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Residents Of Oil-rich States Suffering Heavy Metal Poisoning — Seriake Dickson Raises Alarm

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Chairman, Senate Committee on Ecology and Climate Change, Senator Seriake Dickson, PDP, Bayelsa West has raised the alarm that many residents of the oil-rich state and the Niger Delta region are suffering from heavy metal poisoning, just as he urged state Governors to adopt urgent measures to curtail the dangerous trend.

Speaking in Abuja when the Global Initiative for Climate and Environmental Sustainance (GICES) conferred on him, an excellence in environmental leadership award 2023, the former Governor of Bayelsa State who blamed the development on the activities of the various multinational oil companies in the region, explained that the Committee he constituted as governor, then took samples of blood of residents of the oil producing areas as it was disturbing that at the end of the laboratory tests, the results showed that there were heavy metal poisoning in their bodies.

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The award was presented by Comrade Celestine Okwudili who represented Mrs Ene Obi of Action Aid at the event.

The Coalition said that the award was conferred on the Senator for his contributions and stewardship in sustaining a healthy environment while serving as Governor of Bayelsa State between 2012 and 2020.

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According to Okwudilli, the Senator during his tenure as governor, empaneled an International Commission on Oil Spills to assess environmental damages, determine responsibility, and develop a new legal framework for accountability and compensation in the area, adding that the indelible efforts made by the Senator included the constitution of an international commission on the environment chaired by Bishop, Lord Sentamu.

The report of the Commission was presented to the House of Lords after a thorough and painstaking analysis last month and was received by Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State.

The Coalition also cited Senator Dickson’s bold and proactive decision to employ 250 graduates who were trained and posted to the Ministry of Environment as forest protection officers to stem the unlawful felling of trees leading to massive deforestation in Bayelsa, states in the Niger Delta and in most states in Nigeria.

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Dickson said, “We are gathered here to remind ourselves of our collective duty and responsibility to work for a safer a more friendlier environment. The formal launch of the commission’ s report was presented in the House of Lords.

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“As Governor I got tired of the environmental degradation that I was seeing in Bayelsa on daily basis, reports, I have seen first hand of the effect on the communities, on the.livelihood of the people and indeed on the lives of the people. An international Commission of Enquiry made up of Political leaders and then also experts, scientists of no mean repute drawn from around the world. I used my powers under the Commission of enquiry of the laws of Bayelsa State to empanel then and to commission them and to do an indebt, thorough and comprehensive investigation and report. They went to communities, took samples from spilling sites, took samples, even blood samples from people in Bayelsa. You will be shocked at the findings.

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“The amount of heavy metals that the people in Bayelsa and the Niger Delta oil bearing communities are carrying. You will be shocked the heavy metals in their systems, from the air that is polluted to the water that is polluted that they drink, from the fish that is contaminated that they consumed and so on over the years. Scientific report, I wanted a scientific base, when we say it is pollution and the activities are destroying the environment, our way of life and infant detrimental to the health and wellbeing of the people, we wanted to establish a scientific base and that was what we provided.

“I want to thank members of my team, first class, Commissioners, Professors from around the world and the Lord St a member of the House of Lords, a privy Counsellor who left his work there in the church of England as number 2, next only to the archbishop of Canterbury

“They did all of that for years and presented this report. I know that government continued from where I stopped but today I want to remind Nigerians about this report. Try to get a copy of this report. Everything about the scientific details and the effect of pollution over the decades in Bayelsa and across the Nigeh Delta.

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“it will also serve as a lesson for those States that are jubilation that they are oil producing States. We welcome them to the fold, let them come and see what we have been seeing for the past site to seventy years and feel what we feel but in all this is a call to further action.

Tha you for seeing that as something worthy of commendation.”

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Dickson who drew the attention of the multinational oil firms to the development but that rather than doing something about it, they started fighting him, lamented that the situation was still reoccurring even as he urged the attention of his successor to the unfortunate situation and asked him to take action.

The Senator said, “The oil companies were not cooperating with me then. They were even fighting me but I did not mind them because I knew I was fighting a just course.”

Dickson who explained how he recruited 250 graduates to protect the environment, especially the forest resources, called on the Federal Government to pay attention to the reckless deforestation taking place across the country.

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READ ALSO: Establish Tribunal For Environmental Terrorism, Economic Crime In N’Delta — ERA

Earlier, the representative of the group Comrade Celestine Okwudili said, “His Excellency Senator Henry Seriake Dickson believes that the Environment is the collective heritage.

“So as governor to the good people of Bayelsa state, in his multi-pronged approach towards protecting and preserving the Bayelsa environment, his excellency employed over 200 forest protection officers, that were recruited into the ministry of environment.

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“The aim is to monitor deforestation and stop the reckless fallen of trees in the state.

“His excellency further took his mission and vision to a higher level, towards tackling the issues of environmental terrorism and degradation caused by oil companies in the Niger Delta region.

“These team of world leaders brought together by Senator Henry Seriake Dickson includes; The former President of Ghana, Emmanuel Kuffour, the Archbishop of York Dr. John Setanmu, as well as notable academicians to address the harrowing issues of environmental despoliation as well as related challenges in the oil industry.”

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OPINION: Children’s Day And The Scam Of Tomorrow

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By Israel Adebiyi

Once upon a time in many Nigerian homes, there was a rhythm to childhood. It echoed in the laughter of children gathered under the moonlight, listening to folktales from wise grandmothers—stories of Tortoise and the hare, morality and mischief, hard work and honesty. It echoed in warm evenings of family dinners, morning treks to school in uniforms neatly ironed, and the comfort of knowing that adults were in charge—parents, teachers, and a government that at least pretended to care. That rhythm has long faded.

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Today, the Nigerian child is born into chaos, grows up amid contradictions, and learns too early that promises mean nothing. Each May 27, we gather to recite that children are “the leaders of tomorrow,” but what we fail to admit is that this tomorrow is deliberately being sabotaged. It is not just lost; it is being stolen in broad daylight.

Let’s Begin with Education. Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world—an estimated 18.5 million. That number alone should spark a national emergency, yet it is spoken of with such casualness you’d think it were a weather forecast. Millions of children roam the streets hawking sachet water, fruits, or plastic wares when they should be in classrooms. In the North, Almajiri children continue to be abandoned in large numbers under a system that provides neither education nor security. In many Southern states, children are seen as economic props, pushed into trade or house help servitude.

Those who make it to school are not necessarily lucky. Public schools across the country are crumbling. From leaking roofs and broken chairs to the absence of toilets, blackboards, and learning aids, many Nigerian classrooms are not places of learning but sites of struggle. The curriculum remains outdated, irrelevant to modern realities, and poorly delivered. While the world is building coding academies for toddlers, we are still teaching children to cram colonial poetry and 1980s textbook diagrams.

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MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:[Opinion] From Classroom to Crisis: The Slow Death of Nigeria’s Education System

Teachers, the supposed nation-builders, are grossly underpaid and in many cases, underqualified. In some schools, a single teacher manages four to six classes. Training and capacity development are either nonexistent or political rituals. How does a child receive quality education when their teacher is themselves a victim of a broken system?

Worse still, our schools are no longer safe. With rising cases of abductions—from Chibok to Kagara to Dapchi—parents are forced to weigh the risk of education against the price of safety. This is a dilemma that should never exist in a sane society. A government that cannot secure its schools has no business sermonizing about the importance of education.

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In the health sector, Nigeria’s infant and child mortality rates remain among the highest globally. According to UNICEF, one in ten Nigerian children dies before their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable causes. Many Nigerian children still die from diarrhoea, malaria, pneumonia, and malnutrition—ailments the world conquered decades ago. Our immunization coverage is poor, especially in rural areas where vaccine hesitancy and infrastructural gaps persist.

Traditional birth attendants continue to thrive in areas where government clinics are either too far, too expensive, or simply unavailable. Expectant mothers still deliver on floors or with torchlight. Where children are born into such conditions, the cycle of vulnerability begins at birth.

Here are the unspoken scars of the Nigerian Child – Abuse and Rights Violations. The Nigerian Child Rights Act (2003) is a comprehensive legal document that affirms the rights of every Nigerian child to survival, development, protection, and participation. Yet, over 20 years later, some states have still not domesticated this law. And in states where it exists, enforcement is patchy at best.

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MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Trodding On The Winepress: All Hail The Nigerian Workers

Children suffer physical abuse, sexual exploitation, forced labour, trafficking, and emotional neglect daily. From baby factories to underage marriages to child soldiers in conflict zones, Nigeria has become a theatre of child rights violations. It is one thing to be poor. It is another to be unprotected.

When we say children are “the leaders of tomorrow,” what exactly do we mean? A child growing up amid poverty, violence, abuse, and hunger will not suddenly blossom into a competent leader because we proclaimed it. Leadership is cultivated. And cultivation requires care, systems, and consistent investment. We are not preparing children for tomorrow; we are abandoning them to survive today.

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In many homes, the idea of parenting has become largely transactional. Economic hardship has eroded family bonding. Tales by moonlight have been replaced by cartoons on phones. Parents, stressed and underpaid, often have nothing left to give emotionally. We are raising children in isolation—physically present but emotionally disconnected. The result is a generation growing up without empathy, values, or vision.

Parents and communities must take back the moral responsibility of shaping children. Government cannot parent our children for us. But government must provide the basic scaffolding—schools, clinics, protection, and justice.

In the final analysis, May 27 must stop being a day of sugar-coated statements. It must become a mirror—a day of national reflection, policy accountability, and renewed investment in our children’s future.

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The Nigerian child is not asking for luxuries. They are asking for classrooms with roofs, teachers who show up, clinics that work, and laws that protect. They are asking for the basic dignity of being raised in a country that sees them not as statistics, but as citizens. Until then, the phrase “leaders of tomorrow” remains a grand deception—a scam coated in celebration.

It is time to give children more than cake and fanfare. It is time to give them a future.

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CBN Donates Motorized Fire Caddy To Federal Fire Service In Bauchi

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Bauchi State Branch has donated a Motorised Fire Caddy to the Federal Fire Service (FFS) Headquarters, Bauchi State Command.

Speaking during the handing over of the mobile fire suppression system on Tuesday, Mr James Laburta, the CBN Bauchi Branch Controller, said the gesture was part of its corporate social responsibility.

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He commended the Federal Fire Service for its dedication toward fighting fire outbreaks in the state and reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to community safety.

According to him, the gesture underscored the importance of partnerships between government agencies and corporate institutions in safeguarding lives and property.

READ ALSO: Flood: NEMA Launches National Preparedness, Response Campaign In Bauchi

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Responding, DCF Babangida Abba, the Acting State Controller of the Federal Fire Service in the state, expressed profound gratitude toward the gesture.

He emphasised the critical role of such support in enhancing the command’s capacity to respond swiftly to fire emergencies, especially in hard-to-reach areas.

Abba noted that the donation came at a crucial time, given the recent surge in fire incidents across the state.

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While encouraging the general public to remain vigilant and proactive about fire safety, he assured that the equipment would be effectively deployed for emergency response and training.

READ ALSO: FG Renews Exploration License Of Oil In Bauchi – Minister

Also, speaking at the sideline of the event, ASF Umar Lawal, the Public Relations Officer of the Fire Service, said the equipment is used in areas where traditional fire hydrants or fixed systems are not readily available.

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This unit is typically portable and easy to maneuver, making it suitable for various locations.

“The motorised fire caddy is designed for skilled and unskilled Firefighters to use as a quick-response method for Firefighting in their early stages.

“As it beats response time to emergencies, it’s also used for institutional training reaching out to incident ground scene especially in hard-to-reach areas where our Fire truck can’t have access to the fire ground,” he said.

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75-year-old Edo Pilgrim Dies During Hajj In S’Arabia

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A 75-year-old woman from Edo State, Adizatu Dazumi, died during the 2025 Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Dazumi was from Jattu Uzairue in Etsako West Local Government Area.

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According to The PUNCH, pilgrim died on Monday at King Fahad General Hospital in Makkah after a short illness.

The Chairman of the Edo State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, Musah Uduimoh, confirmed her death on Tuesday.

READ ALSO: Hajj 2024: Nigerian Pilgrim Allegedly Commits Suicide In Saudi Arabia, Another Dies From Illness

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Uduimoh said Dazumi became ill shortly after performing Tawaaf (walking around the Kaaba) and was taken to the hospital on Sunday. She passed away the next day.

She was buried in Makkah on the same day, according to Islamic tradition, and her family in Jattu Uzairue has been informed,” Uduimoh said.

He sent his condolences to her family and assured other pilgrims that the board is committed to their health and safety.

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