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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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READ ALSO: Buhari Was Servicing Debt With 96% Nation’s Income – Oshiomhole

“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.

“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.

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“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.

READ ALSO: Patience Jonathan Visits First Lady, Pledges Support

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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.”

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.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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“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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Why We Expanded Presidential Amnesty Scholarship Scheme — Otuaro

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Otuaro (middle) in a group photograph with the PAP foreign scholarship students in the United Kingdom after an interactive session in London on Saturday, 25 October, 2025.

The Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Dr Dennis Otuaro, has expressed his unwavering commitment to ensuring that more indigent students and communities of the Niger Delta benefit from the PAP scholarship scheme.

He stated this while explaining what informed his decision to expand the scheme and increase formal education opportunities for poor students, and to build a huge manpower base in the region.

A statement issued by Mr Igoniko Oduma, Special Assistant on Media to the PAP boss said Otuaro spoke during an interactive session in London on Saturday with the beneficiaries of the scholarship initiative deployed for undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in universities across the United Kingdom.

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The engagement, which was at the instance of the PAP boss, provided an opportunity for the Office and the scholarship students to discuss issues pertaining to their welfare and challenges with a view to addressing them.

READ ALSO:PAP Seeks NCC Partnership On Beneficiaries’ Empowerment

Otuaro said that while in-country scholarship deployment was 3800 in the 2024/2025 academic year, the figure increased to 3900 in the 2025/2026 and foreign scholarships were about 200.

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He attributed the increase in deployment to the massive support of President Bola Tinubu and the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Otuaro stressed that he was greatly encouraged by the President and the NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and that he knows how impressed both of them are concerning the PAP initiatives, which align with the Renewed Hope Agenda.

He reiterated his call on the students to justify the huge investment in their education by the Federal Government by studying hard to make good grades.

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He also urged them to conduct themselves and be responsible ambassadors of Nigeria while in the U.K, stressing that “you will be adding value to your families and communities when you complete your programmes successfully.”

READ ALSO:UK High Commissioner Concludes Anambra Visit, Urges Transparent Election

The PAP helmsman said, “We want the scholarship programme to impact more students and communities in the Niger Delta. That’s why we have expanded it and increased formal education opportunities.

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“We want you to take this opportunity very seriously so that the government, too, will be encouraged. I know how much support His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu GCFR, gives to the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

“Mr President and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, are very impressed with what we are doing. On your behalf I would like to, once again , thank His Excellency and the NSA for giving you this life-changing opportunity. We are confident that Mr President and the NSA will continue to support us.

“The knowledge you are receiving in your institutions today is to enable you plan yourself and prepare for the future. Whatever knowledge you gain cannot be taken from you.

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“So as PAP scholarship students, we expect responsible and good behaviour from you. Government is investing heavily in you and you have the obligation to justify the investment. Be agents of change and avoid acts of mischief while in the U.K.”

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OPINION: A ‘Crazy’ African Nation, Where Citizens Eat And Drink Football

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By Tony Erha

It was in October, a semi-summer-month and twilight of the year that ushers in the chilling and extreme winter. A nonagenarian woman gave me a friendly smile that revealed cheeky dimples. As I bowed respectfully to her ripened age, she offered a leathery hand for a handshake, which I received warmly, returning her infectious smile. For a youth who prays for longevity shouldn’t deprive the elderly of the walking stick. I had helped her, carrying a furred handbag to our seats on a night-long intercity bus, from Istanbul to Ankara, in Turkey, the Balkan nation, where we stopped over, in year 2004.

She spoke Turkish rapidly, whilst I retorted in a passable and incoherent Turkish language that ‘I don’t speak the official language of the only country of the world that is located on two continents; Europe and Asia. “You American?” She asked in English. It was obvious that my jeans, necklace and a fez cap that I upturned, in the manner of the Yankees, might have portrayed me as one. “No. I am a Nigerian”, I said, dragging the words. “You Nee-jay-rian!” she exclaimed, whilst I nodded confidently. Then she was elated; “Okocha Jay-Jay!” She spoke to others in the bus that clapped and hailed. I wondered why a 91 years-old-woman, was so passionate about football and one of its heroes, as if she was a youth.

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At her request, an old video of a football match showed the mesmerising display of Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, viewed on a television set affixed to the bus. There were instantaneous excitement and catcalls each time Okocha, the great football ‘talisman’ from Nigeria, did his ball flips and dribble-runs that displaced his opponents, earning him one of the few (if not the greatest) football entertainers in football’s history. It was as if the video tape, recorded in his notable plays in Besiktas, a Turkish club side, was a live match. So great was Okocha’s global fame that the old woman relived again; “Jay Jay Okocha is a dangerous footballer, who’s full of tricks on the field of play. The only trick he didn’t do with the ball from his bag of football artistry was to play on top the swimming pool”. In Mustafa Ataturk’s nation, footballers of Nigeria’s decent had and still make their soccer very eventful.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: Oshiomhole In A Fight Between The Elephant And The Pit

Victor Osimhen, the leggy playmaker and striker with a dye-hair like the white mushroom head, who recently renewed his contract with Galatasaray, a Turkish top team, is also a Nigerian, who has received the applause in the peninsula country and across the globe like Jay Jay Okocha. Candidly, Oshimen, the goal mechine, who is a tonic to the Turks and football fans across the world, also does the unimaginative with the round leather, but certainly not with the same fascinating skills of Jay Jay! But the Turkish fans are readily tilted to football fanaticism.

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Victor Osimhen

If it’s ‘fanatic-fans’ in Turkish football, it’s certainly ‘supporters hooliganism’ in the United Kingdom (UK), where association soccer (football) was founded in 1863, with similar kicking games played in Greece, China and Rome since 2,000 years. In UK, football is played with fanfares, pool betting and media vuvuzela. English soccer is a gainful entertainment industry raking in huge gate fees from plays, promotions, television and media razzmatazz, which is often imitated in Nigeria, with passions and ‘occult’ following. So worrisome was the ‘social hype and lawlessness’ youths and others attach to English soccer that security operatives have constant migraine fighting soccer addiction and frequent street brawls.

Jay Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Dan Amokachi, Taribo West and other Nigerian stars, that once dominated and currently rule other foreign clubs, opened the floodlight of extremist football following into the country. Once upon a time, the then Prince Charles (now the king of England), was spotted (with young boys) playing the game, inside the Buckingham Palace, all wearing jersey number ’10’ with Jay Jay Okocha’s name inscribed). That the number-one-global-royalty adored soccer by wearing the jersey of a footballer from a third-world African nation, somewhat illustrates that which is often said about soccer being more than a mere sport. ‘Football Tripper’, a British online news porter, describes soccer as “oxygen” to numerous men and women. In Brazil, the South American nation, there is a deity called “Soccer”, as well as it’s a vivacious Reggae, a unique music genre in Jamaica.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: ‘Ikhueki’, Benin Market Women Are At War!

Still, it is food and sups in Nigeria. In this Africa’s most populous nation, with plentiful viewing centres and liquor spots, there are live television football tournaments and soccer video games, with consumable food, alcoholics, carbonated drinks and some ‘unlawful substances’ that are at the behest of business owners and ‘intoxicated’ fans.

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In what soccer dramatics came to know as ‘the Dammam Miracle’, viewing centres, beer parlours and restaurants were instantly sold out in the country, in 1989, after ‘footbocrazy’ Nigerians, stormed the streets in prolonged wild celebrations. For the Nigerian U-20 football team, at the FIFA World Youth Championship, held in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, came back from a four-goal deficit to level up and defeat the Russian counterpart, making the Nigerian team the first to come back from a semi-final to win a FIFA tournament. Soccer, indeed, is a crazy sport in Nigeria. Once upon a time, a man had shattered the screen of his expensive television, because Austin Jay Jay Okocha, his favourite star, had lost a penalty in a continental match!

It’s said that football, especially when the Nigerian national teams of men and woman play, tends to unite Nigerians than other national blights that turn them apart. Now, the current national fanaticism is for the Victor Osimhen-inspired Super Eagles, to qualify for the 2026 World Cup gala, even though it has to go the extra obstacles of playing more legs, whereas the team had frittered the early opportunities to qualify.

And sensing that most Nigerians care less of the economic woes that plagued them, but for the football fad, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the nation’s President, would cash-in to feed their ago awarding huge cash to high profile football tournaments and wins, like he recently accorded the Super Falcons, the female national team, for achieving a similitude of the Dammam miracle, to bring home a coveted African Cup of Nations (AFCON) trophy!

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Ex-soldiers Fume Over Lifetime Benefits For Sacked Service Chiefs

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The sacked Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, and two other service chiefs, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, are set to receive generous retirement benefits.

The benefits include bulletproof vehicles, domestic aides, and lifetime medical care.

Their exit follows President Bola Tinubu’s appointment of new service chiefs on Friday.

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General Olufemi Oluyede has been named the new Chief of Defence Staff, while Major-General W. Shaibu takes over as Chief of Army Staff.

Air Vice Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke becomes the new Chief of Air Staff, and Rear Admiral I. Abbas the Chief of Naval Staff. The Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major-General E.A.P. Undiendeye, retains his position.

The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, said in a statement on Friday that the removal of the service chiefs was in furtherance of the Federal Government’s ongoing efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s national security architecture.

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According to the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers and Enlisted Personnel in the Nigerian Armed Forces, signed by President Tinubu on December 14, 2024, the service chiefs are entitled to substantial retirement packages upon disengagement.

The document stipulates that each retiring service chief will receive a bulletproof SUV or an equivalent vehicle, to be maintained and replaced every four years by the military.

They are also entitled to a Peugeot 508 or an equivalent backup vehicle.

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Beyond the vehicles, the package includes five domestic aides — two service cooks, two stewards, and one civilian gardener — along with an aide-de-camp or security officer, and a personal assistant or special assistant.

They will also retain three service drivers, a service orderly, and a standard guard unit comprising nine soldiers.

READ ALSO:JUST IN: Tinubu Sacks CDS Musa, Names New Army Boss

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The benefits extend to free medical treatment both in Nigeria and abroad, as well as the retention of personal firearms to be retrieved upon their demise.

However, while officers of lieutenant-general rank and equivalents are entitled to international and local medical care worth up to $20,000 annually, the benefits for the service chiefs, though not stated in the document, are believed to be considerably higher.

The HTCOS reads, “Retirement benefits for CDS and Service Chiefs: The following benefits shall be applicable: one bulletproof SUV or equivalent vehicle to be maintained by the Service and to be replaced every four years. One Peugeot 508 or equivalent backup vehicle.

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‘’Retention of all military uniforms and accoutrement to be worn for appropriate ceremonies; five domestic aides (two service cooks, two stewards, and one civilian gardener); one Aide-de-Camp/security officer; one Special Assistant (Lt/Capt or equivalents) or one Personal Assistant (Warrant Officer or equivalents); standard guard (nine soldiers).

“Three service drivers; one service orderly; escorts (to be provided by appropriate military units/formation as the need arises); retention of personal firearms (on his demise, the personal firearm(s) shall be retrieved by the relevant service); and free medical cover in Nigeria and abroad.”

However, the policy specifies that such entitlements apply only if the retired officers have not accepted any other appointment funded from public resources — except when such an appointment is made by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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In such cases, the officers, according to the document, will only receive allowances commensurate with the new role rather than a full salary.

Retired soldiers protest lavish perks

Reacting, some retired soldiers decried what they described as the luxurious benefits and entitlements reserved for service chiefs and senior military officers.

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They lamented that junior personnel continued to suffer neglect and unpaid entitlements despite years of service to the nation.

READ ALSO:BREAKING: Tinubu swears In New INEC Chairman, Amupitan

The retired officers expressed frustration over the disparity in welfare and treatment between senior and junior ranks within the military.

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One of the leaders of the discharged soldiers demanding their owed entitlements, Sgt. Zaki Williams, expressed frustration over the entitlements reserved for the service chiefs.

Speaking in an emotional tone, Williams, who claimed to be speaking for more than 700 soldiers in his group, said many retired non-commissioned officers had been abandoned despite dedicating their lives to defending the country.

He said, “I don’t really understand how our people in Nigeria do things. The people at the top always do things to favour only themselves. They don’t care about the poor or the junior ones who sacrificed everything.”

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The retired sergeant recalled that government officials had made several promises to improve their welfare, but none had been fulfilled.

“Since the day they made those promises to us, we went back home and didn’t hear anything again. Everything just ended there. We’ve been waiting till now, but nothing has happened,” he added.

Williams said the situation had left many of his colleagues demoralised and divided over whether to continue pressing for their entitlements.

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Some of us said we should protest again, but others refused. We told them that day that we were not going for another protest. If the government wants to help us, they should help us. If not, we’re done,” he said.

He also accused senior military officers of frustrating efforts by the defence ministry to address the concerns of retired personnel.

According to Williams, life after service has been extremely difficult for most of them who retired voluntarily or were discharged without compensation.

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READ ALSO:Tinubu Approves Tenure Extension For Surveyor-General

How can someone retire after years of service and still not get their entitlement? Many of us can’t even build a house. The senior officers have houses, cars, and everything good, but the rest of us have nothing,” he said.

He added that the little compensation given to some was not enough to rebuild their lives.

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“If they give you N2m today, what can you really start with it in this country? You have children, family, and responsibilities, yet you can’t even afford a plot of land,” he said.

Expressing disappointment, he said most junior officers had lost faith in the system.

“We’ve handed everything over to God,” he said quietly. “We’ve cried and done our best. They promised us, but in the end, it’s still zero. We haven’t seen anything. That’s why many of us are now silent.”

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Another retired soldier, Abdul Isiak, lamented that promises made to retired personnel had remained unfulfilled, leaving many struggling to survive.

He said, “All you said they would give to them would be done promptly, and they are more than what we need to sustain our lives. This is very unfair. We have suffered a lot, and they’re yet to give us our entitlements after leaving the service. What is our offence? Is it because we are junior officers?”

The former sergeant said the senior officers continued to enjoy generous retirement packages while lower ranks were denied their due benefits.

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We are preparing for another protest for them to pay us. This is very bad,” he said.

(PUNCH)

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