Author: styvn Obodoekwe

Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri has been widely praised for his outstanding leadership and commitment to promoting unity and peaceful coexistence in the state. Tony Nathan Ile, a former state coordinator of Save Nigeria Group and one-time senior special assistant to the governor, in a statement, hailed Governor Diri’s efforts in bringing a new era of progress and development to the state. According to Ile, Diri’s leadership has been marked by a strong commitment to unity, demonstrated by his historic appointment of opposition party members to his government. This move, Ile noted, has sent a powerful message of…

As the world marks the 2024 International Day of the Tropics, the Media Awareness and Justice Initiative, MAJI, has expressed concern over the continued devastating impacts of oil spills and carbon emissions on Nigeria’s tropical regions. The group lamented that the oil-rich Niger Delta region has been ravaged by decades of oil spills, resulting in widespread environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Addressing a media briefing to mark the 2024 Day of the Tropics, Onyekachi Okoro Emmanuel, the Executive Director of MAJI, charged the Federal Government to leverage data tools and strategies to address the environmental and climate-related challenges facing the…

The Amanyanabo of Obumitomchiri in Port Harcourt City (PHLGA) King Derrick Acheseomie has charged monarchs across the state to continue to promote and maintain peaceful co-existence among the various communities and LGAs in the state. King Acheseomie gave this charge in a chat with newsmen at his palace in Port Harcourt. According to him, every king or monarch in Rivers State must sue for peace for the development of his kingdom and the state. The King must also be a peaceful person so that peace will always remain in his kingdom. “The king can always promote peace or peaceful co-existence…

A community rights activist in Obelle community of Emohua LGA of Rivers State, Henry Eferegbo has called for a comprehensive health audit in the community to determine the comprehensive health impacts of oil pollution by Shell in the community. He made the call when an NGO, Media Awareness and Justice Initiative, MAJI, embarked on an impact assessment visit to the oil bearing and impacted community for a key informant interview. He further demanded that a health register should be opened in the community and the community health center upgraded to enable it cope with increasing health challenges emanating from the…

Bodo Community in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State has been lamenting the ordeal the people have been going through following several pollution of their lands and waters by Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited. A community rights activist in Bodo, Damian Gbogbara, lamented that the community is yet to recover from the impacts of the massive oil spillages that devastated the community and its rivers and creek in 2008. Speaking during an impact assessment interview organized recently by Media Awareness and Justice Initiative, MAJI, the community leader lamented that nearly two decades after the spillages, farming and fishing have…

On Wednesday, January 17. 2024, a Pipeline which, belongs to Nigerian AGIP Oil Company exploded and went up in flames, at Obagi in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, ONELGA of Rivers State, distributing fire into community farmlands and bushes. The magnitude of the fire and the noise associated with it, caused great panic and pandemonium in the community and forced residents to desert Obagi. Community members said they noticed the fire around 8 pm on that fateful day. The fire was accompanied by a great noise and houses were vibrating as if there was an earth tremor. “The thing was so…

Twenty eight years after the gruesome murder, by hanging of Ken Saro- Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni leaders by the military junta headed by Sani Abacha, the people of Ogoni in particular and the Niger Delta in general, are still waiting and yearning for justice. Abacha died on June 8, 1998 in mysterious circumstances. The injustices that led to the struggle championed by Saro- Wiwa, then President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP and his eventual murder still fester. The injustices manifest in form of environmental degradation, marginalization, benign neglect, deprivation, poverty in the midst…

An anti-bullying expert, Mrs Maesha Nwanne has expressed worries over high incidents at work place bullying informal sector, which mostly go unreported and unnoticed. Speaking at a training and awareness forum organized recently at Apo mini stadium, Apo resettlement centre, Abuja, by an anti-bullying organization known as Equality Development and Research Centre (EDR Centre), Mrs Nwanne, founder of the organization, lamented that employers in the informal sector often subject their workers and apprentices to all forms of subhuman conditions, which even affect their productivity, psychological wellbeing and self confidence. she noted that there is need for healthy working environment for…