Category Nigeria News

Oscar Ibru, a businessman and industrialist, has passed away.

He was 67.

According to reports, the Ibru Organization’s chairman passed away on Wednesday after a brief illness.

He was Michael Ibru, a well-known industrialist,’s first son.

He was born and raised in Delta State’s Ughelli North Local Government Area.

Oscar, a well-known Ibru dynasty member, enjoyed widespread respect in Nigeria’s business and social circles.

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Sheriff Oborevwori, the governor of Delta State, has joined the Urhobo people in mourning the late businessman’s and philanthropist’s passing.

The governor described Ibru’s passing as a significant loss for the Urhobo people, Delta State, and the nation as a whole in a statement from Festus Ahon, his chief press secretary.

The industrialist was hailed as a servant, worker, and generous by Oborevwori.

He recalled Ibru’s contributions to the Ibru Organization, which promoted economic growth in Delta and beyond, as well as its contributions to the creation of jobs and strong institutions.

Albert Badey, Edward Kobani, Theophilus Orage, and Samuel Orage, the “Ogoni Four,” were awarded posthumously as the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) by Bola Tinubu, president.

When the Ogoni Consultation Committee’s report arrived at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday, he made the announcement.

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After decades of division, the President urged the Ogoniland population to embrace cohesion and unity.

“May our memories of them continue to inspire us to work together, with courage, and purpose.” At the meeting, Tinubu urged the Ogoni people to join forces across all classes, communities, and generations to end this tumultuous chapter and move on as a one-sided community.

He assured stakeholders that his administration would support Ogoniland’s efforts to achieve peace, environmental restoration, and economic revival while also facilitating the area’s return to oil exploration.

The Ogoni communities’ overwhelming support for the resumption of oil production encourages me.

The government will use “every resource” to aid your people in their march toward shared prosperity, he continued.

Oil exploration is supported by the president

Tinubu made note of the previous administration’s decision to transfer the Ogoni oil field to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its joint venture partners in 2022, adding that his government would follow through on that decision.

Therefore, the President ordered Nuhu Ribadu, the NSA, to begin negotiations with the Ogoni people, NNPCL, its partners, and all relevant stakeholders before the start of operation.

In 1993, ongoing protests against environmental degradation and injustice led to Ken Saro-Wiwa’s execution and the execution of eight other activists in Ogoniland.

A dead asset is not valuable to the people, the country, or the community. The President urged the Minister of Environment to include pollution remediation and environmental recovery in the wider context of dialogue with the populace, while also directing the Minister of Environment to do the same. “The worse it is for everyone, the worse it is for us.

Let’s work together to make the suffering beneath Ogoni’s soil a blessing for both the people and Nigeria, Tinubu said.

Committee Report

Don Baridam, the Dialogue Committee’s chairman, stated that the committee ensured that all parties involved in the process were engaged in, noting that the report reflects the Ogoni people’s collective will.

According to Baridam, a professor, the report satisfies the people’s demands for a framework for sustainable development, renewed environmental protection, and structured participation in oil production.

Prior to the Committee’s report, the NSA claimed that local communities, traditional leaders, and the diaspora had been involved in the consultation process.

He emphasized that returning Ogoniland to its former state of neglect and conflict was not just about submitting a report.

An alleged plan by the Federal Government to sell some of its stakes in the Joint Ventures with international oil companies operating in the nation has received opposition from members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s 30% management fee and 30% frontier exploration deduction are reassessned in accordance with President Bola Tinubu’s directive last month, according to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) president.

Tinubu cited the need to streamline deductions from the Federation Account, improve fiscal discipline, and optimize government savings as needed while charging the Economic Management Team.

The two unions asserted at a joint news conference in Abuja on Tuesday that selling those stakes will not only endanger the nation’s oil sector, but also devalue efforts being made to defend the naira on the foreign exchange market.

Festus Osifo, president of PENGASSAN, and Williams Akporeha, his NUPENG counterpart, objected to a proposal to reduce government stakes in JV assets by up to 30%.

Through the NNPCL, FG currently controls between 55 and 60% of these assets.

Selling stakes in the assets, in their opinion, would hurt Nigeria’s long-term economic security,  bankrupt NNPCL, impede its ability to meet obligations like salaries and welfare benefits, and reduce its contributions to the national budget.

“The government wants to reduce its ownership of these assets,” the statement read. They may be referring to selling up to 35% in some cases. However, we reject it.

You can’t mortgage someone’s future for a short-term gain.

“On behalf of the Federation, the NNPCL manages JV assets. The entire Nigerian population, not just the Federal Government, owns all oil wells. The national oil company will be too weak to deliver, he claimed, and the federation will lose if these stakes are sold.

The unions also claimed that NNPCL’s joint ownership of the Ministry of Petroleum was being attempted by the ministry of finance.

They argued that the PIA’s proposed changes would strip NNPCL of its core national function, frighten investors, and send a bad signal about Nigeria’s policy consistency.

After years of fighting, the PIA was overturned. Investors are only just getting started. The government wants to amend it once more, right now. That sends a dangerous signal, Akporeha claimed. Every serious oil-producing country, in his opinion, safeguards its national oil company. He continued, “Here, we are stripping ours of its strength,” he continued.

Nigeria will struggle to raise the money to pay its budget if these proposals are successful. We will resist it because it creates a crisis, Osifo said.

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The oil workers also called for a stop to a proposed amendment to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which they had pledged to oppose whenever it was attempted to proceed with the plans.

We completely reject the idea from the Ministry of Petroleum, the Ministry of Finance, NNPCL, or even the Presidency itself. In a few years, NNPCL will go bankrupt. Osifo resolutely said, “We will not allow that to happen.”

Akporeha noted that the PIA, which was only passed three years ago, needed to stabilise before considering new amendments.

Aisha Yesufu, a human rights activist, criticizes the use of taxpayers’ money to pay for what she describes as a personal dispute between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

Yesufu claimed she had seen no sexual harassment during court hearings on Monday and Tuesday and that she had seen no such thing on Channels Television’s breakfast program, The Morning Brief, on Wednesday.

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“I just heard that the court was addressing sexual harassment. That is not something I am aware of.

She said, “The question we should all be asking is why taxpayers’ money is being wasted on an issue that involves two senators.

Yesufu argued that if the Senate President feels personally detested, he should file a private legal case as opposed to dragging the Senate and federal resources into the issue.

If the Senate President has any disagreements with her, he should proceed.

Why are we involving the entire state and institutions in it? she inquired.

Yesufu noted that a judge had declared Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension unconstitutional in response to related proceedings.

She said, “The judiciary needs to really sit down and take back its independence so that it can say, “Get back into your office.”

The activist urged Nigerians to hold all 109 senators accountable for spending public money and legislative time, particularly when personal political disputes become state issues.

Senate Suspension

Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s comments come after her office is closed on Tuesday and she has been reinstated in the National Assembly after serving for a six-month suspension.

Hours after the sergeant-at-arms unlocked the office on Tuesday, the senator accompanied her supporters to her home in Suite 2.05 of the Senate wing.

The Senate in March suspended the senator over alleged standing rules violations.

She admitted to reporters that her suspension was against the law when she first entered her place of employment on Tuesday.

“I’m happy to be here, for me.”

Yusuf Gadgi, a member of the House of Representatives, has warned that state police can’t be relied upon to oversee policing in the states.

Gadgi, who is the House Committee on Defense, made a statement on Tuesday’s Politics Today program on Channel 4.

The lawmaker argued that more effective community policing and that enraging governors would only make things worse insecurity.

However, he did point out that community policing with proper funding remained a safer choice than state policing.

The lawmaker called killings connected to transnational assaults “very unfortunate and tormenting”

Gadgi added that Plateau and other regions’ insecurity had worsened as a result of the fact that forest reserves had become “safe havens for bandits and kidnappers.”

He defended President Bola Tinubu’s administration, noting that it had supported security organizations and provided resources.

Samuel Aina, one of the party leaders from Oshodi/Isolo, passed away, according to the Lagos State House of Assembly.

Stephen Ogundipe, the chairman of the House Committee on Information, Security, and Strategy, made this announcement in the plenary on Tuesday.

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He cited late Aina’s significant accomplishments, including her leadership of the council’s local government from 1999 to 2003.

He claimed that these included the construction of the local government secretariat’s current building.

Ajomale Oladipo, the lawmaker for Oshodi/Isolo Constituency II, claimed in his remark that the former chairman was a leader deserving of admiration and had impeccable character.

The late Aina was a father figure whose legacy is unmatched, according to the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa.

After that, he instructed Olalekan Onafeko, the house clerk, to send a condolence letter to the deceased’s family.