Author: Treasure Chisa Achor

The Pan-Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, has said that the development of the Niger Delta should be taken beyond just setting up interventionist agencies like the NDDG, PAP and others to actually empower the people of the region to take benefits from the huge endowments of hydrocarbons under their soil. The demand for the empowerment of the people of the Niger Delta formed part the communiqué of the one-day Special Assembly of the forum that held in Port Harcourt last Thursday. A key component of the communiqué said, “The Assembly applauded the initiative of the African oil producing nations to establish…

The Federal High Court in Abuja has thrown a wrench into the financial gears of the Rivers State government, issuing a stern order to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to put a temporary halt to the monthly financial allocations flowing to the state. Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, the presiding judge, made this decision on Wednesday, just days after Governor Siminalayi Fubara presented his 2024 budget proposal to the Rivers House of Assembly. The court deemed Governor Fubara’s actions – accepting and disbursing monthly allocations since January – as a blatant violation of the constitution, a document he solemnly swore to…

The air was tension soaked as voters trickled to their various units after the dramatic events that characterized the local government electoral process. Unsure of what would be the eventual outcome, voters dared the odds and went to their polling units to cast their votes. As a concerned citizen of Nigeria and indigene of Rivers State, I took the obligation to observe the process especially in view of the legal shenanigans and efforts by the members of the major political parties to stop the process. I arrived at Ward 1, Units 1 and 2, Oro-Abali at around 10:44 a.m. Voting…