operation of illegal refineries, vandalism of oil pipelines and all human activities leading to environmental degradation, pollution and…

The Rivers State Police Command has paraded 30 suspected criminals involved in various crimes, ranging from murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, rape and child trafficking, among others. Briefing journalists during the parade, the Rivers State commissioner of Police, Friday Eboka said the suspects were rounded up at different locations by his officers following credible intelligence. The CP specifically spoke of a man, identified as David Kalu Onyems who, he said was kidnapped along Abia/Rivers State boundary by youths within the 18 year bracket and was murdered and buried in a shallow grave after his family paid the sum of N2m ransom.…

The Federal Government has been faulted for implementing a divesting process for oil multi-nationals without putting in place a policy framework thus, giving room for IOCs to run away from cleaning up the huge mess created in the Niger Delta. Ken Henshaw, executive director of We the People, a non-governmental organization based in Port Harcourt raised this concern at a roundtable organized by ERA April 25, 2022 at Visa Karena Hotel, Port Harcourt for civil society activists and the media on understanding the lies behind onshore divestment. The activist decried the failure of the Nigerian government to plan for a…

Divestment is another historic junction in the story of Niger Deltans as a people, building on a long stretch of historic injustice which is finally exposing the guilty (represented by the international oil corporations, IOCs), now trying to escape the long arm of justice. This was the view posed by a respected legal practitioner and environmentalist, Hon. Iniro Wills at a roundtable organized by Environmental Rights Action ERA and Friends of the Earth in Port Harcourt for Civil Society Organizations and the media to understand the deceit behind the ongoing pulling out of multinational oil companies from onshore exploration in…

The past three decades have seen regular and intermittent events of violence across many communities of the Niger Delta especially those that are oil bearing. While some communities have managed to pick up the broken, often still blood stained pieces of their lives and moved past the violence to enjoy some semblance of peace, some other communities have remain broken, divided and with a thin skin of normalcy covering scars and festering wounds that have refused to heal. These scars and the deep wounds they cover, blight these communities and present a scary visage of the Niger Delta in the…

An APC candidate for Oguta Constituency for the Imo State House of Assembly (ISHA), Mr. Izombe Ezediaro says one of the reasons he wants to go back to Imo State House of Assembly is because the people of Oguta Constituency have not had a ranking or principal officer in the Assembly. According to him, the only reason I want to go back to Imo State House of Assembly is because the people of Oguta Constituency have not had a ranking officer as member of the State House of Assembly. Mr. Ezediaro who is the chairman and CEO of Oguta Youth…

Commendations have continued to pour in for the choice of Prof. Ngozi Nma Odu, a professor of microbiology, as the running-mate to Siminailayi Fubara, the Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 governorship election. Odu, who hails from Egi in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, was a commissioner for education in Rivers State under the Governor Peter Odili administration between 2003 and 2007. She was at one time the Permanent Secretary of the Rivers State Ministry of Health. At the point of her nomination, she was a professor of microbiology at PAMO University of Medical…

Polobubo Community has declared an environmental crisis in the oil and gas rich community following decades of environmental onslaught by the oil companies which operate there as a joint venture with the Nigerian government. Polobubo in Warri North Local Government Area, Delta State is the site for the operations of Chevron Nigeria Limited, Conoil Producing and NPDC/Elcrest among others, whose exploitation of the community’s over 20,000 barrels per day oil resource has led to massive destruction of the life support system of the community, especially following a canal construction referred to as the Western Bypass which was carried out in…

Ahead of 2023 election, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Rivers State Chapter, has declared Sunday, June 26th, 2022, a Permanent Voters Card Sunday (PVCS) to create more awareness on the need for all Christians of Pentecostal Churches to register and collect their PVCs in the ongoing voters registration exercise nation wide. Chairman of PFN in Rivers State, Bishop Minaibi Dagogo Jack made this known while addressing newsmen in the Port Harcourt, saying that the decision was taken at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Thursday, 16th June, 2022, in Lagos. Bishop Dagogo Jack said PFN leadership frowned at…