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Okowa Tasks FG On Rising Cost Of Cooking Gas

Published

4 years ago

November 22, 2021

File copy: Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa

Delta State governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, has called on the Federal Government and relevant policy makers to initiate steps towards reducing the rising cost of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the country.

The governor made the call at a two-day LPG sensitisation and awareness campaign organised by the National LPG Expansion Implementation Plan, Office of the Vice President in conjunction with the State Government on Monday in Asaba.

He said that the theme of the campaign “Stimulating Delta State Socioeconomic Growth Through LPG Adoption And Expansion” was apt as the world moved towards greener sources of energy.

This, according to him, is because of the adverse effects of fossil fuel on the environment.

Okowa, represented by his Chief Economic Adviser, Dr Kingsley Emu, said stakeholders must work to reduce the rising cost of LPG if the objective of the National LPG Expansion plan was to be realised.

He thanked the Office of the Vice President for choosing Delta as one of the pilot states for the public enlightenment campaign.

“Just recently, world leaders gathered in Glasgow, Ireland, in a Summit (COP-26) to discuss the adverse effects of climate change occasioned by the use of fossil fuels and the need to move towards cleaner energy.

“This makes the adoption of LPG as a transition fuel to greener sources exigent, and Delta State is keen to play a vital role in this process and will give this awareness programme maximum support,” he said.

Okowa said that Delta was home to 40 per cent of the nation’s natural gas endowments, hence a large number of oil and gas companies operate in the state.

He said that there were prospects for the establishment of gas processing plants and gas-related industries in the state.

This, the governor said, had implications for employment generation, inclusive economic growth and sustainable development.

“However, as we adopt LPG as the fuel to drive the socio-economic activities of the economy, we must acknowledge a big challenge currently confronting the populace, the issue of high price of LPG in the market.

“At the rate the price is skyrocketing, LPG is gradually getting out of the reach of the middle class and common man.

“The price increase has been linked to several factors including the VAT re-introduction, devaluation of the naira and large importation of LPG vis-a-vis low production locally.

“It is imperative that policy makers find a way to mitigate this upward trend in the price of LPG to give succour to our people, and if the goal of the LPG expansion plan is to be realised,” he said.

Okowa was unhappy with the continuous flaring of gas by most oil and gas companies and urged them to expand their production facility to include the capacity to convert gas to LPG for use.

He said that this was because of the untapped potential in the LPG market.

The governor called on investors to come into the oil and gas sector and improve the availability of LPG in the market.

He that his administration had carried out significant reforms to create investor-friendly climate in the state, including tax harmonisation, easy access to land and dispute resolution mechanisms to handle conflicts when they arise.

“As we embrace the use of LPG in every sector of our economy as the source of energy, safety concerns become paramount.

“We cannot forget in a hurry the gas explosion incident at Agbor in January this year, which, sadly, claimed many lives.

“As a government, we have put mechanisms in place to avert similar occurrences and that includes the setting up of a committee to advise the government on guidelines for the establishment of gas plants in the state,” the governor said.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on LPG, Mr Dayo Adesina, said Delta State was strategic to the National LPG Expansion plan in view of its contributions to oil and gas development in the country.

He said the Federal Government would procure 10 million gas cylinders and give to marketers for onward distribution to end users which would be exchanged from various homes.

Adesina said there was no reason why anyone should use firewood, kerosene and charcoal for cooking especially when the country was blessed with abundance of gas.

He commended Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa for setting up four training centres for manufacturing of low emission stove in the state.

Earlier in a welcome address, the State Commissioner for Oil and Gas, Prince Emmanuel Amgbaduba, said the objective of the sensitisation was to display the economic and sustainability plan for adopting LPG for domestic use, power generation, agriculture and transportation amongst others.

He said that the adoption of LPG for clean cooking would mitigate against deforestation, reduce depletion of the ozone layer and boost revenue generation in the state.

The commissioner commended Okowa for approving an Annual Sensitisation Campaign on Safety for LPG Retailers in the State, with the maiden edition held in 2020.

“By this new vista, oil companies are encouraged to diversify by transforming waste to wealth in place of flaring gas.

“As the State gets set to embrace the new frontiers that this programme intends to unveil, government is not unmindful of the associated safety hazards especially when not handled appropriately.

“With the establishment of Department of Monitoring and Compliance in the ministry, all hands must be on deck to institute best global practices at keeping every resident of the State safe as we reiterate our resolve to adopt LPG as a transition fuel in the journey towards greener energy,” Amgbaduba said.

On his part, Chairman, Isoko South Local Government Council, Mr Victor Asasa, called for the establishment of gas turbine power plant in Irri to be powered from the gas being flared in the area.

The event featured paper presentations from stakeholders in the oil and gas sector as well as exhibition of locally produced low emission stoves.

(NAN/VANGUARD)

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Headline

Militia Attack On DRC IDP Camp, Kills 10, Mostly Women, Children

Published

9 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

An armed group at the centre of a long-running ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeast attacked a camp for displaced people on Friday, killing 10, local sources told AFP.

Bordering Uganda, Ituri province has for years been the scene of pitched battles between the Lendu, a group mainly made up of settled farmers, and the Hema people, typically nomadic herders.

The fighting has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and the mass displacement of many more.

Friday’s assault on the Djangi displaced persons camp was carried out by the self-proclaimed Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco), a Lendu-aligned militia responsible for previous civilian massacres, the camp’s head told AFP.

“They were many and armed with firearms and machetes. They surprised us, they killed 10 displaced people, most of them women and children,” said Richard Likana.

An employee of the Red Cross, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed the attack, which took place around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Bunia.

“They were cut up with machetes while others were shot,” the humanitarian worker added.

Congolese army Colonel Ruffin Mapela, the local administrator for Djugu territory where the camp is located, gave the same toll of 10 dead and put the number of injured at 15.

According to local and humanitarian sources, Codeco was responsible for an attack on February 10 which killed 51 people in Ituri province. Most of the victims were also displaced persons.

That raid was said to be a response to a strike by the rival Hema-led Zaire militia in the same area.

Violence between the Hema and Lendu killed thousands in gold-rich Ituri from 1999-2003, which only ended after European forces intervened.

The conflict erupted again in 2017, killing thousands more.

The violence has led to more than 1.5 million people leaving their homes, according to the UN.

AFP

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Israel Wants Global Action Against Iran’s Nuclear Plans

Published

9 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

Israel’s foreign minister said on Friday that the world was obliged to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb, days after Israel claimed it had “thwarted Iran’s nuclear project” in a 12-day war.

“Israel acted at the last possible moment against an imminent threat to itself, the region, and the international community,” Gideon Saar wrote on X.

“The international community must now prevent, by any effective means, the world’s most extreme regime from obtaining the most dangerous weapon.”

Israel and Iran each claimed victory in the war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.

The conflict erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign, stating it aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—an ambition Iran has consistently denied.

Following waves of Israeli attacks on nuclear and military sites, the United States bombed three key facilities, with President Donald Trump insisting it had set Iran’s nuclear programme back by “decades”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the nation after the ceasefire, announced that “we have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project”.

However, there is no consensus as to how effective the strikes were.
On Friday, Iran rejected a request by UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi to visit the bombed facilities, saying it suggested “malign intent”.

The comments from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came after parliament approved a bill suspending cooperation with the UN watchdog.

In a post on X following the move, Saar said Iran “continues to mislead the international community and actively works to prevent effective oversight of its nuclear programme”.

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We Would Have Killed Iran’s Supreme Leader If Given Opportunity – Israel

Published

13 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

Defence Minister Israel Katz told media that Israel would have killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the war between the two countries if the opportunity had presented itself.

“If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,” Katz told Israel’s public radio station Kan Thursday evening, adding that the military had “searched a lot”.

“Khamenei understood this, went very deep underground, broke off contact with the commanders… so in the end it wasn’t realistic,” Katz told Kan.

He told Israeli television Channel 13 Thursday that Israel would cease its assassination attempts because “there is a difference between before the ceasefire and after the ceasefire”.

Katz had said during the war that Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist”, just days after reports that Washington vetoed Israeli plans to assassinate him.

But on Kan, Katz advised Khamenei to remain inside a bunker.

“He should learn from the late Nasrallah, who sat for a long time deep in the bunker”, he said, referring to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who Israel killed in a Beirut air strike in September 2024.

The movements of the supreme leader, who has not left Iran since he took power, are subject to the tightest security and secrecy.

Katz said Thursday that Israel maintained its aerial superiority over Iran and that it was ready to strike again.

“We won’t let Iran develop nuclear weapons and threaten (Israel) with long-range missiles”, he said.

In his Channel 12 interview, Katz admitted that Israel does not know the location of all of Iran’s enriched uranium, but that its air strikes had destroyed the Islamic republic’s uranium enrichment capabilities.

“The material itself was not something that was supposed to be neutralised,” he said of the enriched uranium.

The impact of Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme has been a subject to debate.

A leaked US intelligence assessment estimated the programme to have set Iran back a few months, while Katz and other Israeli and US public figures said the damage would take years to rebuild.

Israel and Iran each claimed victory in a 12-day war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.

The war erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign that it said aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon — an ambition Iran has consistently denied.