Delta state government is to set up a committee comprising credible Deltans to manage the 500 million naira flood disaster fund grand it by the Federal government.
The state governor Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan who announced this at a meeting with political appointees and House of Assembly members in Asaba said the committee when functional would decide how to utilize the fund to resettle flood victims in the state.
He said he was already scouting for men of integrity in the state and would appoint them in no distant time.
The governor who promised that he would not interfere in the management of the fund said his major concern was how to resettle the flood victims.
His words “I will not meddle in the committees work. I will not disburse this money and definitely will not be part of what they shall do. Whatever decision they take on how to disburse the fund shall be well with me. Let members of the committee decide what to do with the money”.
Dr Uduaghan called on Deltans to remain calm, peaceful and be united more than ever before in the face of the current flood challenges.
He enjoined them not to create tension even as he cautioned against unnecessary agitation, bricks bat and quarrel.
The governor who reminded Deltans that the state was currently going through trying times put it this way “these are trying times and this is not the time to quarrel and create tension. We should be our brother’s keeper. People are going through trauma and need to be comforted”.
In answer to a question the governor enjoined Deltans not to politicize the flood issue and promised to give even attention to all parts of the state affected by flood.
According to him there were periods for politics explaining that the flood issue was not a political matter and should not be an instrument of politics.
His words “I have short term plan, middle and long term plans for the flood issue and we are very serious and not playing politics. When politics come we play it but not with flood issue where our people are suffering”.
The governor directed the flood control management committee not to allow more than 800 flood victims in one camp.
Dr Uduaghan therefore directed the committee to decongest any camp accommodating more than 800 victims to ensure good space and comfort.
He stressed the importance of sanitation in the camps especially the evacuation of waste to check the outbreak of epidemic.
Cautioning that no pregnant woman should be allowed to deliver in the camps he said “Any pregnant woman nearing labour should be moved to the hospital. Indeed no pregnant woman should be allowed to deliver in any camp”.
The chairman of the state committee on the management of flood disaster and Deputy Governor of the state Prof Amos Utuamah (SAN) in his briefing said more than twelve local governments areas have been submerged by flood in the state.
Prof Utuamah said the flood disaster was increasing in tempo
Inauguration of the National Rebuilding and Inter Party Contact Committee at the National Working Committee Room of the National Secretariat
On Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Your Excellencies, most distinguished ladies and gentlemen, Nigerians are yearning for change. I can see our great party, the ANPP, leading that change if we do the right thing. We must always remember that God helps those who help themselves and that success comes to those who dare to act. The time to plan is now. The time to find out what we must do to make our great Party greater and more attractive is now. The reasons are compelling. The environment is conducive. The time is ripe. The harvest is bountiful. The people are waiting.
For the past thirteen years, the price of crude oil in the international market has remained high. For a very long period, one barrel of crude oil sold for more than a hundred dollars. We cannot easily forget that about fourteen years ago, by 1998/1999, when Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar served as military Head of State, one barrel of crude oil fetched as low as nine dollars and even less.
Our national treasury has received, in the past thirteen years, more money than it had in the forty years before then. Yet the level of poverty has continued to increase and worsen. By government statistics, two out of every three Nigerians are poor. What a shame!
In the past thirteen years, our factories have continued to shut down. Day after day, the gates to our factories are locked while the factories are relocated to neighbouring countries. This has worsened our unemployment problems as many of our young people roam the streets looking for non-existing jobs.
For the past thirteen years, the decay in our infrastructure has reached very disturbing and alarming levels such that our children now look for schools for their education in not only Europe and North America, but also in our neighbouring countries. Our sick people can no longer receive adequate medical attention at home and hence they have to travel in large numbers to see doctors in hospitals in foreign lands.
The past thirteen years would have been a long enough period to prepare for the Olympics. In the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Nigeria won two gold medals in long jump and football. We also won a silver medal in the Women’s 4×400 meters relay; three bronze medals in the Women’s 400 meters, 200 meters and men’s super heavyweight boxing competition. For the past thirteen years, our fortune in sports has so declined such that at the 2012 London Olympic Games, the 51 – man Team Nigeria returned empty handed without even a single medal.
In the past thirteen years, impunity in governance and abuse of office have reached very disturbing levels as pension funds, subsidy payments, etc have been grossly abused. Our newspapers and news magazines are filled up with shocking revelations including how our commonwealth has been abused to the detriment of the common good.
For the past thirteen years, those who lead have not been able to perform their most important and primary duty of securing the lives of our citizens. Bombs, guns and knives have struck fear and tried to strangulate the people. More than ever before, people now move in very large numbers away from the places of their birth, places where they had lived and would have loved to continue to live in but had to move away because of insecurity.
Those who escaped the bombs, guns and knives have fallen victim to the cruel hands of kidnappers. Vice Chancellors, retired military officers, priests, traditional rulers, professionals, businessmen and women have not been spared. The high level of insecurity in the country is such that no one anymore even mentions armed robbery attacks either on our roads or in our homes.
For the past thirteen years, our dear country has neither had peace nor prosperity. Our unity as one people with one destiny in one nation under God, has never for a very long time been as threatened as it is now. The stability of our nation, the very foundation of our great country, has never been as shaken as it is currently the situation. This should not be so.
Nigeria needs change. Nigerians are eagerly waiting for change. The All Nigeria Peoples Party, our great political Party, must work tirelessly to help our people have this desired change for the good of all.
Our Party is ready. Our Party is focused. Our Party is on the move. Our Party is moving in the right direction. Our Party has stabilised after the decline of the previous years. However, our Party needs to grow faster than we are currently doing. We need to bring in more and more members. More hands must be put at work for us to effectively and efficiently take care of the harvest that by God’s grace will be ours.
We need to rebuild our Party. Rebuilding a party is not an easy job. Rebuilding a party is a continuous process. It is indeed work in progress. We will never get tired, until success is ours by the grace of the Almighty God. We need to work closely with other opposition political parties. When we find those who have a similar interest and same national view with us, we should move out and quickly embrace them. A merger would be ideal. It is when this is not feasible, that other options can be considered. We have enough time to achieve our goal.
Shortly after we assumed office in late 2010, I requested and met with the leadership of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, here in Abuja. That meeting triggered off a series of events involving the two political parties. Later, this was expanded to include two other political parties: the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC and the Social Democratic Mega Party, SDMP. Even though we did not realise our initial objective, but we learnt a lot and had a better understanding of the important issues involved in the process of wanting to work together for the good of our country.
One problem we all agreed worked against us, was that we started very close to the general election. By that time, people had virtually made up their minds. Seeking a common ground, became very difficult.
Learning from that experience, as soon as election petitions before tribunals and appeal courts were disposed of, I quickly wrote to the National Chairmen of major opposition political parties urging that we start working together to understand ourselves better and more importantly to start early to build trust among ourselves. I am happy with the progress we have made so far.
I have travelled widely, across the country, to meet with many important political actors to help forge this desired new understanding among the major opposition political parties with the aim of forming a political platform on which the change desired by Nigerians can be anchored. I have written letters to our founding leaders, urging them to show interest in the care of the house they helped to build. I am happy that the response is encouraging.
The time has come for a committee, made up of some of the very best we have, to be engaged in this very important assignment. We have made serious efforts to ensure that all major segments of our Party are represented in this important committee. In the course of the work of the committee, every effort should be made to work as one united body so as to take advantage of the varied experience of all members.
The committee should work with the following terms of reference:-
To generally look at the party and recommend ways to make it more attractive, particularly on ways to get party leaders to show more interest in participating in party functions and programmes held in States not controlled by us.
To exhaustively discuss the issue of party funding and make recommendations on how the party can be effectively funded.
To identify party leaders who either left the party to join other political parties or have remained without joining any other political parties with a view to bringing them back to the party.
To identify key political actors across the country with a view to getting them to join us.
To carry out a nation-wide survey of our party across the country as a way to identify the zonal, State and local government party offices where they exist.
To enter into merger/alliance discussions with other opposition political parties as well as organisations and civil society groups as a way of preparing for better performance in future elections.
To submit a final report to the national leadership of the party in six months time.
Your Excellencies, most distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is required that every two months, this committee, the National Rebuilding and Inter Party Contact Committee will submit periodic interim reports to the national leadership of the Party to let us know the progress you are making. We expect that you will put in your very best efforts into this important assignment to help put our great Party at the centre of political activity in the country and for the good of our dear nation.
As you go into the field you will find out that the leadership of our great Party has already done a lot of work that will be very useful to you. Go out and build on this. I am confident that by the grace of Almighty God and you working as hard as you can, success will be ours.
It is therefore with happiness that I on behalf of our great Party inaugurate the National Rebuilding and Inter Party Contact Committee of our great Party. I cannot fail to remind us that it may lead to death if a disease afflicts you and you do nothing about it. It is better for us to be remembered as a people who came, met problems and decided not to pretend that the problems exist, but rather to face the problems squarely by working hard to find the appropriate and enduring solutions. History will be kind to us. Future generations will remember us. Our children will be happy with us. We should never be afraid of trying, because it is only by trying that success can come. I wish you God’s grace and blessings as you carry out this assignment.
May God bless the All Nigeria Peoples Party and also bless our dear country, Nigeria. I thank you so much.
The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR), Osun State
hereby condemns in strong terms, the ridiculous, illegal and clearly
unjustified compulsory contributory pension policy being imposed on
workers by Osun State government. We call for immediate reversal of
this obviously obnoxious policy. We also call on the labour unions’ leadership to convene immediately a congress of workers to reject any
attempt to force a voluntary pension system on them.
The Osun State government under the impostor and bankrupt regime of Oyinlola/PDP in 2009 made a policy that compulsorily compelled workers
in the state employ to subscribe to the exploitative Contributory
Pension Scheme. Workers who still had, as at 2009, more than three (3)
active years in the Public Service were directed to either enroll in
the Contributory Pension Scheme or compulsorily retire latest by
December, 2012. By this act, the government aimed to force workers to
retire or join the private pension scheme, with a view to reducing the
government’s financial commitment to workers.
Based on this policy, many workers, especially those who have fewer
years left in service, retired forcefully when they realized the
exploitative nature of the contributory pension scheme. Several
others, out of fear of being forced out of service, immediately
enrolled in the contributory pension, even when they knew very little
about it. Worse still, the leadership of various workers’ unions,
including the central labour unions – NLC and TUC – not only
maintained questionable silence but also encouraged workers to accept
the policy – join the contributory pension or resign. This policy is
clearly illegal and anti-worker. The state and local government
employees are not covered in the Pension Reform Act 2004 (and amended
in 2011); while there is no known law in Osun State that compels
workers to join the contributory pension scheme. Inasmuch as the
government (public)-guaranteed pension scheme has not been abolished
by the law; it is illegal for the state government to force the
Contributory Pension Scheme on workers. Furthermore, joining a private
pension system was never a condition for employment; therefore, it
could not have been a condition to retire workers compulsorily as this
is tantamount to retrenchment. Ironically, the Aregbesola/ACN
government that has been in power for close to two years has not
deemed it fit to stop this illegal and clearly backward policy. On the
contrary, it has pushed on with the policy, even when many workers are
beginning to question the rationale behind forcing them to join an
exploitative pension scheme. This is a government, which campaigned
for vote with the mantra of change from the rot of the Oyinlola
administration.
Contributory Pension: Profits for the investors, Bleak future for workers
This policy is like asking workers to choose between death and body
paralysis. This is because the Contributory Pension Scheme has been
revealed as sheer fraud. It is an attempt by the government to shirk
its responsibility of providing living and adequate pension to retired
workers, who have committed their active and productive lives to the
society. This policy, on the other hand, gives big financial
capitalists easy opportunity to profit from the miseries of workers,
who are being frustrated daily with the mismanagement of the
government-guaranteed pension scheme. Various Nigerian political
classes in various political shades and at all levels, having looted
and misappropriated the pension allocations of hapless retirees is now
pushing them into the hands of private profiteers. If politicians and
big bureaucrats at the federal level could officially loot N34 billion
($212.5 million), one could hazard a guess on what will be operating
at the state level. It will therefore not be surprising hearing that
various politicians are investors and shareholders in various private
Pension Fund companies.
According to the Contributory Pension Scheme, workers and employers
are to pay 7.5 percent of workers’ salaries each, into the pool
managed by the private Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs). When
workers retire, the contributions and the gratuity of workers are
handed over to the PFAs, who then pay workers on pro rata basis.
However, the PFAs, are given free access to gamble and make profits on
workers’ pension savings even when workers do not know where their
pension fund is being invested. If the businesses the PFAs invested in
go bankrupt, and the PFAs subsequently go insolvent, who will pay
retirees their life savings? Currently, more than 70 percent of the
over N2 trillion pension contributions have been invested in
governments’ bonds and debt issuances. What of situation in which
governments default in redeeming the bonds or the debt issues; as
already governments across the country owe over N16 trillion in
domestic debts – debts that are clearly unsustainable. What of the
situation when governments’ revenues collapse as witnessed between
2007 and 2009 at the peak of the global economic meltdown when crude
oil price fell to its all time low? What if governments refuse to pay
up workers’ gratuity to the PFAs? Already many private employers are
defaulting in paying their contributions to the PFAs while many state
governments are not even committed to paying any gratuity. These
scenarios will throw workers back to the same old problem – unpaid
pension and gratuity – albeit with more complications of who is
responsible for what.
Contributory Pension is Sheer Exploitation of Workers
Clearly, the Contributory Pension Scheme cannot be a better
alternative to bureaucratically run and poorly managed
government-guaranteed pension scheme. Indeed, it is more of sheer
exploitation of workers. As unorganized and mismanaged as the
government-guaranteed pension scheme is, workers’ pension is
guaranteed for life. Under the contributory pension, PFA collapse will
mean total doom for retirees. Meanwhile, the PFA bosses and fat cats
would have made easy profits and collected huge salaries and
allowances from workers’ pensions. Aside this is the fact that, what
retirees are paid as pension under the contributory pension scheme is
mere pittance compared to what is paid directly by governments to
retirees. While governments, without any deduction from workers’
salaries, pay at least 60 percent of retirees’ last salaries as
pension with gratuity also fully paid, contributory pensioners will
collect around one third of the same amount as pension especially for
workers having less than ten years in the service. Indeed,
contributory pensioners only collect half of their gratuity, while the
remaining half is added to the 15 percent contributions, and paid on
pro rata basis as pension. The implication of this for instance in
Osun State, is that while workers having less than ten years in the
civil service will collect between N15, 000 and N35, 000 as monthly
pensions, their colleagues under the government-guaranteed pension
scheme will collect more than double of this amount. Yet, the
government (and unfortunately, the labour leaders) wants to compel
workers to subscribe to the fraudulent contributory pension.
Clearly, the aim of the government is to reduce its contribution to
retired workers’ welfare and consequently reduce their living
standard. It also aims to make big business profiteers gain from
workers’ miseries. It is ridiculous that the same government that
cannot ensure prompt payment of pensions and gratuities to retirees,
is devoting enormous resources and energy in ensuring the
implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme, even if workers
will have to be bullied and threatened. The argument of government
that public pension scheme is ineffectual is mere hypocrisy. In
reality, the same set of politicians and their big bureaucrats
colleagues who are looting workers’ pensions are the ones using the
excuse of their failure to hand workers over to capitalist buccaneers.
This is the same way public education and other social services are
ruined by capitalist politicians, who then encourage the poor people
to patronize the private sector, where they have invested the looted
public funds meant for these services in the first place.
Workers Must Act now!!
Workers must demand an immediate end to this fraudulent contributory
pension scheme. They must demand for a fully guaranteed living pension
tied to the cost of living and rate of inflation, by all employers –
both private and public. As against the fraudulent and bureaucratic
manner of running the government pension scheme, workers must demand
that governments at all levels, pay monthly allocation of retired and
active workers to a fund to be run and managed by elected
representatives of workers and retirees, at all levels. Such fund will
ensure that there is proper planning for all workers on a long-term
basis. This will also ensure that government is not burdened with
pension arrears, as regular payments to the fund will prevent this.
However, rank-and-file workers and retirees must have open access to
scrutinize the fund’s account. In addition, workers and pensioners
must have the right to democratically elect and recall representatives
to manage the fund at all levels.
This is what the leadership of the labour movement should defend, and
not to be partners of governments and big business in the exploitation
of their members. It is clearly unjustified the membership of trade
union movement in the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), which
coordinates this exploitative pension scheme, while the labour
leadership closes their eyes to the plight of thousands of retired
workers dying of unpaid pensions and gratuities by government. It is
more disturbing that the labour centres are themselves investors in
the private pension scheme e.g. NLC owns a PFA.
We call for immediate reversal of the clearly bizarre attempt of the
Osun State government to force the contributory pension on workers. We
call on workers in Osun State to demand for a congress to reject this
clearly anti-worker and illegal policy.
Conclusively, that Nigerian political class cannot guarantee a living
pension for its workers reflects that bankruptcy of the neo-colonial
capitalist arrangement in the country. it also underscores the need
for working people to build their own political alternative to the
rotten politics of the capitalist politicians and their big business
partners.
The National Association of Seadogs (NAS) Abuja Chapter, strongly condemns the Federal Government refusal to appeal the International Court of Justice (ICJ) controversial judgment of 10th October 2002, which ceded Bakassi to Cameroon.
NAS is saddened that despite the new facts on Bakassi available to the Federal Government and the wish of Nigerians that Government should appeal the judgment, the Federal Government dashed the hope of the citizenry on flimsy excuse of time factor and diplomacy. Today Bakassi is lost forever due to the negligence and insensitivity of our leaders who failed to protect the territorial integrity of the nation.
NAS urges the Federal Government to start the process of relocating, re-settling and rehabilitating the people of Bakassi to ensure they are not refugees in their own country.
Since security and welfare of the people is the primary purpose of Government, we call on the Federal Government, States Government and Civil Society Groups to assist the traumatized people of Bakassi and save them from further inhuman treatment from the Cameroonian authorities. The Bakassi returnees in various refugee camps should be properly taken care of while awaiting resettlement and rehabilitation. This should be done immediately.
NAS urges the Federal Government and the United Nations to ensure strictly implementation of the Green Tree Accord between Nigeria and Cameroon on the Bakassi Peninsula. Any breach of the Accord by Cameroon, particularly the dastardly oppression of Nigerians living in Bakassi, is unacceptable and will be resisted. We should remain our brothers and sisters keeper.
Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State (right) with Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State State (left) during the meeting of the Advisory Council of NDDC, held in Government House, Asaba, Delta State, Tuesday
The Advisory Council of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has called for a review of the NDDC Act to remove the bureaucratic bottlenecks hindering the Commission from realizing its goals.
In a communique issued at the end of its meeting in Asaba, Tuesday night, the Council made up of Governors of the oil producing states, particularly expressed deep concern over the difficulty in implementing the Commission’s budget.
In the communiqué read to journalists by the chairman and Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, the Council called for flexibility in the process of contract awards after passage of its budget by the National Assembly.
“Council therefore called for a review of the NDDC Act to reduce the long process of implementation, which retards the execution of projects”, the communiqué stated.
The Advisory Council Sympathized with communities devastated by flood across the country, stressing that the NDDC State Governments will continue to respond to the needs of those affected.
It also noted that the NDDC has promised to make contributions towards alleviating the plight of those affected as well as commended the Federal Government for its actions so far.
Other highlights of the Council’s communiqué include:
(1) That NNDC should as a matter of priority always consult with State Governors in the sub-region on projects to be executed in the States to eliminate the challenge of duplication and ownership.
(2)That the commission should lay emphasis on regional projects that would integrate the states in the region, especially roads, railways and power.
(3)That the commission should partner with state governments on project conception and execution.
The Governors who attended the meeting include Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Godswill Akpabio of Akaw Ibom, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of Edo, Theodore Orji of Abia, and Senator Liyel Imoke of Cross Rivers.
Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Admiral John Jonah represented his Governor, Seriake Dickson while Senator Aniete Okon attended in his capacity as a member of the Council. The NDDC chairman, Dr. Tarilah Tebepah and the managing director, Dr. Christian Oboh were also in attendance.
ABIA State Governor Theodore Orji, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Abubakar, and Ghana’s National Security Adviser (NSA)Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah (rtd) are among the dignitaries that would deliver the eighth Security Watch Africa Lectures on October 18, 2012 in Accra, Ghana.
In a statement, the International Coordinator of Security Watch Africa, Patrick Agbambu, said the lecture, with the theme: “Developing Regional Strategies and Best Practices in the Fight Against Crime and Conflicts in Africa,” would be in “response to the challenges posed by emerging insecurity to governments and people, arising from urban development and disturbing levels of poverty in the rural areas.”
Governor T.A. Orji is expected to be the guest speaker at the event, while IGP Abubakar will speak on the topic “Urban Crime Prevention, Control Management and Fighting: The Nigerian Experience.”
A pro-development civil society organization–HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned the killing by suspected armed Fulani Herdsmen of 14 villagers at the Riyom Local Government Area Council of Plateau State and urged the Federal Government to find lasting solution to the spate of killings and reprisals.
In a media statement jointly issued by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media officer Miss Zainab Yusuf, the Rights group also urged credible leaders of both the Fulani’s and the indigenous groups in Plateau state to work sincerely in a united front towards the enthronement of lasting, sustainable and mutual peace, unity and progress of Plateau state.
The Rights group specifically tasked Religious Clerics of both the Christian and Islamic Faiths to rise to the occasion and discourage their adherents from taking up arms to kill human lives because life is sacred and inviolable. Similarly, HURIWA blamed the elite of both divides for inflaming ethnic and religious sentiments and passions through the popular media and these ‘ideological machinations’ generated by the elite of the warring parties are solely responsible for the seemingly unending spate of vicious violence in Plateau State.
Besides, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA has advocated for the umpteenth time, for the setting up by the presidency of a special presidential Truth and Reconciliation Commission to be monitored by peace experts from the United Nations, African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to comprehensively resolve the ongoing disputes between the perceived strangers and the indigenous ethnic nationalities that historically make up Plateau state as presently constituted.
The Rights group also wants the Presidential Center for Conflict Resolution in Abuja restructured by President Good Luck Jonathan and better equipped legally and logistically to more actively play the role of sensitizing and mobilizing Nigerians to work for the attainment of genuine peace.
As one way out of the intermittent killings and terror-motivated violence in Plateau and other parts of the country, the Rights group has canvassed the transparent arrest, prosecution in the competent courts of law for mass murder, of all the alleged sponsors of the ongoing violence already identified by several Presidential and Plateau State panels of investigations in the past.
HURIWA stated: “Nigerians are sick and tired of being fed notoriously through the media of mass communication of the cocktail of bloody killings and terror-related violence in Plateau and other Northern States and we have repeatedly, persistently and consistently called on governments at all levels to rise to the occasion and once and for all arrest the perpetrators of these killings, bring them to decisive justice and rid the communities of illegally armed marauders, hoodlums and mass murderers roaming about with sophisticated weaponry which they intermittently unleash on the innocent Nigerian people. If Government cannot do this, then the process of acquiring legal arms by citizens must be liberalized so that Nigerians are not killed like chickens in this twenty first century by illegally armed non-state actors.”
HURIWA also tasked the Nigerian Attorney General and minister of Justice Bello Mohammed Adoke [SAN] to lead by example by making sure that his counterparts all across the country use the instrumentality of the law to bring perpetrators of violence to face the heavy weight of the law in compliance with section 6 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has assured monks in the Order of St Benedict in Ewu, the central part of the state of government’s support in giving adequate publicity to the breakthroughs in their herbal work and other researches.
The Governor also promised to pay a visit to the monks in their monastery with a view to providing the infrastructure needed on roads and water supply.
Speaking during a visit of the monks led by their Prior, Rev Dom Peter Eghwrujakpor, Governor Oshiomhole said: “since you are not a profit making organization and you are part of Edo State, the state government can be of help to your activities with our state-owned electronic and print media.
“From your exposé today, it is clear you are involved in a spiritual lifestyle of total abstinence in the service of God. You need support to help mankind in the way you have chosen to. We have to take advantage of our state media to inform the public on the need to take advantage of the services you provide,”he noted.
The governor assured the monks that between now and November 8, this year, he will pay a visit to the monastery to have an on-the-spot assessment of the condition of the road leading to and within the monastery and what could be done by the state government.
Earlier, the Prior Rev. Eghwrujakpor, congratulated the governor for the victory in the election and prayed for wisdom and strength to enable him serve.
He said, “we do not come out often, but hear of the good things you are doing and we assure you of our prayers. With over 200 workers in the monastery, we are considered one of the best job creators in the Esan region as well as our impartation of spiritual and psychology wellbeing, it is against this background that we seek government’s assistance”.
According to him, the monastery serves humanity, through work and prayers and is involved in the provision of traditional remedy in the treatment of ailments including diabetes.
The Police Public Relations Officer of the police at Rivers State, Ben Ugwuegbulem has confirmed to 247ureports.com that the community of Aluu has been set on fire by the students of the University of Port Harcourt [Uniport] in tandem with students from other universities.
Available information indicates that students from other institution under the aegis of National Association of Nigeria Students, NANS, joined the students at Uniport for a protest rally held on the morning of Tuesday October 9, 2012 to protest the brutal killings of Friday. The protest was peaceful. The east-west Choba road was blocked at the bridge entrance from Bayelsa State. Heavy security presence halted the students’ attempt to enter the Aluu community.
But as the protest waned and the security forces gave way, the students pounced on the community. As the students made their move to enter the community, many official within the institution made efforts to impress on the students to halt their intended entrance into the community but it was not heeded. The Vice Chancellor was said to have made an attempt but he was lampooned and thrown water bags by the irate students.
With the Vice Chancellor rescued from the scene away from the students, they began, in droves, setting ablaze all structures – houses, vehicles and the-likes – that they saw along the way into the community.
An eyewitness told our correspondent that the Aluu community was already deserted before the student arrived. “They vacated the community when the security people came to make arrests” said the eyewitness who went on to explain that the police had been making random/indiscriminate arrests of persons seen at the killer community. For this reason, the Aluu was a ghost town upon the arrival of the irate students.
The eyewitness started that it was highly unlikely for casualties to have been recorded. But a source within the student body at Uniport reveals that two persons may have been killed in today attack of Aluu community.
247ureports.com has yet to confirm the death of two persons but the police stated that the situation was “too fluid” to make definitive statements on casualties or no casualties.
