By Joseph Ebi Kanjo 

Environmental activists under the aegis of Coalition for a Clean Niger Delta (CCND), weekend, urged President Bola Tinubu to visit communities impacted by oil spill and pollution in the Niger Delta region.

Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and
Otive Igbuzor, Founding Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD), made the call in a statement made available to INFO DAILY.

They lamented that for over seventy years, the ecosystem of the Niger Delta has been “plagued by unprecedented perennial pollution from petroleum production activities, enabled or worsened by a highly dysfunctional, conflicted and compromised environmental regulatory system, since the country struck commercial oil in the Oloibiri Province prior to Nigeria’s Independence.”

The environmental activists, while advocating for the clean up of the region particularly impacted communities, said Nigeria, being a member of international treaties and conventions, including those on universal rights, environmental and indigenous people’s rights, and climate change, cannot be a difference from other oil producing nations.

READ ALSO: Cultists Arrested For Invading Anambra Hotel With Charms

The statement partly reads: “We invite Mr President to pay a spot visit, along with the relevant Ministers and Regulators, and possibly the National Security Adviser, to some of the following locations, which are too few as examples of devastation, to see for yourself: Polobubo and Ogulagha in Delta State; Ibeno, Mbo and Ikot Ada Udo in Akwa Ibom State; Awoye in Ondo State; Bille, Obagi and Rumuekpe in Rivers State; and Gbarain/Ekpetiama, Nembe,Aghoro and Otuabagi (where Nigeria’s pioneer oil wells are located) in Bayelsa State.

“Amidst the global dynamics of the 21st Century, and particularly in the context of climate change/action, Nigeria cannot continue to act as if ignorant of the importance of its biodiversity endowments and ecological imperatives. 

“There are many countries we can benchmark, which produce more oil, gain far higher revenues from it, but still jealously and profitably protect their environment and ecosystems. Norway which has a trillion-dollar Sovereign Wealth Fund from petrodollars (and population of 5.5 million, against Nigeria’s 228 million) is a prime example, but ensures its waters stay pristine, enabling its robust fishing and marine industries. Scotland and the UAE are others.

“We trust that Mr President and the government are mindful of Nigeria’s numerous commitments to international treaties and conventions, including those on universal rights, environmental and indigenous people’s rights, and climate change. 

READ ALSO: Three Suspected Pipeline Vandals Caught In Edo

“Mr President’s commitments to a world audience at the UN Climate Conference (COP 28) in Dubai, UAE, barely four months ago are also fresh in mind.”

The statement added: “A genuine action to cleanup the Niger Delta will be an excellent progress report for Nigeria, and particularly for Your Excellency, as the world gathers again at the next Climate Conference, COP 29, in about six months from now.

“The protracted social injustice of funding national development at such extreme ecocidal expense of communities in the oil-producing Niger Delta region, or communities wherever else in Nigeria, needs to be urgently redressed, without any pretences as witnessed under previous Administrations.

“With the ongoing divestment of their remaining onshore holdings in Nigeria by the major international oil companies (IOCs), and their huge outstanding environmental liabilities thrown into legal uncertainty, thereby portending further risks and escalation of social tensions for communities, the time for Mr President to act as the Protector-in-Chief of Nigerian communities is now.”

The Edo State Police Command has arrested three pipeline vandals in the Obazagbon community of the Orhiomwon Local Government Area.

The suspects include Jackson Aluche, aged 45; Oke Okoro, aged 30; and Oluchukwu Chukwuma, aged 18.

It was gathered that the incident occurred on April 14 at about 10:30 a.m.

READ ALSO: Kanye West To Launch Yeezy P0rn Studio With Stormy Daniels

When contacted by our correspondent, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Chidi Nwabuzor, confirmed the incident.

He added that the suspects were caught siphoning crude oil and smashing a PAN Ocean Oil Corporation pipeline.

Nwabuzor noted that the suspects admitted to the crime, claiming that one AKA Doctor had hired them to carry out the deed and that they would be charged with court charges.

READ ALSO: Two Fake Police Inspectors Arrested In Edo

He said, “On April 14, 2024, at about 1030 a.m., the operatives of the State Criminal Investigation Department, while acting on credible intelligence, arrested three suspects, namely, Jackson Aluche, 45 years old; Oke Okoro, 30 years old; and Oluchukwu Chukwuma, 18 years old, at Obazagbon community in Orhiomwon Local Government Area of Edo State.

“They were caught breaking a crude oil pipeline for Pan Ocean Oil Corporation and siphoning crude oil. The suspects made statements and confessed to the crime, saying that they were employed by AKA Doctor to carry out the act. Suspects will soon be charged in court.”

No fewer than 11 members of a suspected cult group allegedly terrorising the people of Ihembosi community in Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State have been arrested by operatives of the Zone 13 Police Headquarters, Ukpo, Anambra State.

The suspects were arrested for allegedly invading the premises of Las Vegas Hotels Limited at Ubahu village in the area.

About 12 other members of the group are said to be currently on the run as the police operatives are still trailing them.

According to a police source, who refused to be mentioned because he was not authorised to speak for the agency, the arrest of the suspects was carried out on Monday, following a strongly worded petition to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in-charge of Zone 13 Police Command, Godwin Aghaulor. The Zone 13 Police Command controls police formations in Anambra, Enugu and some parts of Ebonyi states.

Aghaulor, who confirmed the arrests of the suspects in his office, on Thursday, said the police would carry out discreet investigations into the matter to ascertain the motives behind the action, while a manhunt had been launched to apprehend the fleeing gangsters.

READ ALSO: Tinubu Appoints Jim Ovia As Student Loan Fund Chairman

The Proprietor of Las Vegas Hotels Limited, Chief Omenife Onwuatu, had through his legal counsel, PJN Azubuike, petitioned the AIG seeking his intervention to curb the menace of the cultist group who he said went to the extreme of invading his hotel on March 10, 2024 with about 12 motorcycles, charms, cudgels, cutlasses, axes and other dangerous weapons and terrorised the owners, management and staff of the hotel, threatening to kill anyone at sight.

Onwuatu, who is also the Chairman of Ubahu village, had earlier warned the group to stop performing rituals in front of the stream in the area and to relocate their shrine to its base but his warning did not go down well with the suspects whom he simply identified as “idol worshippers, who earn their living through rituals.”

In the petition dated April 16, 2024, entitled, “Threat to life, cultism, terrorism, ritualism, threat of arson, conspiracy, forcible entry, trial by ordeal, assault, malicious damage and conduct likely to cause breach of peace,” the hotel proprietor lamented that during the invasion, the suspects forced open his hotel gate and deposited the charms at the entrance and premises of the hotel.

The petition read in part, “They chanted war songs, threatened to burn down the hotel and its premises, performed so many incantations and rituals in front of the hotel and its premises and passed death sentences on the owners and occupants of our client and thereafter escaped.”

READ ALSO: Two Fake Police Inspectors Arrested In Edo

“Before the invasion, the suspects had earlier in the day unlawfully assembled themselves in various locations in the town where they organised and planned the invasion, assembled their weapons, demonstrated their charms, chanted war songs and passed death sentences on the leadership of the community before setting out to invade the hotel premises which they variously threatened to burn down.”

The petition noted that to make matters worse, the suspects captured their atrocities in a video and sent in to the internet in order to display their impunity, intimidate the operators and customers of the hotel and put extreme fear in them to force them to abandon the premises or come and negotiate with them.

“The negative effect of this is that the Managing Director of the hotel, other directors, managers and staff, as well as the customers, were thrown into extreme fear for their dear lives. While the customers of the hotel at the time of the incident hurriedly checked out, others who heard or saw the incident completely avoided the hotel and cancelled their bookings and the Goodwill of the hotel proprietor and her fortune were maliciously destroyed and damaged,” it stated.

READ ALSO: Outrage As Kingsmen Flogged Anambra Man To Death [VIDEO]

The petitioner therefore requested the AIG to use his good offices to apprehend all the members of the gang and recover their tools and implements to bring them to book and nip in the bud their plans to kill the hotel operators and leaders of the community and burn down the premises of Las Vegas Hotels Limited.

As of Monday, the day the suspects were arrested, pleas by counsel for the suspects, Ibuchi Ewuzue for the police to release the suspects on bail were turned down as the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the Zonal Criminal Investigations Department, was said to have ordered that the suspects should remain in detention until after investigations.
PUNCH