Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014—45
Ika South swears in 18 councillors By Festus Ahon
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S A B A — CHAIRMAN of Ika South Local Government Area, Delta State, Mr. Fred Ofume, has sworn in the newly elected 18 councillors with a charge to be diligent in their duties. Those sworn in include Williams Eluma, Blessing Nwaogbein, Charles Aliagwu, Lucky Onyeukpere, Okafor Omorojie, Celestine Onyibo, Grace Aghaulor, Samson Okoh and Joseph Enuma. Others are Mr. Onyeka Nwagbogwu, Pauline Ayogbe, Sunday Iyeke, Raymond Okocha, Frank Owoyi, Emmanuel Orubor, Ignatius Agboile, Kenneth Idiaru, and Ndidi Onotor. Ofume, while addressing the councillors at the ceremony held in Agbor, headquarters of Ika South, stressed the need for all to work for the growth and development of the council.
... Warri North, too
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ARRI—THE 4th Assembly of the Warri North Local Government Area legislature, Delta State, has been inaugurated at Koko, its administrative headquarters. The event also witnessed the election of principal officers to steer the affairs of the House in its legislative business. The new principal officers elected include Oritsejafor Solomon from Ebrohimi Ward as Leader; Tiemo Israel of Tsekelewu Ward 14, as Deputy Leader; while Mr. Marshall Ekpe is Majority Leader from Ogbudugbudu I Ward 18. Others include Joel Akiri of Ogheye Ward 1, as Deputy Majority Leader; Chief Whip went to Sylvester Aduwenye of Jakpa Ward 3. Mr. Oloma Eyewuoma, Clerk of the Warri North Legislature, who conducted the inauguration, also administered the Oath of Office on the leader, Oritsejafor, who later did same on his other colleagues. C M Y K
Ijaw youths threaten to invade Kokori over spiritual leader's kidnap By Samuel Oyadongha
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ENAGOA—IJAW youths, under the aegis of Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, have threatened to invade Kokori community in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State over the abduction of HRM, Augustine Ebikeme, Pere Ekere, the Pere of Oporomor Kingdom in Bayelsa State. King Ekere, according to Ijaw, is the spiritual leader for the worshipers of Ijaw traditional deity, Egbesu. The kidnap of the royal
father, allegedly carried out by armed men at Kokori community on Sunday, had provoked indigenes of Ijaw communities in the Niger Delta region. IYC, in a statement in Yenagoa through its spokesman, Mr. Eric Omare, condemned the kidnap of the monarch, describing it as a joke taken too far that would not be tolerated. IYC said it would hold an emergency national congress on Friday at Olabrakopre, Ogbe-Ijoh, Warri, Delta State, for all Ijaw youths, where
decisions would be taken to ensure his release. It said: “We condemn and demand the immediate release of His Royal Majesty, Augustine Ebikeme, who was kidnapped at Kokori community in Ethiope East, while returning from a function. “We regard the kidnap of Pere Ekere, who is not just a traditional ruler but a spiritual leader of Ijaw, as an attack on the Ijaw nation. “If he is not released with immediate effect, Ijaw youths would be forced to storm Kokori to effect his release.”
NUJ
WEEK : From left— Mr. Ovuzourie Macaulay, Secretary to Delta State Government; Mr. Femi Adesina, President, Nigeria Guild of Editors; Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State (middle), and other dignitaries, at the foundation laying ceremony of Delta State Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Secretariat complex, during the 2014 Delta NUJ Press Week in Asaba, yesterday. PHOTO: Henry Unini.
We won't tolerate further delay in EPZ ground-breaking— NAIG By Daniel Gumm
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ARRI—ANGERED by the aborted groundbreaking ceremony of the Export Processing Zone, EPZ, in Ogidigben, by President Goodluck Jonathan, National Association of Itsekiri Graduates, NAIG, has vowed to employ no Retreat, no Reserve and no Regret philosophy if the continuous postponement of the ceremony was not stopped. NAIG, in a statement by its President, Ajagbe Oritsegbegbemi, said the decision by President Jonathan to call off the ground-breaking ceremony of EPZ as a result of threats from the people of Gbaramatu in Warri SouthWest Local Government Area, Delta State, undermines the territorial integrity of Nigeria and shows a government that is weak from sentiments. According to the Itsekiri graduates’ association, Federal Government’s action was an indication that violence, and not the rule of
law, should be encouraged in a supposedly sovereign state, where all inhabitants ought to have equal rights. Ajagbe posited that the Federal Government should not take the Itsekiri of Delta State for granted, stressing that no ethnic group has the monopoly of violence.
He said the land ownership claim by Gbaramatu people of where EPZ is situated is “falsehood driven by greed and Federal Government connection,” which Itsekiri people “who made elaborate preparation for the groundbreaking ceremony will no longer tolerate.”
FG to engage 2,000 Rivers graduates through SURE-P By Jimitota Onoyume
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ORT HARCOURT— FEDERAL Government is to engage 2,000 graduates in Rivers State in its Graduate Internship Scheme, GIS, under the Subsidy Re-Investment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P. Director, SURE-P GIS, Mr. Peter Papka, who spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt at the opening of the Graduate Internship Opportunities Fair, said about 2000 graduates from the state would be placed in the scheme from among participants at the three-day exercise.
He said the GIS was one of the units in SURE-P aimed at creating job opportunities for unemployed graduates in the country, adding that the internship fair was a forum for firms and graduates to interact. Papka said: “We are doing this internship fair to create an avenue for firms to meet the graduates directly. This will afford the firms an opportunity to assess the graduates before employment.” He enjoined the graduates, who appeared yesterday at the fair, to use the opportunity of the forum to prove their worth before would be employers.
Esan Coalition raises alarm over Ekpoma-Benin Road By Simon Adewale
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social political organisation in Edo State, Esan Coalition, has bemoaned the deplorable state of Ekpoma-Benin Road, which it said was turning into a death trap for motorist and travellers. The leader of the group, Prince Henry Okpamen, called on the Federal Government to urgently deplore more effective and enduring palliative measures towards rehabilitating the road. He urged the people of Edo Central to vote out Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidates, as, according to him, their representation over the past eight years had not brought any physical and meaningful changes to Esan people.
Traditional ruler tasks politicians on dialogue, sacrifice
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OLLOWING the lingering crisis rocking Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Enugu State, a patron of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Igwe Patrick Eze, Waziri, has called for dialogue, understating and truce among politicians to avoid generating tension in the polity ahead of the 2015 general elections. Eze, who is the traditional ruler of Egali Amalla community in Udenu Local Government Area of the state, urged aspirants on the platform of PDP to employ dialogue as alternative means to resolve the lingering crisis trailing the resignation of Vita Abba as Chairman and the ward congress election ahead of the party primaries. He said: “Two people cannot be governor at the same time. I appeal to all the aspirants who are entangled by the crises to go for a roundtable and sort out all issues. Power sharing and harmonization, as I know, originated from them who are in politics and thus they have to apply it in this instance and avoid heating up the polity.”