Headline

Crisis Brews As Oil Is Discovered In Delta Community

Published

4 years ago

October 6, 2021

A crisis is currently brewing after oil was discovered in Evue/Igbighogho bushes in Oviri-Olomu Community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State.

DAILY POST learnt that five families including Edariese Efedjamah, Irevwiruemu, George Akanuota, Onakota and Ashe families are claiming ownership of the said land.

Four out of the five families, at a press conference held in Udu Local Government Area, said only the five families should be paid compensations and allowed to enjoy the benefits accruable from the land.

They added that only the five families should be entitled to contract awards, employments, Christmas gifts, scholarships and job slots taking place in the land.

While noting that 60 per cent of royalties should be paid to the families, and 40 per cent to the community, the four families said some persons who claimed to be leaders of the community included additional four family names to the already existing five families who originally own the land.

They accused the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, of failure, neglect and refusal to carry them along in the negotiations that led to the acquisition of the land as well as assessment of the project as regards the quantum of compensation payable to them before moving to the land for drilling purposes.

They warned that if caution is not exercised by the NPDC, their actions may lead to a serious crisis in the community.

Speaking on behalf of the Edariese Family, Comrade (Elder) A.P. Edariese said the five families mentioned above owned the land and not nine as forwarded to NPDC by some faceless persons.

He said the five families have been grossly denied their rights to fair compensation for their properties destroyed on the land and totally denied all payments for loss of use of the land as well as their rights to be paid anything under the freedom to operate both at the time of preparation for drilling and now that the company has moved into the land for drilling purposes by NPDC.

While noting that the land is not owned by the Oviri-Olomu Community, Edariese said individuals and families owned the lands.

He said NPDC respects the five families for decency, reasonable fairness and justice allow peace to reign supreme if they want to do business in the land.

Edariese stressed that NPDC imported strange names who have no mandate to lead or represent the community for negotiations against the cries of the five families.

“They refused to hearken to these long calls and cries.

“NPDC is hereby placed on caution, Solemnly advised and warned never to do anything with Chief John Ewenede and his cohorts,” he said.

He said Chief Ewenede and others do not have the mandate of the community to represent the four families in the acquisition of their land by NPDC for the new oil location that’s being developed.

The fallout he said is that one Chief Friday Akporere and other individuals including, Francis Everhe, Pastor David Okoro, Paulina Olosa Orishe sat with NPDC, negotiated the quantum of compensation to be paid to landowners at a meeting.

He said NPDC official land department and consultants, ESV Baridi Baridoma, doing business in the name and style of Baridi Baridoma Consulting, conspired together and inserted four strange names on the location site.

The consultant, NPDC officials, and others were said to have shared the money provided for compensation.

Edariese noted that he and three others were allegedly held hostages at Wellington Hotel in Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area by an NPDC consultant.

He said he was forced to collect the sum of N1.5 million on behalf of his family by the consultant.

According to him, “he threatened that I love myself, I should collect the money. That if the Lords in Oviri-Olomu Community knows he is dealing with me, he will be in trouble. I should accept the money. I accepted the money under duress. I had to sign the cheque. He said my family was fortunate because we got the larger sum and others got peanuts.”

Mr. Shedrack Akanuota, a representative of the George Akanuota family, corroborated the claims of Edariese saying, only five families owned the land wherein NPDC is currently carrying out drilling works at the moment and not nine as it was mentioned and forwarded to them by some faceless persons.

He said, “They have really sidelined us yet, operation is going on in this land. I don’t know on whose permission NPDC has gone to carry out their operation.

” So, if they have negotiated with any group of persons before, they should know that they have negotiated with the wrong persons. NPDC needs to correct it now.”

He said NPDC should know that some of the transactions may lead to a crisis in communities where oil is located.

According to him, “NPDC should be cautious of themselves if they are going into communities for transactions to avoid any loss of lives and properties.

“I want NPDC to take note that they have transacted wrong businesses with wrong persons. They need to correct it.”

Mr. David Irhoremu, a representative of the Irhoremu family, one of the families that claimed ownership of the land insisted that only five families owned the land wherein NPDC operates.

He said NPDC does not know the landlords they are dealing with. “They’re dealing with masquerades. Persons who parade themselves to be representative of the community.”

Irhoremu said NPDC is working contrary to the constitution of the Oviri-Olomu Community. “They’re operating outside the constitution. We want to advise NPDC to retrace their steps so that there will be no bloodshed, there will be no court matters.”

Irhiremu said nobody will down with his/hers folded, eyes closed and watched their Godgiven heritage carted away from them by hoodlums.

“We are not against NPDC operating in our land. It is a welcome development that oil is being discovered in our land. But they should follow due process. They should come back to the landlords, there should be an MoU so that there will be peace in the land in the community.”

Present at the press conference were, Comrade (Elder) A P. Edariese, Paul Edariese,Edariese Pius Edariese of Edariese family, David Irhoremu from Irhoremu family, Obakpororo Ashe with Kingsley Ashe, grandchildren of the Ashe family and Shedrack Akanuota from the George Akanuota family in Oviri-Olomu Community in Ughelli South Local Government Area.

Efforts to speak with NPDC were unsuccessful at the time of writing this report.

(DAILY POST)

Headline

South Korea, Japan Protest China, Russia Aircraft Incursions

Published

2 days ago

December 10, 2025

Editor

South Korea and Japan reacted furiously on Wednesday after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols around the two countries, with both Seoul and Tokyo scrambling jets.

South Korea said it had protested with representatives of China and Russia, while Japan said it had conveyed its “serious concerns” over national security.

According to Tokyo, two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers on Tuesday flew from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country.

The incident comes as Japan is locked in a dispute with China over comments Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made about Taiwan.

The bombers’ joint flights were “clearly intended as a show of force against our nation, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi wrote on X Wednesday.

Top government spokesman Minoru Kihara said that Tokyo had “conveyed to both China and Russia our serious concerns over our national security through diplomatic channels”.

Seoul said Tuesday the Russian and Chinese warplanes entered its air defence zone and that a complaint had been lodged with the defence attaches of both countries in the South Korean capital.

“Our military will continue to respond actively to the activities of neighbouring countries’ aircraft within the KADIZ in compliance with international law,” said Lee Kwang-suk, director general of the International Policy Bureau at Seoul’s defence ministry, referring to the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone.

South Korea also said it deployed “fighter jets to take tactical measures in preparation for any contingencies” in response to the Chinese and Russian incursion into the KADIZ.

The planes were spotted before they entered the air defence identification zone, defined as a broader area in which countries police aircraft for security reasons but which does not constitute their airspace.

Japan’s defence ministry also scrambled fighter jets to intercept the warplanes.

Beijing later Tuesday confirmed it had organised drills with Russia’s military according to “annual cooperation plans”.

Moscow also described it as a routine exercise, saying it lasted eight hours and that some foreign fighter jets followed the Russian and Chinese aircraft.

Since 2019, China and Russia have regularly flown military aircraft into South Korea’s air defence zone without prior notice, citing joint exercises.

In November last year, Seoul scrambled jets as five Chinese and six Russian military planes flew through its air defence zone.

Similar incidents occurred in June and December 2023, and in May and November 2022.

Meanwhile, Tokyo said Monday it had scrambled jets in response to repeated takeoff and landing exercises involving fighter jets and military helicopters from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier as it cruised in international waters near Japan.

It also summoned Beijing’s ambassador after military aircraft from the Liaoning locked radar onto Japanese jets, the latest incident in the row ignited by Takaichi’s comments backing Taiwan.

Takaichi suggested last month that Japan would intervene militarily in any Chinese attack on the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own and has not ruled out seizing by force.

AFP

Headline

Thousands Reported To Have Fled DR Congo Fighting As M23 Closes On Key City

Published

3 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

Fierce fighting rocked the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday as the Rwanda-backed M23 militia rapidly advanced towards the strategic city of Uvira, with tens of thousands of people fleeing over the nearby border into Burundi, sources said.

The armed group and its Rwandan allies were just a few kilometres (miles) north of Uvira, security and military sources told AFP.

The renewed violence undermined a peace agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump that Kinshasa and Kigali signed less than a week ago, on December 4.

Trump had boasted that the Rwanda-DRC conflict was one of eight he has ended since returning to power in America in January.

With the new fighting, more than 30,000 people have fled the area around Uvira for Burundi in the space of a week, a UN source and a Burundian administrative source told AFP.

The Burundian source told AFP on condition of anonymity he had recorded more than 8,000 daily arrivals over the past two days, and 30,000 arrivals in one week. A source in the UN refugee agency confirmed the figure.

The Rwanda-backed M23 offensive comes nearly a year after the group seized control of Goma and Bukavu, the two largest cities in eastern DRC, a strategic region rich in natural resources and plagued by conflict for 30 years.

Local people described a state of growing panic as bombardments struck the hills above Uvira, a city of several hundred thousand residents.

“Three bombs have just exploded in the hills. It’s every man for himself,” said one resident reached by telephone.

“We are all under the beds in Uvira — that’s the reality,” another resident said, while a representative of civil society who would not give their name described fighting on the city’s outskirts.

Fighting was also reported in Runingo, another small locality some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Uvira, as the M23 and the Rwandan army closed in.

Burundi views the prospect of Uvira falling to Rwanda-backed forces as an existential threat, given that it sits across Lake Tanganyika from Burundi’s economic capital Bujumbura.

The city is the main sizeable locality in the area yet to fall to the M23 and its capture would essentially cut off the zone from DRC control.

Burundi deployed about 10,000 soldiers to eastern DRC in October 2023 as part of a military cooperation agreement, and security sources say reinforcements have since taken that presence to around 18,000 men.

The M23 and Rwandan forces launched their Uvira offensive on December 1.

Rich in natural resources, eastern DRC has been choked by successive conflicts for around three decades.

Violence in the region intensified early this year when M23 fighters seized the key eastern city of Goma in January, followed by Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, a few weeks later.

– Regional risk –

The peace deal meant to quell the fighting was signed last Thursday in Washington by Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, with Trump — who called it a “miracle” deal — also putting his signature to it.

The agreement includes an economic component intended to secure US supplies of critical minerals present in the region, as America seeks to challenge China’s dominance in the sector.

But even on the day of the signing, intense fighting took place in South Kivu, where Uvira is located, which included the bombing of houses and schools.

Witnesses and military sources in Uvira said that Congolese soldiers fleeing the fighting had arrived in the city overnight Monday and shops were looted at dawn.

Several hundred Congolese and Burundian soldiers had already fled to Burundi on Monday, according to military sources, since the M23 fighters embarked on their latest offensive from Kamanyola, some 70 kilometres north of Uvira.
Since the M23’s lightning offensive early this year, the front had largely stabilised over the past nine months.

Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye warned in February there was a danger of the conflict escalating into a broader regional war, a fear echoed by the United Nations.

Headline

‘Santa Claus’ Arrested For Possessing, Distributing Child Sexual Abuse Material

Published

3 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

A 64-year-old man from Hamilton Township has been arrested in the United States after investigators linked him to the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material.

The suspect, identified as Mark Paulino, had been working as a “Santa for hire” at holiday events, a role that placed him in repeated contact with children.

Mercer County officials said the investigation began on 4 December when detectives were alerted to suspicious online activity involving the uploading of child pornography from a residence in Hamilton Township. The probe quickly identified Paulino, a retired elementary school teacher, as the person involved.

Police stated that Paulino had presented himself online as a retired teacher and had recently performed as Santa Claus for photographs and private, corporate, and organisational events. “Because this role involved direct, repeated contact with children, detectives worked around the clock to secure a search warrant,” authorities explained.

The warrant was executed on 5 December, during which police seized multiple items regarded as evidentiary. Paulino was taken into custody without incident and charged with possession and distribution of child sexual abuse materials, as well as endangering the welfare of a child.

Prosecutors have filed a motion to detain him pending trial. The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have urged members of the public with relevant information to come forward.