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Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities Demand Inauguration Of NDDC Board

Published

2 years ago

November 15, 2021

Presidents-General of Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities (CPGNDEN) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari “to keep his promise and inaugurate a substantive board for NDDC following the submission of the forensic report, and in line with the law establishing the agency,” noting that the Niger Delta was in dire need of development which the absence of the board has so far stalled.

In a communique issued after its meeting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on Saturday, November 13, 2021, and which was read by its President, Professor Benjamin Okaba, CPGNDEN also contended that the running of the NDDC by a sole administrator was contrary to the law establishing the commission.

CPGNDEN membership cuts across Isoko Development Union; Urhobo Progressive Union; Oron Nationality; Ndokwa Nation; Itsekiri Nation; Ogoni Nation; and Ijaw National Congress, amongst others.

Recall that, in tandem with the demands of stakeholders across the Niger Delta region, the pan Ijaw group, Ijaw National Congress (INC), in a statement in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on Saturday, November 6, 2021, entitled “Evil Against The Niger Delta: Enough Is Enough, Mr President” had also warned that the “continued delay of the inauguration of a substantive board for the NDDC is an inexplicable aberration that defies logical reasoning and is infuriating the region.”

In fact the Ijaw National Congress (INC) had earlier cautioned in a statement issued on September 10, 2021 that “any further delay in the inauguration of the NDDC board is a clear betrayal of trust and display of State insensitivity on ljaw nation and Niger Delta region.”

This followed President Buhari’s promise to the nation on the 24th day of June 2021, while receiving the Ijaw National Congress (INC) at the State House in Abuja that the NDDC Board would be inaugurated as soon as the forensic audit report is submitted and accepted.

The President said: ‘‘Based on the mismanagement that had previously bedeviled the NDDC, a forensic audit was set up and the result is expected by the end of July, 2021. I want to assure you that as soon as the forensic audit report is submitted and accepted, the NDDC Board will be inaugurated.”

According to The Conference of Presidents-General of Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities (CPGNDEN), the timely intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari would douse the growing tension in the region.

CPGNDEN also kicked against moves to include Bauchi, Ogun and Lagos as new oil-producing states in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

A bill seeking an amendment to the NDDC Act for the inclusion of the three states and future oil-producing states in the commission, sponsored by Senator Solomon Adeola of Lagos West, passed second reading at the Senate last week Wednesday.

The group described the bill as a calculated attempt to smuggle the affected states into the commission. The President of CPGNDEN, Professor Benjamin Okaba, said the entire exercise was aimed at distorting the Niger Delta as a geographical area.

Okaba said, “Our attention has also been drawn at the deliberate attempt to smuggle into the NDDC Act some non-contiguous states that defy the geographical definition of the Niger Delta as a geographical zone. This is totally condemnable and we state categorically that such states should be described as oil-producing and made to enjoy just 13 per cent derivation.”

According to CPGNDEN “The NDDC is meant to serve the development expectations of the people of the Niger Delta as an interventionist agency based on the age-long deprivation and environmental degradation, which is part of the recommendations of the Willinks Commission Report (of 1958).”

Present at the meeting were Professor Chris Akpotu (Isoko Development Union), A. A. Onoharigho (Urhobo Progressive Union), Ante Ita (Oron Nationality), Brig. Gen. Mike Ndubisi (rtd) (Ndokwa Nation), Edward Ekpoko (Itsekiri Nation) and Young Kigbara (Ogoni Representative), among others.

(VANGUARD)

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VIDEO: First Female Transgender Mosque Opens In Bangladesh

Published

9 hours ago

April 22, 2024

Editor

The world’s first female transgender mosque has reportedly opened in Bangladesh.

In the video shared by DW, some of the worshippers who transitioned from being males to females were seen observing the Muslim prayers.

It was further gathered that the land where the mosque was built, was donated by the government. The transgender Muslims expressed excitement over the development, adding that they are happy they will live and be buried like every other person.

Watch the video below…

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US Man Bags Multiple Deaths Sentence After Paying Mother $2,500 To Rape 5-year-old Daugher[PHOTOS]

Published

10 hours ago

April 22, 2024

Editor

…mother faces 20 years prison for child trafficking

A Georgia man, Jeremy Williams, has been given four death sentences for paying a mother, Kristen Siple, $2,500 to rape her 5-year-old daughter, Kamarie Holland, before murdering the child.

The horrific details of the case sparked widespread outrage.

The emotional trial saw jurors reportedly shed tears upon viewing videos of Williams’ actions.

Williams was convicted of paying Kristen Siple $2,500 to rape and sodomize her daughter.

He filmed the sexual assault and then killed little Kamarie Holland.

On Dec. 13, 2021, the girl was snatched from her Columbus, Georgia home.

Williams took her to an abandoned ramshackle home where he once lived across the state line in Phenix City, Alabama, and raped, tortured and strangled the child to death.

Siple initially claimed she woke up that day to discover her daughter missing and the front door open.

However, last month, she confessed to selling her daughter to Williams for an hour to sate his sickening desires.

The mum now faces 20 years in prison for sex trafficking.

“If there’s ever been somebody that’s deserving of the death penalty, it’s Jeremy Williams,” Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor told reporters.

“He’s another type of evil that we in society just don’t need walking around.”

According to reports, at points during the trial, jurors were sobbing as they watched bodycam footage of cops finding Kamarie’s body in the filthy basement.

They also had to endure videos of the little girl being raped.

Williams is a serial child abuser. He is also a suspect in the brutal murder of an Alabama toddler.

In 2009, he was acquitted of lowering a little boy, aged three, into a bowl of boiling water.

His ex-wife called him a “soulless” man who was “no longer worth her tears.”.

A woman who was four when she was raped by Williams called him a “monster.”

As the child killer heard the four death sentences pronounced, he was utterly without emotion.

“You don’t deserve life yourself,” Kamarie’s father, Corey Holland, told him at the sentencing. “We don’t have Kamarie and you don’t deserve to see your kids or life.”

The little girl’s sister added: “I don’t understand why someone would hurt her – she was so sweet and caring.”

Williams was also sentenced to life for the production of obscene material of a child and human trafficking, 20 years for conspiracy of human trafficking, and 10 years for abuse of a corpse.

“There’s no reason that baby should be in the ground. I want to remember her, not this joker. Jeremy is not somebody I want to remember in life,” DA Rick Chancey said.

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Nigeria Set To Receive Fresh $2.2bn World Bank Loan – Edun

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2024

Editor

The Federal Government is set to receive around $2.2 billion single-digit interest loan from the World bank and another budget support facility from the African Development Bank.

Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, disclosed this during a press briefing at the end of Nigeria’s activities at the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Spring meeting in Washington DC, the United States on Saturday.

Speaking on the sources of international funding to the Nigerian economy, Edun listed diaspora remittances, foreign portfolio investments, and facilities from the World Bank and other international development partners.

He stated, “We have qualified for the processing just this week to the Board of Directors of the World bank of a total package of $2.25 billion of what you can call ‘the closest you can get to a free lunch’- virtually a grant. It’s for about 10- 20 years moratorium and about 1% interest.

“In addition, there is a similar budgetary support – low-interest funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and, clearly, there are ongoing discussions with foreign direct investors across many sectors.”

Edun also tapped issuing dollar-denominated securities specifically targeted at Nigerians in the diaspora and those with foreign-denominated savings in Nigeria as another measure to attract forex inflows into the country.

He further highlighted the efforts of the fiscal side of the economy in complimenting the recent monetary policy reforms by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

According to the minister, the issuing of government securities at an interest rate closer to the CBN’s monetary policy rate is an indication of the collaboration between both sides of the economy in tackling inflation in the country and attracting forex inflows.
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