₦airaland Forum

Danhumprey: Disrespect? Why did the Governor refused to stand by President Jonathan's side? Maybe it was because Jonathan has a very bad body odour!

Bigcake: Why shld they report it? Wen foools decide to show their foolery in public u expect a whole national television to report dat to who? Nigerians r not foools mind u?

eGuerrilla: @Gbawe,

The essence of my point is that there are more effective ways of tackling issues like this rather than absconding at the first sign of trouble, as you suggested.

If we accept there is a point to maintaining bilateral relations with countries like Malaysia, then we must also be prepared to confront the manifestations of racism, head on, through appropriate channels.

I referenced the experiences of migrants in the 1960s, at a time when our folks were even more vulnerable because of our subservient relationship with Britain, to illustrate the importance of engaging in meaningful struggle where necessary.

eGuerrilla: Let's not forget that some of our parents were also confronted with "no tenancy" signs in Britain, back in the 1960s.

Given that Malaysia continues to attract thousands of African students, I think we need to be careful not to blow these localised problems out of proportion.

My personal advice to anyone discriminated against in this manner is to seek remedy via a judicial route.
In addition, get better organised and demand some kind of reaction from the Nigerian embassy in Malaysia.

Oil Thieves Have Hijacked Political Power - NNPC raises alarm •Says Nigeria loses 180,000 crude oil barrels to oil thieves daily

Written by Idowu Samuel Friday, 25 May 2012


CRIMINALS and crude oil thieves have taken over the oil fields in the Niger Delta and have used the proceeds of oil theft to hijack political power in Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), raised the alarm on Thursday. The Executive Secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparent Initiative (NEITI), Mrs Zainab Ahmed, had earlier lamented the activities of the crude oil thieves in the creeks of Niger Delta, whose activities she said had denied Nigeria a whopping sum of $4.6 million in just two years.The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr Austin Oniwon, lamented the increasing wave of criminal activities in the Niger Delta, which he said was causing Nigeria to lose an estimated 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Ghana, he noted, required only 120,000 barrels of crude oil daily to survive, expressing dismay that the rate at which criminals were prospecting for crude oil illegally in the country had reached an alarming level.
Oniwon said the miscreants behind illegal oil bunkering in the zone had sponsored the election of local government chairmen and now have the capacity to sponsor and produce more state governors, adding that they even have the potential to fund the emergence of a Nigerian president in the future.
He dropped the hints when members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), paid him a courtesy visit, as part of their oversight function, as he urged the lawmakers to enact legislation aimed at arresting the increasing wave of oil theft in Nigeria.

He said it was regrettable to note that criminals had taken over the most part of Niger Delta...” They have amassed so much wealth that they are beginning to look for political power. They have been sponsoring local government chairmen. The chairmen have also been sponsoring governors. And these people, if not checked in time, will one day produce the president of Nigeria.”
He said such a situation had occurred in countries like Colombia and Mexico where criminals dealing in drugs sponsored the presidents of the countries as a means of promoting their illegal trades.

Oniwon said Nigeria should waste no time in combating the nefarious activities of the oil thieves against the implication of its neighbours like Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia, which are now producing oil in commercial quantities, a development which may cripple the economy of Nigeria, anchored mainly on oil.

The NNPC boss urged the National Assembly not to delay in passing the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which, he noted, was capable of curbing irregularities in the Nigerian oil sector, adding that the bill, if eventually passed into law had the capacity to promote the emergence of a strong national oil company.

The House Committee Chairman on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Honourable Ajibola Muraina, who led members to the NNPC Towers, Abuja, equally lamented the growing capacity of crude oil thieves, as he urged the government of Nigeria to devise stringent means of preventing criminals from prospecting Nigeria’s crude oil illegally.
Muraina said the House of Representatives would work harmoniously with NNPC in sanitising the oil industry, even as he urged the corporation to, henceforth, begin to implement most of the recommendations by the House of Representatives and the Senate on the means of maintaining sanity in the Nigerian oil sector

pullyacap: I concur in all its entirety wt yr submission about that charlatan called 'Uncerebral 9gerian. One can't imagine the childish analogy vomitted by him that some problems takes time to get corrected. But I ask is it the problem deliberately created by the gov n its corrupt allies or those ones caused by people govt normally called saboteurs?

Methink that govt of PDP have deliberately allowed crude oil theft to fester and become endemic in order to empower some people thru the back door

You can only get confused at something u ddnt kno it source ab initio...and not at a problem u created yrself

Sincere 9gerian: @Gbawe..,the chief hunter of BAD news is already here. No surprises.

Yes, oil production now is low but that too is temporary. It will be fixed.

Horus: I concur. It is impossible to steal such huge quantity of national resources where there is a government in place, unless it is government people that are doing the stealing. This "Government" should be removed before they suck Nigeria dry

Fear Of Crisis In Niger Delta As Lamnalco Dares Militants, Sacks 40 Workers
Posted: August 28, 2013 - 04:44

Security operatives in the Niger Delta are bracing for a possible bloody crisis in the region following what has been described as indiscriminate sacking of about forty workers by the management of Lamnalco Nigeria Limited. The firing of the workers came after militants in the region warned against it, threatening armed attacks if their warning was not heeded.

The company’s decision to fire the workers, who are of Niger Delta origin, was seen as a slap in the face of militants, two powerful oil workers’ unions, NUPENG and PENGASSAN, as well as the judiciary.

One of the sacked workers told our correspondent that he and other fired workers had each put in more than 15 years in the company. “The management used alcohol and drugs tests as an excuse to lay off about forty of us,” the source said.

A senior manager of the company, who said he was unhappy about the firings, told our correspondent that the company brought in doctors and lab scientists into the company’s boats in a military-style “cordon and search” operation to conduct tests on the affected workers in order for Lamnalco to evade paying severance benefits to the sacked workers. Some of the sacked workers served as officials of the Lamnalco branch of NUPENG.

The sacked workers include Captain James Yangaboi, Victor Urevbu, Bernard Amadi, Canbi Opeme, Dennis Zifa, and Nelson Usilo. According to the management source, “Lamnalco’s vessels are not known to have experienced mishaps arising from drug or alcohol intake by captains and crew members. Most members of staff targeted for sacking have rather seen the company grow from five vessels in 1992 to over 28 ocean-going vessels with contracts in the West African sub-region. So the drug and alcohol test policy had never been applied in the entire company operations spanning over 21 years in Nigeria.”

The management source added that Lamnalco’s actions arose from the workers’ refusal to comply with the February 8, 2013 verdict of the National Industrial Court (NIC) Lagos which ruled that Lamnalco workers can only be members of National Seafarers and Collaborating Unions (NSCU), but not NUPENG and PENGASSAN. The workers filed an appeal against the judgment.

“The company’s action is part of plot not only to sack Niger Delta workers but to deprive them of many benefits contained in the employer-employee Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA),” one of the affected workers alleged. He added that the plot began with the relocation of Lamnalco’s headquarters from Port Harcourt to Lagos. “The relocation achieved the twin goals of easing out office staff that are Ijaw/Niger Delta and forestalled protests,” he said.

Numerous workers asserted that, following the NIC verdict, Lamnalco declined to pay an automatic 5% increase in salary to senior staff as well as the leave allowances to junior staff. In addition, the company reportedly refused to negotiate with the workers’ union when the last CBA expired in May 31, 2013 and failed to pay any benefits under the subsisting CBA.

“Can Lamnalco claim to be obeying the rule of law when it is suspending the CBA and sacking NUPENG/PENGASSAN officials? Yet, there is a pending appeal of the NIC verdict. Should the status quo not remain till the outcome of the appeal?” queried a source.

A militant group known as the Coastal Revolutionary Forces (CRF) had in March 2013 warned Lamnalco against proceeding with its planned layoffs without offering benefits to sacked workers. CRF vowed that it would strike the company’s ocean-going vessels without further notice should its warning be ignored.

In a strike threat that was later suspended, NUPENG-PENGASSAN also accused Lamnalco of daily threats and intimidation of workers for refusing to change their union/association to the NSCU as demanded by the NIC verdict.

“The painstaking implementation of the NIC verdict by Lamnalco in the pendency of an appeal is believed to lend credence to the company’s alleged sponsorship of NSCU with N50 million in the suit that culminated in the verdict,” the union stated.

In an email response to our questions, Lamnalco’s Human Resources Manager, Ndubuisi Ibegbulam, said the company had begun dealing with the Seafarers Collaborating Unions and stopped all dealings with NUPENG/PENGASSAN in keeping with the NIC’s verdict. Mr. Ibegbulam refused to state whether unpaid benefits due staff before the NIC verdict had been paid or would be paid.

Mr. Ibegbulam said he was aware of a judicial appeal filed by PENGASSAN, but added that the firm did not regard the filing of an appeal as amounting to a superior court’s order to stay execution of the earlier verdict. He insisted that there was no ongoing sack exercise.

On the alleged drug and alcohol tests, Mr. Ibegbulam stated that, following an “audit by one of our clients, it became mandatory to strictly enforce the drug and alcohol tests.” He stressed that the tests were an international policy. He further dismissed insinuations that the terminations were based on union membership. He said there was nothing like NUPENG/PENGASSAN in Lamnalco at the time the NUPENG chairman, secretary and treasurer were sacked, insisting that their terminations were done in line with their contract of service.

Several workers told our correspondent that they lived in daily fear of being the next victim in a war in which they are not sure if NUPENG and PENGASSAN could save them from the hammer.

desgiezd: A colleague of mine once said that a big head without brains is just an unncessary burden to the neck. Taking a good look at the size of Okupe's head vis-a-vis the senseless things that he says, I think that colleague of mine must be refering to Okupe back then.

jayone15: Why are our people like this for christ sake.....
Instead of you to commend him,some of you are still complaining...its now obvious that no matter how a person tries to satisfy,some pple will still hate and they can do nothing...
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The germany trip is for them to learn new scientifi methods of farming and then come back to apply it to The State Of Osun..
And some pple r stl saying nonsense.....i knw u r just jealous of those youths..i'm very sure all d people complaining here hv neva moved out of dis country,so they r beefing those youths....
You better look for a life,...i knw if they should give you the opportunity to go to ghana,u wl b thrilled..mtcheew...
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This man is giving our youths exposure...education..
You think you have farms here??...i laff...beta go to Europe to know what a farm really is!

joseph1832: I read up to the second paragraph and stopped reading. This twerp of a man call Okupe is really something, anyways I don't blame him it is the media I blame for not asking him fleeting questions.

chukwudi44: Jimi Agbaje is likely going to be Lagos next Governor under the PDP banner.

Paul John: I thought you wrote that it has not been built in the first place. Damn, this niqqa is so confused

naptu2: We haven't yet discussed the "other trade".

Goods are usually exchanged (one something goes one way, something else goes the opposite way) and they are not always exchanged for money.

Obiagelli: gej is either just incompetents or a full blown thief. From 7% to 20% in just one year? This is what you get when you put criminals in charge of oil installations, no wonder this criminals frequent Aso rock and one of them threatened to destroy this nation if the looting stops.

Obiagelli: nigerians have lost all sense of objective, rather than discuss the policy and it viability, they chose to wallow in stupidity and silliness. We deserve the leaders we get.

Alxmyr: Pray, you tell that to Alh. Lai Mohammed, Chief Bisi Akande, Mallam El- Rufai and other APC goons like you.

bethnals: this is why I cant take anything the FG or GEJ say seriously. Major issues like this absolutley no sense of direction or willingness to tackle the problem or they treat it with kid gloves. This is gross incompetence or knowing neglect: in this case one is not better than the other as they both demonstarte the total faliure that is the FG of Naija! These clowns in charge have nothing to offer except bread crumbs for the masses whilst they slice up the nutrient rich bread that is Naijas cashflow money between themselves.

Kairoseki77: Damn....front page and less than a page of views.

I have noticed a trend lately of people ignoring good news from the SW. Ogun state will comission a 10km road, and it will get 3,000 views, then GEJ will PROPOSE a 2km road and it will get 20,000 views.

The reason is twofold:

1. People in the SW expect this kind of development, and are no longer surprised that their Goverment's are working.

2. It hurts the feelings of other Nigerians, so they run away from the thread. Preferring to live in a fantasy where the evil monster Tinubu is ruining the SW.

holyvirgin: Lol, please this is the only way he can provide daily bread for his family! Do you want him to be sacked?

@op I can see that Apc has their eyes also on NNPC. Thieves in sheeps clothing