TheNewsGuru

Tag: Niger Delta

  • Okowa blasts NDDC over ’emergency projects’

    Okowa blasts NDDC over ’emergency projects’

    Delta Governor, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, has deplored what he described as “emergency projects’’ undertaken by Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), in recent times, saying they constituted embarrassment and disservice to the region.

    According to Okowa, who spoke while receiving the Interim Administrator of NDDC, Mr Effiong Akwa, at the Government House, Asaba, on Thursday, the projects were not properly executed.

    He urged the management of the commission to focus on the development of Niger Delta with people-oriented vision, adding that such development must truly impact positively on the region and its people.

    “For the sake of sustainability, everything we do must be sustainable because I have seen roads done under emergency projects that failed under three months.

    “The NDDC should spend more money on bigger projects that connect communities and with capacity to impact on the people.

    “It is our hope that as leaders of the Niger Delta that the NDDC truly live up to its expectations, and for that to happen, there must be a partnership and a collaborative effort in the best interest of the region.

    “The NDDC is supposed to be an interventionist agency but because of politics, we have continued to allow ourselves to be caught in the web of competition which ought not to be,’’ he said.

    The governor recalled that there was a master plan developed by the commission in collaboration with the states in the region some years ago, which ought to have been used to properly develop the zone.

    He advised the interim administrator to do something while in office that he would be remembered for by the people of the region, saying, “I don’t know how long you will be there, but try to make a mark for yourself while your stay lasts.

    “When you satisfy yourself that you have done well according to your conscience, then you can leave the office a happy man.

    “I am glad that you have met my brother governors. I am also of the opinion that the Presidential Advisory Committee on NDDC should meet with the management of the commission to look at further ways we can collaborate to develop the region.

    “The more we are able to relate with ourselves, the more we are able to achieve as a people.”

    Okowa added that the more the youths of the Niger Delta were engaged, the better for the nation, and disclosed that his administration had continued to provide skills acquisition and empowerment for youths in the state to enable them be job creators instead of job seekers.

    “The more we give them skills that will enable them to stand on their own and also link them with finance houses or direct empowerment from government, the better for us as a people.

    “That is a programme we are pursuing as a state and we do need collaborations in this regard, and I hope we can partner in this stead,” he said.

    Earlier, Akwa had told the governor that he was in Asaba as part of his engagements with key stakeholders in the region and to share with him his plans for the region.

    He lauded Okowa for his administration’s efforts in empowering the youths of Delta.

    Akwa stated that NDDC was committed to sustainable development of Niger Delta, and assured that the commission would no longer carry out projects at variance with the aspirations of the people.

    He commiserated with the governor over the death of his father, Pa Arthur Okorie Okowa, who was buried on Tuesday.

    He said the late Pa Okowa was a great man of poise and candour, adding that his death was a great loss to his community, Niger Delta and Nigeria.

    High point of the visit was the donation of five waste disposal trucks to Delta Government by the NDDC.

  • BREAKING: Niger Delta communities can sue Shell in English Courts, UK S’Court rules

    BREAKING: Niger Delta communities can sue Shell in English Courts, UK S’Court rules

    The United Kingdom Supreme Court has ruled that polluted Nigerian communities can sue oil giant Shell in English Courts.

    According to BBC Africa, this decision overturns a previous Appeal Court ruling and represents a victory after a five-year legal battle.

    The Niger Delta communities say decades of pollution have severely impacted their lives, health, and the local environment.

    Shell in its defence had argued that it was only a holding company for a firm that should be judged under Nigerian law.

    The Supreme Court ruled that the cases brought by the Bille community and the Ogale people of Ogoniland against Royal Dutch Shell were arguable and could proceed in the English courts.

    Royal Dutch Shell did not dispute that pollution had been caused.

    They argued that it could not be held legally responsible for its Nigerian subsidiary and that the pollution was the result of “crude oil theft, pipeline sabotage, and illegal refining”.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that a Dutch appeals court had also last month ruled that the Nigerian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell was responsible for oil pipeline leaks in the Niger Delta and ordered it to pay unspecified damages farmers.

    The decision went a step further than a 2013 ruling by a lower court, saying that Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary was responsible for multiple cases of oil pollution.

     

    More to follow…

  • NAF acquires three aircraft for maritime operations in Niger Delta

    NAF acquires three aircraft for maritime operations in Niger Delta

    The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says it has acquire three new aircraft for maritime operations in the Niger Delta.

    The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, disclosed this at the inauguration of a block of 30 one-bedroom living quarters and Computerized Tomography Scan facility for officers at the 115 Special Operations Group in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.

    He said the acquisition of three additional aircraft was part of the ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to re-equip and professionalise the air force.

    “We are expecting three Special Mission Aircraft that will be based in Benin, Edo, but will be operating into Port Harcourt, among other areas in the maritime environment.

    “So, for this to happen, we decided to provide accommodation for those that would maintain the aircraft when they are deployed.

    “The idea is to work ahead, so that at the time the aircraft are here, personnel should be able to come in and then maintain the aircraft,” he said.

    The air force chief said the building of accommodation and welfare provision for personnel at 115 Special Operations Group was paramount due to its critical role to national security.

    He said the base significant role as NAF’s ‘home of helicopter’ prompted the need to build a reference hospital to cater for health needs of personnel.

    “The reference hospital has a dialysis machine (for kidney patients), and now, a CT scan machine, among other facilities for both our personnel and their family members.

    “This ensures that personnel fighting in our theatres of operations are not distracted, knowing that the air force base has what it takes to care for his family,” he added.

    On COVID-19 pandemic, Abubakar said the air force is currently producing about 1,000 litres of liquid oxygen daily from its oxygen plant in Yola, Adamawa.

    He said that 50 per cent of excess oxygen produced at the plant is supplied to hospitals in Abuja and in neighbouring states to support the national effort to curb COVID-19.

    “So, what we are doing is giving the excess oxygen to fill cylinders of all medical facilities that are willing to submit their cylinders.

    “We have produced ventilators through research and development as well as opened a facility here in Port Harcourt that produces face masks and other Personal Protective Equipments.

    “In addition, we have flown equipment and other medical facilities to 13 West African countries in support of the fight against the pandemic,” he pointed out.

  • NDDC launches talent hunt for Niger Delta youths

    NDDC launches talent hunt for Niger Delta youths

    The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has rolled out a talent hunt programme to discover and expose creative youths from the region to take advantage of the entertainment industry.

    Speaking during a meeting with some key actors in the creative industry at the Rivers State office of the NDDC in Port Harcourt, the Interim Administrator, Mr. Efiong Akwa, said that NDDC would continue to create programmes to address the challenges of youths in the region.

    Akwa, who spoke through the Director, Youths and Sports, Mr. Offiong Ephraim, said that the programme would accommodate all categories of youths, including the physically-challenged.

    He said that the commission was passionate to youth development as part of measures to end restiveness in the Niger Delta.

    In his speech, the Special Adviser on Youths to the Interim Administrator, Udengs Eradiri, said it was important to debunk the notion that Niger Delta youths were not enterprising.

    He said: “We have a lot of energetic, strong and intelligent young people. We are going to train them to ensure that they are prepared for the challenges of tomorrow. The creative industry is one area where young people thrive. We will partner with known artistes in the region as ambassadors to also pull the other ones up.”

    Eradiri explained that the partnership with known artistes from the Niger Delta was meant to develop the talents of youths from across the region.

    He said: “The creative industry is one area that we can engage a lot of idle young people. We will continue to play our role in supporting institutions to create the platform to push our young people to international society. We must keep the creative sector alive in the Niger Delta to develop young talents to showcase to the world.”

    One of the leading artistes in the region, Mr. Okiri Harry, also known as Harry Song, said that the new NDDC youth programme was a dream come true for those in the creative sector, noting that 80 per cent of the entertainment industry was rooted in the Niger Delta.

    He said that artistes from the region had challenges of getting support and platforms to express themselves.

    He said: “Our talented youths are yearning for avenues to express themselves and that is where the Niger Delta talent hunt comes in.”

    Harry said that the Niger Delta Youth Entertainment Talent Hunt (NIDETH) would organize auditions in all the nine states of the region and organize bands for them.

    He said: “We are going to bring in all our Niger Delta Ambassadors in the entertainment industry. These great artistes will be brought in to inspire the young and upcoming ones. We know that when we engage our youths in this platform, we will not just take them off the streets but we will empower them.”

  • NIMASA – A metaphor for why Nigerian governments fail – Dele Sobowale

    NIMASA – A metaphor for why Nigerian governments fail – Dele Sobowale

    By Dele Sobowale

    “DELTA: N87b fraud rocks construction of Maritime University Okerenkoko.”

    Before we go forward on this startling revelation about the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, under former President Jonathan, who I understand is nursing ambitions to re-contest for the office, please remember that less than that amount has kept our universities shut for months. In other words, some individuals known to the Jonathan government sat on this colossal amount from November 2013; and the President whose government awarded these abandoned contracts shamelessly asked for our votes in 2015 – in order to award more of such bogus contracts.

    The NIMASA contract under review represents a perfect case study of how indigenes of various states and communities in the Niger Delta had individually and collectively betrayed their own people after being appointed to Ministries or Agencies which can make great impacts on the lives of the people.

    NDDC SCAMS REPEATED BY BROTHERS/SISTERS OF THE PEOPLE

    Unworthy to be called brothers and sisters is perhaps the best way to describe virtually all the sons and daughters of the Niger Delta who occupied high positions of authority from 1999 till now; but especially during the Jonathan years – 2010-2015. There is hardly any state government, no Minister, no Departmental or Agency head whose tenure was not plagued with high level corruption. The NIMASA scandal echoed the quietly forgotten embezzlements which the probe of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, by the National Assembly, NASS, revealed. At NDDC as in NIMASA, trillions of naira worth of contracts were awarded and funds released only for the contractors to abandon them without any consequences. So brazen are they that most of the culprits have not left Nigeria. They actually flaunt the loot right in our faces while the Niger Delta remains under-developed as the Age of Oil is coming to an end. Uniformly, they are conscienceless.

    Lest we forget, the NASS probe into the activities (or should we say crimes?) of the former Interim Management Committee, IMC, highly recommended by the Minister for Niger Delta, ND, and headed by the fainting Professor, achieved several feats, none of which would ever promote the development of the Niger Delta. Before Buhari sacked the IMC (and the President was warned against appointing them) they have miraculously visited ND students stranded abroad at a time when Nigerian and foreign airports were shut down on account of COVID-19. Several million naira went into that.

    Not done with self-service, the IMC members had awarded themselves generous COVID-19 palliatives allowances. What the Minister received in that regard was not disclosed. Readers can assume it was generous. Despite all these, nobody can point to one single positive achievement of the IMC while it lasted.

    Betrayal of the people is becoming the standard operating procedure of anybody or group of individuals charged with the responsibility of developing any part of the ND. So, the reader will be partly right to wonder what makes this particular case so special? At least three reasons suggest why.

    First, four or five projects, if sited in virgin territory in Nigeria, will transform the place into a town within twenty years. These are: refinery, airport, brewery and university. Since 1974, when I first started travelling all over this country, none of those projects, if sustained for more than twenty years had failed to achieve that transformation in the area where it was situated.

    I was not in Nigeria when the nation’s four refineries were established in their places. But, I have witnessed the rapid growth of population around them since 1974. None has failed to attract collateral investments since the ground breaking ceremonies to this day – despite their failure to supply fuel.

    Breweries, I am more familiar with – after spending close to seven years in three of them. The establishment of North Brewery in Bompai, Kano, accelerated the expansion of that industrial estate in the 1970s and 1980s more than any other business in the estate. At one point, one out of every two trailers or trucks in and around Bompai Industrial Estate was there on brewery business. In 1981, as the young Marketing Manager for the brewery, I would be receiving greetings from drivers of trailers and trucks parked over one kilometre from the main gate. Later, I witnessed the same thing at Ijagbo, Kwara State, when Noble was brewed and bottled in that sleepy community.

    But, the Nigerian Brewery plant in Enugu State a few kilometres from the 9th Mile Junction was the “Mother” of all. It was the largest in the country and dwarfed everything else in the sector. NBL really had to “go bush wacking” to obtain land big enough for their mighty ambition. Even while it was under construction, it has transformed every hamlet, village or community within two kilometres radius into a fast growing small town. Property values in the area raced past those of larger towns elsewhere. The race was on to build houses for the NBL staff expected, hotels for visitors, schools for the kids and private hospitals. Most of these could certainly not have happened without the brewery.

    Airports will be touched briefly and with only two examples given – Akure and Uyo. This again because I am familiar with the development of the two. My in-laws were from Akure and lived in a quiet village between the city of Akure and where the airport is now situated. Everybody’s peace of mind disappeared the day it was announced that an airport was going to be built five kilometres away from them; but, a highway linking the airport and city would pass, literally, through some peoples bedrooms. From then till now the changes in the area had been astonishing.

    When Obong Victor Attah, former Governor of Akwa Ibom State proposed the Uyo airport, it was probably not his intention to give people near the location sleepless nights. That was exactly what happened. He also probably never intended to bring about population shift towards the airport. He achieved both. Those are among the consequences of establishing airports in certain areas.

    Universities top them all in terms of their ability to turn villages to towns and towns to mini-cities. The Murtala Mohammed/Obasanjo regime set the ball rolling by promulgating a decree making it mandatory for a Federal university to be established in all the nineteen states they created. I was here then; and my travel schedules took me to every corner of Nigeria at least four times a year. I could remember telling my colleagues and drivers, as we drove past a sign saying PERMANENT SITE FOR UNIVERSITY, “nobody will go to university here”. They were all in the bush!!

    Well, we live to learn every day. Today, there is none of the first set of universities which is not in the centre of a bubbling town. Even when states went from 19 to 21; then to 30 and 36, universities have become the nucleus of social and economic transformation of the communities where they are established. They never fail.

    That in a nutshell explains why I am particularly disturbed by this story of another fraud. Readers would assume that after nearly 30 years on the beat nothing can shock me anymore. That is not true. I still feel pain when adults steal what belongs to young people. Steal mine; although I have little. But, leave the kids’ money.

    Buhari should ensure that the funds are retrieved and the university built.

  • NDDC: Niger Delta youths lay curse on Akpabio, send strong warning to FG [VIDEO]

    NDDC: Niger Delta youths lay curse on Akpabio, send strong warning to FG [VIDEO]

    Niger Delta youths under the aegis of Niger Delta Freedom Fighters have sent a strong warning to the federal government, rejecting the appointment of Mr Effiong Okon Akwa as sole administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    The Niger Delta youths sent the strong warning on Friday while pouring libations and laying curses on the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

    The youths called for the immediate constitution of a substantive board of the NDDC, stressing they are not against the forensic audit of the interventionist agency.

    In a video that has since gone viral on social media, a leader of the group was seen laying curses on Akpabio while followers were chanting a “freedom comes by struggle” song.

    “We are using it [a gin] to curse Akpabio and his cronies. This is the traditional wine recognised by the gods of Urhobo nation. This is the traditional wine recognised by the gods of the Niger Delta. We swear for Akpabio with the native chalk. If he refused to do the right thing, he will die.

    “This kola here is what we use to appease the gods. We are calling on the gods of the Niger Delta to visit Akpabio. This is our cowries and allegator pepper. Akpabio, you shall dream of us until you do the right thing. Any diabolic means you used in the presidency, we nolify. All our leaders that are sleeping, wake up, one man cannot overthrow us.

    “Finally, this is a warning. We are coming en masse. We are coming. Everywhere will shutdown. Our roads in the Niger Delta are bad. If you are taking from Warri to Benin, there is no way; Warri to Agbor, there is no way. Different federal roads in the Niger Delta are very bad.

    The NDDC is an intervention agency for us. If there is a board, the NDDC would be functional. We are not stopping the presidency from doing the forensic audit but the idea of bringing one man to oversee our future, the sole administrator, we reject it. We rebuke it. We cast it out,” the leader of the youths was heard saying.

    WATCH VIDEO BELOW:

  • Ijaw Youths tackle Akpabio over comment on inauguration of NDDC board

    Ijaw Youths tackle Akpabio over comment on inauguration of NDDC board

    Ijaw Youths from the nine states of the Niger Delta region have described as deceitful and diversionary the comments attributed to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, over the possible constitution of a substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in April 2021 after the forensic audit of the commission.

    Akpabio is reportedly said to have made the comment on Wednesday in Abuja while receiving the interim report of the commission from the forensic auditors.

    A statement by the National Spokesman of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Mr Ebilade Erekefe, on Friday insisted that the appointment of a sole administrator which had triggered protests in the region was ordered by a Court and not the Federal Government.

    Erekefe, while reacting to Akpabio’s statement, described the claim on the possible constitution of a substantive board as a deceitful way to divert the attention of the people of the Niger Delta region from agitation against the appointment of a sole administrator and shutting down the headquarters of the commission.

    According to him, the statement is the only reason that will stop the protest is for President Muahammadu Buhari to do the right thing by appointing the substantive board in NDDC that will carry out it6 functions properly.

    “We are calling on every well-meaning Ijaw youths not to be distracted by the statement of Peter Igbifa, which does not reflect the decision of council, while he has refused to react to the allegation of buying the position of the Sole Administrator of the NDDC with N3.5 billion from some aides of President Buhari.

    “The announcement made by Femi Adesina on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari is a clear indication that the sole administrator was concocted by the Federal Government on the financial prompting of the minister,” he said in the statement.

    “We also want to put on record that since the agitation and anger is being expressed by stakeholders from the region, we have noticed a desperate the attempt by the embattled Sole Administrator, Mr Okon Akwa Effiong and his god father, to be desperately spending money to divide the youths of the region and their leadership, including the IYC.

    “We are resolute and demand the immediate constitution of the board. If it is the court that ordered such, why are they desperately spending the NDDC fund to buy conscience and divide the region?

    “The only reason that will stop the protest is for President Muahammadu Buhari to do the right thing by appointing the substantive board in NDDC that will carry out it functions properly.

    “We are calling on every well-meaning Ijaw youths not to be distracted by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, which does not address the decision of Council on the issue of an immediate constitution of a substantive NDDC board.”

    He also dismissed the claim by Akpabio on the protests by Ijaw Youths in Abuja and some parts of the Niger Delta region.

    “The protests are borne out of genuine desires of the Ijaw youths to demand for a substantive board that will facilitate development in the Niger Delta region.

    “It is a people-driven and people-oriented protest that cannot be cancelled by anybody who has never been a part of the ongoing protests in the region.

    “The protest will go on according to plans as all structures of council have been fully notified for the shut down and they are all ready and waiting for the signal,” he lamented.

  • Insecurity: Ijaw youths push for security outfit in Niger Delta

    Insecurity: Ijaw youths push for security outfit in Niger Delta

    The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide has vowed to pursue the establishment of a regional security outfit in the New Year to police the Niger Delta region, especially the Southsouth geopolitical zone.

    In his New Year address in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Saturday, the IYC President, Peter Timothy Igbifa, said like the Amotekun in the West, it had become expedient for the South-South to float its security outfit.

    Igbifa listed the security challenges in the zone, especially the Ijaw-speaking communities, saying the youths would mount pressure on the governors to undertake all executive and legislative processes required to evolve the outfit.

    He said: “We are not alien to the reports of infiltrations of the herdsmen and other groups in our bushes and environment. The recurrent discovery of guns and live ammunitions on the highways is a clear indication that we must be prepared at all times.

    “The news of our women being raped and killed in bushes, farmers intimidated and maimed on a regular basis and travellers robbed and killed is becoming unbearable.

    “We, therefore, call on all structures of the council, zonal chapters and clans to set up mechanisms to check this unfortunate security threat in our region. I and my team are seriously considering the establishment of our own regional security outfit in line with the proposal made by the governors of our region. We shall push for this outfit and impress it upon the governors to invoke the required legislative process to give it a legal backing”.

    Igbifa said the IYC under his leadership would push for the relocation of the headquarters of oil multinationals to the Niger Delta region in obedience to presidential directives; the passage of the Petroleum Industrial Bill (PIB) into law; practice of true federalism, stoppage of military invasion in Ijaw communities and issuance of indigenous licenses for modula refineries.

    He said the IYC would hold all political holders from the region accountable and compel them to defend the common course of the Ijaw people.

    “As 8th President of IYC, I urge all political office holders both at the national, regional, state and local levels to rise up and defend the cause of the Ijawland and challenge every law that has kept us as tenants even in our own homes.

    “We want them to challenge the Land Use Act; the waterways laws; environmental acts, the ecological problems among others. We the IYC will collaborate to defend any of our political office holders willing to tread on the path of Ijaw”, he said.

    Igbifa decried the disunity among different stakeholders in Ijawland lamenting that if the division remained unabated, the Ijaw people would not be able to realise their common aspirations.

  • Buhari fires NDDC management, appoints sole administrator

    Buhari fires NDDC management, appoints sole administrator

    President Muhammadu Buhari has finally sacked the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), following reported financial misappropriations at the interventionist agency.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Buhari, Femi Adesina made this known in a statement on Saturday.

    According to the statement, President Buhari approved Mr Effiong Okon Akwa as interim administrator for the NDDC.

    Akwa was the Ag. Executive Director, Finance and Administration of the Commission before becoming the sole administrator of the interventionist agency.

    He is to assume headship of the NDDC till completion of the forensic audit, according to the statement by Adesina.

    The statement reads: “President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of an interim administrator to oversee the affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    “He is Mr Effiong Okon Akwa, the Ag. Executive Director, Finance and Administration of the Commission, who is to assume headship till completion of the forensic audit.

    “Mr Akwa is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

    “The development became necessary as a result of plethora of litigation and a restraining order issued recently against the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC by a Federal High Court in Abuja”.

    Recall the NDDC had been embroiled in allegations of financial misappropriations under Prof Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei.

    In one of the investigations into the financial misappropriations, Pondei fainted while being interrogated.

    TNG reports NDDC’s Director of Projects, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh is also affected with the dissolution of the commission’s management.

    The final outcome of the forensic audit of the NDDC under Pondei is still being awaited.

  • How to solve Nigeria’s myriad challenges – Okowa

    How to solve Nigeria’s myriad challenges – Okowa

    Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta has said that the partnership between states and Federal Government on peer review was needed to solve the myriads of challenges facing the country.

    Okowa stated this on Monday when the Chairman and members of the Implementation Monitoring Committee of the National Economic Council (NEC) led by the Chairman and Commissioner for Finance, Akwa-Ibom State, Mr Akan Okon visited him at Government House, Asaba.

    He said a lot was being done in the state on behalf of the Federal Government in ensuring that youths were kept busy with meaningful engagements in skills and entrepreneurship programmes.

    He stated that the engagement had yielded lots of positive outcomes as oil facilities are now more secured in the state.

    “I am glad you are here today because we have discussed this at the Governors’ Forum on the need for the Committee to go round the various states and am also sure you have been to some other states because am quite aware that the Committee has visited some states of the Federation.

    “It is our hope that during your stay in Delta State that you will be able to monitor issues as it affects the resolutions taken and also to take special note of programmes that we are carrying out in this state which have to a very large extent impacted on the youths very positively and to ensure that through that process we have been able to continue to engage the youths and that has also enabled us to have a more peaceful environment in the state for development.

    “There is no doubt we are in very difficult times and we need the cooperation of all ,particularly our youths for us to be able to move forward in terms of achieving peace and security in the nation.

    “Here in Delta, a lot is being done in terms of empowering the youths with skills and in entrepreneurship programmes for which we started from the very beginning of our administration in 2015.

    “A lot is being done by the state on behalf of the Federal Government in trying to ensure that we also secure the facilities of the oil companies and therefore through that process of engagement with the youths we have been able to ensure that the levels of destructions that we witnessed in the past is no longer the order of the day,” he said.

    He stressed that for Nigeria to come out of the challenges facing her as nation, it required the cooperation of all including the youths of the nation.

    He expressed optimism that the report of the Committee’s visit to the state would be useful to the state and the entire nation.

    “We will continue to do our best and we are hopeful that by the time you go round the state, your findings and recommendations will be such that it will be mutually beneficial to each individual states and the Federal Government of Nigeria because the partnership at this moment is needed for us to be able to address the many challenges that we have in our country today.

    “I wish you well in the course of your tour of the state and it is my hope that the recommendations that will come forth from this will be of great use to our nation,” Okowa stated.

    Earlier, the Chairman who was represented by the Secretary of the Committee, Mr Daniel Ikara, said they were in the state for the evaluation of the state government’s performance on the resolutions of the National Economic Council.

    He said the evaluation was necessary for a peer review and possible areas of intervention by the Federal Government.