Author: nationalpoint

Delta State Executive Council, (EXCO), meeting presided over by Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, on Wednesday, approved a proposed budget of N714.4 billion for the 2024 fiscal year. The Commissioner for Economic Planning, Mr Sonny Ekedayen, who disclosed this at a post EXCO press briefing at Government House, Asaba, said the proposed budget comprised N397 billion, representing 56 percent for Capital Expenditure, while N316 billion, representing 44 percent, is for recurrent expenditure. Ekadeyan, who was flanked by Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Sir Festus Ahon, said the 2024 proposed budget was premised on an exchange rate of N750 per dollar. According…

The Federal Government has commenced work on the reconstruction of the 18-km Eleme Junction – Trailer Park section of the East-West Road in Rivers State, barely two weeks after the minister of Works, Dave Umahi, visited the site. Umahi had promised that work on the project would soon commence but many stakeholders had doubted him because of past promises by the Federal Government to reconstruct the road failed. The minister had said at the inspection of a mobilization site near Eleme Junction, when he visited the state, that the sum of N33billion has been released for the project. Last week…

Rivers State commissioner for Health, Dr. Adaeze Chioma Oreh, has told relevant stakeholders that her door and ears are open, and that she is ready to take on suggestions that would make all work together for progress in the state. The Health commissioner made the pronouncement while speaking as the special guest of honour at the Connected Development, CODE/Ford Foundation One-Day Close-Out Meeting held at Visa Karina Hotel, Port Harcourt, on Friday September 29, 2023, which had in attendance, stakeholders comprising of traditional rulers, community development committee leaders, CDCs, drawn from various communities and local government areas in Rivers State…

The recent oil spillage from Shell Petroleum Development Company’s facility in Bodo, an Ogoni community in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State has ignited resource conflict among cult groups which has consumed two community members in a strange scramble for anticipated site-entry money from the oil company. For a community that was grieving over the loss of their crops and sources of livelihood as a result of the oil spillage, the killing of community members amounts to double tragedy. National Point gathered that on Friday 18 August, 2023, crude oil was spewed into the environment from Shell’s Trans Niger…

Prof. Obari Gomba, an English and Literary Studies lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt, Henry Akubuiro, a journalist and Abideen Ojomu, an engineer have emerged as the last three finalists for the 2023 Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) Prize for literature. The three emerged after judges considered their plays, Grit (Gomba), Yamtarawala, the Warrior King (Akubuiro), and The Ojuelegba Crossroads (Ojomu) the best out of the 11 that earlier emerged on the long list. The winner will take home a handsome prize of $100,000 (N90 million). The three playwrights were hosted to a reception in Port Harcourt last…

The Rivers State High Court has delivered Judgment in a Suit instituted by four sisters against their brothers for excluding them in the sharing of their late father’s property. The four sisters, Chinyere Abel, Perpetual Abel, Bethel Abel and Josephine Abel have dragged their three brothers to court for discriminating against them in the inheritance of their father’s estate. The claimants asked the court to interpret some sections of the 1999 constitution as amended and the Rivers State Prohibition of the Curtailment of Women’s Right to share in Family Property Law No.2 of 2022. In a Judgment delivered on Wednesday,…

As a public figure of several decades standing, my antecedents are widely known. Nevertheless, it has become necessary to restate who I am and correct some misleading information made about my person. My name is Florence Mayen Ita-Giwa (Asibong Ita, was also my maiden native Efik name). I was born on the 19th of February 1946. Although I do not have a birth certificate, I have an age declaration document sworn to by my late mother, which I have used all my life. My mother almost died of post-partum haemorrhage during my birth at the hospital; a situation which was…

For most of the third quarter of 2023, the attention of the world was focused on political developments in sub-Saharan Africa, where military officers toppled democratically elected governments in some countries. Unlike in previous cases in the region, where military coups were roundly condemned and efforts made to get the usurpers to give up power or follow a transition to return the countries to democratic rule, the coup in Niger Republic took a totally different dimension. While most of the West, particularly France and the United States, condemned the coup and called for military action to restore the ousted democratic…

Guinea’s military leader Mamady Doumbouya told the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday that the Western model of democracy does not work for Africa, as evidenced by a recent wave of coups. “Africa is suffering from a governance model that has been imposed on it… a model that is good and effective for the West but is difficult to adapt to our realities, our customs and environment,” he told world leaders gathered in New York. “It is time to stop lecturing us and stop treating us with condescension like children,” he said, adding that Africans were mature enough to design their…

As pressure mounts on the West to cut down dependence on fossil fuel and embrace cleaner green energy sources, many hydrogen filling stations are expected soon in Europe with their eyes on supply from developing countries. Cashing in on this, Morocco is planning a 5,600km hydrogen pipeline from Nigeria, passing through 11 West African states. The project will run parallel to a previously mapped out natural-gas pipe, with export to Europe in mind. The information is published in an international journal, Hydrogeninsight.com dated September 21. The project is expected to cut through Benue-Niger Triple Junction, Igarra pre Cambrian basement complex…