UPDATE: RESIDENTS SAY MORE THAN 100 PERSONS KILLED IN PIPELINE EXPLOSION IN RIVERS

Scene of the fire

Residents of Kom Kom in Oyigbo local Government Area of Rivers State where an oil pipeline belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) exploded on Saturday say over 100 people were burnt in the fire.

Some of the bodies, they claimed, were burnt beyond recognition while scores of corpses were still in the bush where the explosion occurred.

Residents also raised an alarm over the humanitarian disaster due to the fast decomposing bodies, stench and pollution of the swamp and the environment.

A visit to the area on Sunday showed that the number of human casualties grew because many of the villagers were in the swamp scooping petrol gushing out of the ruptured NNPC pipeline. Also affected were a number of palm wine tappers and local brewers of Ethanol who were in the swamp.

A corpse on the bush

Burnt corpse

Villagers said over 100 people were trapped in the huge fire because there was a free-for-all scramble for leaking petrol by the villagers before the explosion.

A villager who gave his as Ogechi Nnamdi said: “Nobody at the scene of the explosion survived. People were rushing to the leakage site to scoop free fuel, suddenly we heard an explosion. At least, I saw about 20 dead bodies. 11 had been carried away. And more are in the swamp yet to be recovered. And it is difficult getting inside the swamp now because we are in the rainy season”.

He called for the decontermination of the area by the government to avoid the spread of diseases.

Some of the villagers were observed recovering the charred bodies from the swamp and burying them in mass graves.

Most of volunteers were not putting on medical gears to prevent infections from the fast decomposing bodies. There were no presence of emergency officials from the Oyigbo local government, state or the Federal government at the time of the visit.

Our correspondent was assaulted by the pungent smell of decomposing corpses oozing out from the environment.

Rescuers at the scene

Hon. Promise Chibuzo Nwankwo, the House Of Assembly member representing Oyigbo Local Government Area expressed his condolences to the families of victims of the disaster. He also condemned the activities of oil thieves who caused the disaster.

According to the lawmaker, “In the early hours of Saturday, 22nd June 2019, around 8:25 am there was an incident of fire outbreak in Oyigbo Local Government Area.

“The fire outbreak which occurred in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) facility somewhere around Canaan Land Hospital, Izuoma Axis of Oyigbo local government area is as a result of oil bunkering.

“Until now the number of people injured are unconfirmed, but it is confirmed that scores of person’s were recorded dead.”

DOZENS BURNT to DEATH AS SHELL PIPELINE EXPLODES IN RIVERS STATE

Dozens were feared dead when a gas pipeline exploded at Kom Kom in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers state on Saturday.

An eyewitness told newsmen that, “We were just waking up when we heard a very loud sound. We knew it was an explosion but did not know the kind of explosion. We later traced the tick smoke to the gas pipeline.”

Authorities said majority of the casualties are burnt beyond recognition in the fire that occurred early Saturday.

Spokesman of the Rivers State Police Command, Nnamdi Omoni told our correspondence that the incident happened when officials of Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC were carrying out routine maintenance of the facility in Kom Kom.

Omoni, a Deputy Police Superintendent, said the casualty figure was yet to be ascertained but the fire has been put out and normalcy has returned to scene of the incident.

“Shell was carrying out maintenance on the pipeline when the explosion happened. Our findings indicate that some members of the community rushed to the scene to scoop the product when the explosion happened.

“I can’t tell you how many people were burnt but it was not a good site. Our men are still at the scene,” he said.

HANAN, A BAYERO UNIVERSITY, KANO LAW STUDENT STABS HUSBAND, SAHEED HUSSAIN 7 MONTHS AFTER MARRIAGE

A man identified as Saheed Hussain is currently battling for his life at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, after being allegedly stabbed by his wife of 7 months, Hanan.

According to reports, the Bayero University, Kano, law student stabbed Saeed, last night and has since been arrested.

What led to the incident is still not too clear as at time of filing this report to but sketchy reports gathered from neighbours indicates that she, Hanan, drugged her husband before stabbing him.

SUPREME COURT SACKS NIGER, EDO REPS

The Supreme Court yesterday sacked two newly inaugurated members of the House of Representatives.

The apex court which delivered judgement in two separate pre-election matters decided cases against the member sworn-in to represent Akoko-Edo federal constituency of Edo State, Hon. Kabiru Adjoto and his counterpart from Magama / Rijau federal constituency of Niger State, Hon. Shehu Saleh Rijau.

Sequel to the judgements, Comrade Peter Akpatason, has been returned to the Lower House for the third term to Adjoto while Alhaji Jafaru Iliyasu replaced Hon. Rijau.

In the case of Akpatason, the apex court upturned the decision of the Court of Appeal, Benin Division, which recognised Adjoto as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 general elections.

The court awarded a cost of N2 million to Akpatason.

According to the judgment prepared by Justice Paul Adamu Galinje and delivered by a panel of justices led by Justice Kumai Bayang Akaahs, the decision of the Court of Appeal was upturned while judgment of the trial court was upheld.

He said: “This appeal is allowed; the decision of lower court of 6th October, 2018 is upheld. The cost of N2 million is awarded against the respondent.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Akpatason winner of the Akoko-Edo federal constituency election, having polled a total of 27,097 votes to defeat his closest rival, Oladele Bankole-Balogun, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 16,053 votes.

However, the appellate court nullified the candidacy of Akpatason and declared Adjoto as the candidate of the APC. The Court of Appeal also nullified the APC National Assembly primaries election appeals committee headed by former governor of Edo State, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor.

In the same vein, the winner of the House of Representatives’ primary election by the APC for Magama / Rijau constituency of Niger State, Alhaji Jafaru Ilyasu, on the platform of the APC  had protested his substitution with Shehu Saleh who did not contest the poll, but was rewarded with automatic ticket of the party.

Saleh having lost the APC senatorial ticket was compensated with the return ticket to the House of Representatives.

Ilyasu, therefore, challenged Saleh’s nomination and won at the trial court. But the Court of Appeal upturned decision of the trial court.

SUPREME COURT VOIDS STATE LAWS EMPOWERING GOVERNORS TO SACK LG CHAIRMEN, COUNCILLORS

THe Supreme Court of Nigeria (SCN) yesterday voided laws enacted by the states’ Houses of Assembly which allow governors to sack elected Chairmen of Local Governments and Councillors and replace them appointed administrators.

It has of recent become a tradition among governors to dissolve the Executive Councils of the states’ LGs and replace them with their appointees, who they call caretaker committees. In a unanimous judgement of five Justices of the Supreme Court described the practice as “executive recklessness”, which must not be allowed to persist.

The judgment by the five-man panel, led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour was on the appeal in relation to the dissolution of the 16 Local Government Executives in Ekiti State, during Kayode Fayemi’s tenure.

The appeal _marked:SC/120/2013_ was filed by the Ekiti State Government.

It had Prince Sanmi Olubunmo (Chairman of Ido Osi LG and Chairman of Association of Local Government’s of Nigeria – ALGON, Ekiti Chapter and 13 others as respondents.

Fayemi, (then) Minister of Mineral Resources reportedly announced the dissolution of the councils in a radio announcement on October 29, 2010, when the elected council officials still had up till December 19, 2011 to end their three-year tenure.

The Supreme Court, in faulting the law purportedly relied on by Fayemi, held that Section 23(b) of the Ekiti State Local Government Administration (Amendment) Law, 2001, which empowered the governor to dissolve local government councils, whose tenure was yet to expire, violated section 7(1) of the Constitution from which the state House of Assembly derived the power to enact the local government law. Justice Centus Nweze, in the lead judgment, said: “There can be no doubt, as argued by the appellants’ counsel, that the Ekiti State House of Assembly is empowered to make laws of Ekiti State.

“However, the snag here is that, in enacting section 23(b) of the Ekiti State Local Government Administration (Amendment) Law, 2001, which empowered the first appellant to bridge the tenure of office of the respondents, it overreached itself. “In other words, section 23(b) (supra) is violative of, and in conflict with section 7(1) of the Constitution (supra). “Hence, it is bound to suffer the fate of ll laws which are in conflict with the Constitution, section 1(3) thereof.”

The judge Said Section 7(1) of the Constitution seeks to guarantee “the system of local government by democratically-elected local government councils and conferred “sacrosanctity on the elections of such officials whose electoral mandates derived from the will of the people freely exercised through the democratic process”.

“The implication, therefore, is that section 23(b) of thethe Ekiti State Local Government Administration (Amendment) Law, 2001, which was not intended to ‘ensure the existence of’ such democratically-elected councils, but to snap their continued existence by their substitution with caretaker councils, was enacted in clear breach of the supreme provisions of section 7(1) of the Constitution.

“To that extent, it (section 23(b) supra) cannot co-habit with section 7(1) of the Constitution (supra) and must, in consequence, be invalidated.

"The reason is simple. By his oath of office, the governor swore to protect and not to supplant the Constitution.

“Hence, any action of his which has the capacity of undermining the same Constitution (as in the instant case where the first appellant, ‘Governor of Ekiti State and others’ dissolved the tenure of the respondents and replaced them with caretaker committees) is tantamount to executive recklessness which would not be condoned,” the judge said.

Justice Nweze said the the tenure of the local government councils could not be abridged without violating the supreme constitutional provisions.

“Simply put, therefore, the election of such officials into their offices and their tenure are clothed with constitutional force.

They cannot, therefore, be abridged without breaching the Constitution from which they derive their force. “The only permissible exception, where a state governor could truncate the lifespan of a local government council which evolved through the democratic process of elections, is ‘for overriding public interest’ in a period of emergency.”

He upheld the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal on the issue and adopted the orders made by the Court of Appeal on the case in its judgment delivered on January 23, 2013.

The Appeal Court had among others, ordered the Ekiti State Government to compute and pay all the allowances and salaries accruable to members of the dissolved councils between October 29, 2010 and December 19, 2011, both dates inclusive.

Justice Nweze directed the Attorney- General of Ekiti State to ensure that the orders of the lower court (Appeal Court) affirmed in his judgment, are complied with.

HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE IN THE NORTH-EAST BELOW STANDARD - UN

The United Nations has decried humanitarian services to victims of Northeast crisis, lamenting that it is not meeting international best standard.

The world body also criticised what it described as dearth of knowledge by some of the key stakeholders in the provision of humanitarian services in the troubled Northeast region.

Speaking at the Humanitarian Stakeholders Forum organised by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Maiduguri on Thursday, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Edward Kallon said services to the troubled Northeast region must be based on international best practices.

He said: “We need to have a better understanding of the gap in the services we are providing for the displaced persons in the camps; it seems we don’t have a better understanding of the gaps.

“We also need to provide services based on international best practices. We are not meeting the best standard; it requires we must work together to provide better services.”

Kallon added: “One thing that is very clear whatever we have done and what we are doing currently is way below international standard.”

He asked the meeting to as a matter of urgency brainstorm on how to relocate 89,000 IDPs, adding that more than 28 hectares of land was needed for this.

He said he was shocked to discover that 20,110 displaced persons were sleeping outside without shelters in Bama, Borno State.

Kallon said: “When I was in Bama, I was shocked with what I saw. Damboa shows another ugly face with over 10,000 without shelter.”

“Camps are over congested, we are under so much pressure to improve on what we are doing; we should not be too proud that we have done extremely well, there is still a lot that needs to be done. I call on NEMA and SEMA that we need to work with the international community to bridge the gap. I am seriously worried about the efficiency and effectiveness of what we are doing to address displacement in Northeast. We should do better and we must do better.”

The NEMA has also painted an ugly picture of handling of humanitarian services in the Northeast, lamenting that over 45,000 IDPs are sleeping in the open in Borno State.

The Director General of NEMA, Alhaji Mustapha Maihajja, who was represented by Director of Planning and Strategy, Mr. Kayode Fagbemi said that the recent challenges faced was as a result of massive arrival of IDPs from some attacked areas in Borno.

According to him, the Northeast Zonal Coordinator said about 45,000 people were without shelter, and this was because of the new arrivals. He said the agency was there to address the challenges as well as to provide food and other items that will bring succour to the people.

He explained that the purpose of conveying the meeting was to tell discuss the challenges and gaps so as to proffer solutions to them.

He said: “We know that the humanitarian situation is getting worse in some areas and there are more critical needs in some areas.”

I MAY QUIT SUPER EAGLES AFTER AFCON -MIKEL OBI

Super Eagles captain, Mikel Obi, has hinted that he will call time on his international career after the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.

The former Chelsea defensive midfielder made his international debut on August 17, 2005 and has since played in two World Cups for the national team with a career spanning over 14 years for the senior national team.

Speaking ahead of the Eagles opening fixture against the Swallows of Burundi, the Eagles captain said he is confident the country will go far judging by their last performance in the country (Egypt).

“The last time we were here we won, but we’ve missed out on a few. But we are confident. There are just three of us who have the experience but the blend in the team is good.”

When quizzed about his time with the Eagles and when he would likely call time on his glorious career, the Nigerian international noted that ending his national team affiliation in Egypt would not be a bad idea as he has a sentimental attachment to Egypt which coincidentally is where he played his first AFCON tourney.

“It’s not a bad place to finish! I started here in 2006 and we came 3rd so Egypt has always been good to me. This time hopefully we can do better. I’m not 100 per cent sure this is my last one but maybe.”

ZAMFARA BANDITS GIVE CONDITIONS FOR CEASEFIRE

Armed Bandits in Zamfara State have given conditions for laying down their arms. One of the conditions is that extra-judicial killings of Fulanis, especially in local markets, should be halted.
The bandits are also demanding that they be allowed to attend local markets without fear or intimidation.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Usman Nagoggo, disclosed this yesterday during a meeting with vigilantes and volunteers popularly known as Yan Sakai, Nagoggo said authorities had recently reached out to the armed men and that they had assured that they would stop the carnage in the state only on conditions.

The CP said: “Part of the conditions they gave was that the Yan Sakai should halt the extra judicial killings of Fulani especially in local markets. The bandits said they should be allowed to attend local markets without fear or intimidation.

“That is why we are holding this meeting to intimate you about the new peace road map being designed by the government. In a situation whereby a local vigilante will kill one of the bandits and the armed men would slay about 30 persons in retaliation, what is the gain here?”

The CP urged the leaders of the vigilantes to reach out to their followers and ask them to stop unlawful executions of suspected criminals, adding that “it is part of what is fuelling the crises.”

In his reaction, the secretary of the Yan Sakai group in the state, Sani Babbar Doka, said: “In the peace pact that took place about three years ago, we surrendered our arms as demanded by the government, but the armed criminals did not. We are ready for anything that will ensure that peace returns to our communities, but not at the detriment of the opposing group,” he said.

MTN REBRANDS AS EPIC

MTN has changed its name to epic, marking the occasion with an event on Thursday evening.

“As of today, there is a breath of fresh air in our market, inaugurating a new era, which leads to the future,” epic’s Chief Executive Officer Thanos Chronopoulos said.

In his speech, he referred to the pillars of the new strategy and to the company’s investment plan of for the coming years.

“Three are the main pillars of change: our infrastructure, our customers’ experience and the internal operations,” he stated.

“Firstly, we are radically changing our infrastructure: With an investment of over €40 million, we are creating a super-fast network with 10 times more capacity than in the past. Essentially, we are talking about a brand new network that will gradually cover the whole of the Republic of Cyprus and will upgrade the customers’ daily communication experience substantially and practically.

“Secondly, we are decisively focused on the customers. We put them at the heart of our everyday lives. This requires emphasis on immediacy, flexibility and speed to meet and exceed the customers’ needs.

“Finally, we are restructuring radically our internal operations. We are implementing new, unified tools to help us keep track of the customers’ requests from the beginning to the end, ensuring they receive the best possible services, while this process helps us monitor and, therefore, improve continuously ourselves.”

Epic is one of the largest telecommunication providers in Cyprus. It provides integrated mobile and fixed telephony, internet and pay-TV services as well as specialised ICT solutions for businesses. At the same time, it operates 18 stores with tech products, accessories and telecommunication solutions.

Epic belongs to Monaco Telecom, the Principality of Monaco provider, and is a member of a dynamic European telecoms family which operates in France, Italy, Switzerland and Ireland.

FG TO PROSCRIBE ALMAJIRI SYSTEM

NSA, Babagana-Monguno

The National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, yesterday said the Federal Government will proscribe the Almajiri system and other groups that have become a problem to the society.

This is even as the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu, has said the security situation in the country has stabilised.

Briefing State House correspondents after the National Economic Council, NEC, meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at Presidential Villa, Abuja, the NSA said the $1 billion approved in 2017 by NEC from Excess Crude Account for security was earmarked for the military.

Though, Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, and governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, had while briefing journalists earlier this month, said the $1 billion, which even raised dust among the governors, had been expended.

However, the NSA said the $1 billion was earmarked for the military and that he was not aware whether the money had been released or spent on security.

Monguno said he briefed NEC on several issues relating to security in the country and that the council was on the verge of releasing a blueprint over the myriads of security problems.

He said:  “I briefed the council on the drivers of insecurity, which are unemployment, under-employment, poverty, drugs abuse, rising population.

“I also made suggestions regarding the way forward, which include employment creation and reduction of poverty, and is the culture of impunity and looking at stabilising certain areas of the country by giving rise to affordable education.

“This is very important because, in most parts of the country, we have a lot of children roaming around without any formal education.

“As the president mentioned earlier, when he was inaugurating the National Economic Council, we need to make education compulsory and free for every child in the country because the problems we face today are rooted in the fact that a lot of people who have been denied the opportunity to get formal education end up over the years.

“There is an accumulation of a large mass of human beings who end up becoming criminals, drug addicts and so on and so forth. And they end up becoming tools to be used by elements in the wider society who have very dangerous intentions.

“Therefore, it is very important to proscribed certain groups ultimately running around under the guise of maybe getting some kind of education that is not really formal and then begin to cause a lot of problems for society.

“The group I spoke about on illiteracy is the Almajiri. Ultimately, the government will have to proscribe this Almajiri phenomenon, because we cannot continue to have street urchins, children roaming around, only for them in a couple of years or decades to become a problem to society.

“We are not saying that they are going to be contained in a manner, that you might think we want to do something that is harmful to them, no. What we want to do is to work with the state governments to enforce the policy of education for every child.

“Now, the bandits in the northwest have become major threats to national security. Of course, in recent weeks the Nigeria Police Force has made a lot of gains in dealing with these criminals.

“I also briefed the council on the activities of herdsmen/farmers. Their activities are limited to 16 states so far, but the council is working on the blueprint, it is on the verge of releasing the blueprint to solve these problems. It is a complex problem but it is about to be resolved within the council.

On his part, IGPAdamu said, in terms of general security, the situation in the country has stabilised, disclosing that NEC has approved the setting up of Security and Policing Committee, with the governors of Ekiti, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Katsina, Ogun and Borno states as members.

Other members of the committee, he said, were NSA, IGP and Chief of Defence Staff.