₦airaland Forum

By Chimaobi Nwaiwu
Host communities of the 2nd Niger Bridge, a project located between Onitsha, Anambra, and Delta States, on Sunday shut down activities at Julius Berger Construction Company Office, BridgeHead Onitsha, Anambra State in protest against what they alleged was a failure by the company and its Project Director Mr. Fredrich Wieser to keep to the agreement with them.

Ten host communities to the 2nd Niger Bridge project shut down Julius Berger office in Onitsha over unfulfilled agreements by the company and it Project Director’s alleged high handednes
Speaking through some of their community Liaison Officers the communities accused the Project Director of high handedness, refusal to keep to the local content agreement with them and racism in discharging his duties.

The ten host communities, five from Anambra State, namely Onitsha, Obosi, Okpoko, Harbour, Odoekpe, while the others from Delta, being Oko Amakom, Asaba, Idoko Madu, Power Line, and Okwei, warned that Julius Berger worker is not welcomed in their communities unless the disagreement was resolved.


Displaying placards with inscriptions as “Wieser must go he is arrogant” “The Project Director is a racist, “Project Director does not respect the host community” “Host communities are not baggers” “Julius Berger does not respect the terms of the MOU with host communities” including others, the protesting host communities who were joined by the workers alleged that they are subjected to all insulting treatment by the Project Director and his foreign counterparts.


Addressing newsmen on behalf of Community Liaison Officer, Mr. Peter Okafor, said that the ten host communities, want the Director Project Director to leave Onitsha and should be replaced by somebody who is approachable and can handle the communities with respect.


“Julius Berger and their Project Director, Mr. Wieser has been maltreating the communities, they use the Project Director to deny the communities their rights, the man is unapproachable, and lacks respect for the host communities, does he respect the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU the communities have with them.


“He sacked almost 90 percent of indigenous workers, both skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers contrary to our local content agreement and has been employing his friends and foreigners, we are supposed to be given contracts like supplying of sand, stones, and other small contracts as contained in the local content agreement, but he has refused to honour the agreement.


Corroborating Okafor’s speech, Liaison Officer for Onitsha Community and Adazi Ogulani of Onitsha, Chief Dr. Chuma Agbakoba and his Delta State Counterpart, Mr. Henry Enebeli, said that Wieser must leave for work to continue otherwise work must stop at the 2nd Niger Bridge.


According to Chief Agbakoba, “We are not saying that work should stop on 2nd Niger Bridge, but we are saying that the Project Director Mr. Wieser, must leave, he does not have regards for the host communities and does not have manners of approach to the communities and above all, he is exhibits racist behaviours and we can no more tolerate that.


“Mr. Wieser is very high handed, that there are a lot of benefits given to host communities that the Project Director is denying us, and other local contents agreement we entered with the company which he has been denying us, we want him to be replaced by another person.”


Enebeli on his part said, “some of our communities cannot access their homes in Delta State, they have blocked our roads with sand and we have been begging and writing the Project Director since July, to instruct his men to clear the heaps of sands so we can access our communities, but he ignored us, we use Canoe to move in our areas now.


“We appealed to him to instead of sacking our people on redundancy because he is saying they are not working because of rains, he should give them stood off so they can start when the rains are over but he refused.”


Contacted for comments Julius Berger Public Relations Officer, Joseph Ojelabi, refereed newsmen to Federal Controller of Works, Anambra State Engineer Ajani Adeyemo, for comments.


However when Vanguard contacted Engineer Adeyemo, he said he was in a filling station, but has tried to intervene in the matter, he claimed started two weeks ago, he, however, noted that the demands of the host communities are complicated.

ON SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

BY UROWAYINO JEREMIAH

THE harmattan is coming early for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. In one week alone, the party lost at the presidential election tribunal, and also left daggers in the backs of two of its contestants in governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa, only a few months away to the polls.

As if that was not enough, one of the party’s most influential members and its main sponsor for a long time, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, declared war on the party, inviting heaven as his witness that he will stop at nothing until the “scoundrels” in his party have learnt their lesson. Of the raft of troubles facing the party, Wike’s threat of war is probably the most serious. He described the committee set up to investigate how Ndudi Elumelu emerged as the House minority leader as “the most corrupt committee” ever set up by his party, and warned that Rivers would “fight the party to a standstill”.


The party will not take Wike’s threat lightly. For years shortly before and following the PDP’s defeat in the 2015 election, the party almost splintered beyond recognition. Wike kept the main faction on life support. Former Borno State governor and life-time moss-free rolling stone, Ali Modu-Sherrif, was just as determined to wreck the PDP as Wike was determined to save the faction led by Ahmed Makarfi.

Others chipped in their bit, of course. Ayo Fayose supplied noise and entertainment which was, quite frankly, all he could afford; the governors of the South East offered dubious solidarity, for which they are famous; while in the South-South, the Bayelsa, Delta and Akwa Ibom governors were too busy quenching internal fires to care about PDP’s future.


Piper’s tune

But Wike put his money where his mouth was, fighting for PDP’s life all the way to the Supreme Court. To be sure, with his political foe and Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, snapping at his heels, Wike was also fighting for his own political life as well. The party’s survival and his own were, in a sense, intrinsically tied. By the time the Makarfi faction won at the Supreme Court, Wike understandably believed he deserved the first fruit of the victory. The piper had earned the right to call the tune. And he planned to do so in a big way. Not only did he install the Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, he cranked the machine to produce the party’s presidential candidate Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, and announced that the national convention – or coronation, to put it less elegantly – would also hold in Port Harcourt.


There was initial resistance to the venue – resistance which coincided with the formal announcement that former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, had switched parties and was now interested in running for the presidency on the PDP’s ticket. Atiku’s exit from APC was followed by the exit of other heavyweights, including Senate president Bukola Saraki, who after exiting was also touted as leader of the PDP.

That was adding insult to Wike’s injury. He was still grappling with the aggravation to his wound when the party whispered that it was planning to change the venue of the national convention and have it in Abuja, instead of Port Harcourt. His response was ballistic. Nearly one year ago today, he issued the first ultimatum. Wike dared the party to change the convention venue and see if it would survive the fallout. In a strategic move, the party retreated to fight another day. The convention was held in Port Harcourt, in deference to Wike’s wishes.

After the battle, war

Yet, Wike had only won the battle, not the war. When he thought he had the convention in the bag, that in addition to installing the party chairman, lining up the secretariat with his loyalists, and hosting the convention, he was now also going to produce the party’s presidential candidate, something went horribly wrong. The old guard, comprising Nigeria’s military coup platinum-medalists, struck just one more time. The guard dispatched its most dangerous asset alive to the convention venue with just one order: deliver the PDP ticket to Atiku Abubakar.

The General pulled it off, flattening Wike intrigue for intrigue and dollar for dollar. Wike had sustained the party for years, picking up every bill, including the bill for the Port Harcourt national convention, only to have someone else crowned in his home turf. It was an affront, utter humiliation hardly disguised by all the plastic smiles and contrived back-slapping during the subsequent campaigns. Wike was hurt and has been waiting patiently to get his revenge.

It is one year since. His latest spat with his party may well be his ultimate attempt at revenge. Insiders say there was a “gentleman’s” agreement by the party hierarchy to install Wike’s man, Kingsley Chinda, as the House minority leader. The party claimed to have written the House leadership endorsing him and during a plenary in July, Chinda in fact sat in the chair of minority leader! But elements from the same group that peppered him during the Port Harcourt national convention, ambushed his candidate and dealt him yet another back stab.

Wike has vowed to fight back. But seriously, what can he do at this time? He sent a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, congratulating him on his victory at the tribunal. His foes on both sides – Amaechi and co inside Aso Rock and those outside – must be laughing, because they know as much as Wike does that the congratulatory letter was more spite than strategy.

It will take more than an unexpected letter from a short-changed political investor to fight PDP to a standstill. It will take more than a love affair with Governor Kayode Fayemi, such as we have seen in the last two weeks. A furious blow may have damaged the party severely during its fragile, factionalised phase sometime back, but in its present state, it’s improbable that the PDP would succumb to the fury of one unhappy titan.

Shape of things coming

My guess is that there’ll be an attempt to patch things up, not necessarily because the party loves Wike or because those who consider themselves the party’s true custodians can endure his arrogance today any more than they could last year. The point is, everything must be done to delay the inevitable death of the PDP in its present form for as long as possible.

It’s not Wike’s fury that will kill the PDP. It’s the bad habits that it acquired for nearly 20 years when it was the ruling party and its inability to adapt. The party is used to free money and made a point to gorge itself on it remorselessly while in power.

It was either grabbing money from the centre or from the bottomless pockets of a few of its influential governors. Or from a few private businessmen for whose pleasure government captured the state. Those who wrote the cheques controlled the party, spreading their corrupting influence until the party collapsed under the weight of its own arrogance and impunity.

The party is in its fifth year out of power and most of its money taps are running dry. Two of its major sources of supply – Abuja and rogue businessmen – have dwindled, leaving only the third: one or two desultory governors in the South South. But the custodians of the party (and Atiku remains one of them) will do everything to extend the life of the party. Whatever its predicament, PDP would be the platform on which Atiku would run for presidency again, betting that the APC will implode after Buhari. Atiku is not done yet.

Wike is signaling because he knows that his days in the PDP are numbered. When his tenure as two-term governor ends, he will neither take a back seat nor let the new self-styled PDP custodians decide his fate.

By declaring war on the party early on, he is sending a message to his supporters that he might be heading in a new direction, whether or not Chinda gets his seat as minority leader. APC may be a no-go area; but who says this fight to the finish will not produce its own political hybrid?

By Chinyere Okoroafor September 18, 2019


The Wedding Party 2: Destination Dubai

https://i1-wp-com.cdn.ampproject.org/i/s/i1.wp.com/crystallinelibraries.com.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/hot-the-wedding-party-2-destination-dubai-nollywood-movie-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C579&ssl=1

This is a 2017 romantic comedy drama film directed by Niyi Akinmolayan. It is a sequel to The Wedding Party, which was released in December 2016. Principal photography for the film, which was shot in Lagos and Dubai, began in May 2017. It is currently the highest grossing Nigerian film of all time with N512,000,000 domestic gross.


The Wedding Party


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The 2016 romantic comedy drama film was directed by Kemi Adetiba. It premiered on 8 September 2016 at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada and on 26 November 2016 at Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos. The film was released worldwide on 16 December 2016, and became the highest grossing Nigerian film; a record which was broken in 2017 by its sequel The Wedding Party 2.


Chief Daddy

https://stationmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/chief-daddy1.jpg

The 2018 feature film was directed by Niyi Akinmolayan, written by Bode Asiyanbi, produced by Mosunmola Abudu and Temidayo Abudu. It was released in December 2018 and starred popular Nollywood actors and actresses such as Funke Akindele Bello, Kate Henshaw, Nkem Owoh, Joke Silva, Patience Ozokwor, Richard Mofe Damijo and Racheal Oniga.


King of Boys

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The 2018 political thriller is written, co-produced and directed by Kemi Adetiba. It is the second movie directed by Kemi Adetiba after The Wedding Party. It reunites Adetiba with Adesua Etomi and Sola Sobowale, after they worked together in her directorial debut, The Wedding Party. The movie is focused on power tussle. It stars rappers Illbliss and Reminisce in their movie debut roles. Others include Paul Sambo, Osas Ajibade, Toni Tones, Sani Muazu, Demola Adedoyin and Akin Lewis.


Merry Men: The Real Yoruba Demons

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The 2018 movie drama was written, produced and directed by Ayo Makun also known as AY. The film which grossed N230,000,000 is set in Abuja. It centers on four rich men (the Merry Men), who seduce powerful women, get contracts from the political elite, steal from the rich, give to the poor and have sex with the hottest women in town. They face their biggest challenge yet when they antagonize a notorious and corrupt politician who plans on demolishing a village to build a shopping mall. The four men scheme to save the poor people of the village.

TRIGITIS:
Good attempt.

But 20k for a returnee from oversea residing in Lagos?

Babajide Sanwo-Olu can do better

All the same, nice gesture, at least better than none.

ON SEPTEMBER 18, 201911:27 PM

BY RASHEED SOBOWALE

The Lagos State Government on Wednesday gave a sum of N20,000 to each of the second batch of 315 Nigerians evacuated from South Africa.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the fresh batch of returnees arrived a week after another 187 Nigerians fleeing xenophobia came back from South Africa.

The joyous returnees arrived at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at about 7.21p.m aboard an Air Peace B777 aircraft with registration number 5N-BWI.

The flight, which originated from the OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg was received by Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and Air Peace Chairman, Mr Allen Onyema.

Also on ground was Mr Jermaine Sanwo-Olu, Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos State Governor on Diaspora.

Presenting the token on behalf of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Mr Jermaine Sanwo-Olu said that the money was a palliative for the returnees.

Sanwo-Olu said that the returnees from Lagos State would be transferred to the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), where they would be trained on skill acquisition.

Dabiri-Erewa told newsmen that the returnees would be profiled according to their states and local governments of origin to complement the federal government’s effort in reintegrating them.

She said apart from giving the returnees stipends to get back to their respective states, there was also a medical team on ground to provide assistance to those with medical conditions.

Dabiri-Erewa also noted that the Nigeria High Commission was working with the South African authorities to reduce the unnecessary delays which had so far characterised the evacuation exercise.

On his part, Onyema told newsmen that some Nigerians were stranded in South Africa for over four years and could not return home due to financial difficulties and lack of proper documentation.

He said: “What Air Peace is doing to freely evacuate Nigerians from South Africa is part of our support to the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and we are doing it wholeheartedly.

“The airline is only asking the government to do what it has been doing to facilitate the smooth return of the Nigerians.

“We are not asking for any refund because we knew that the cost of evacuating the Nigerians will exceed N300 million at the end of the day.

“We are so happy that even our pilots and crew that went to South Africa refused to take their allowances saying that it is their own way of showing patriotism,” Onyema said.

He commended the Nigerian government for the matured diplomatic way it was handling the xenophobia issue with its South African counterpart and called on other well-meaning Nigerians to assist in the resettlement of the returnees.

One of the returnees, Chuks Okoma from Delta State, thanked God for sparing his life considering the ordeal faced by Nigerians in South Africa.

Okoma said that he had been in South Africa for six years without a job and sleeping in the street.

Another returnee, Michael Udoh, narrated how some foreigners were burnt in South Africa, adding that they were unable to move around.

Udoh, who had been in South Africa for six years, said that the country refused to renew his work permit after it expired, thus making him jobless.

ON SEPTEMBER 12, 20198

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Thursday morning received another batch of 158 Nigerians from Libya.

Alhaji Idris Muhammed, the Head of NEMA Territorial Office in Lagos, told newsmen that the agency received the returnees on behalf of the Federal Government.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that these returnees from Libya arrived in the country few hours after 187 Nigerians returned from South Africa.

Muhammed said the Libya returnees were brought back in a chartered flight, Al Buraq Air aircraft, which landed at the cargo wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos at about 12:55 a.m.

According to him, the evacuation of this batch of Nigerians from Libya was facilitated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the European Union (EU) under the Assisted Voluntary Returnees Programme.

“The breakdown of the returnees after profiling indicates that they are 56 adult female including eight pregnant women, three female children and five female infants.

“It also includes 84 male adult, five male children and five male infants, while seven returnees have minor medical cases.”

Other agencies involved in the reception of the returnees were the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Nigeria Immigration Service and the Federal Airports Authourity of Nigeria. (NAN)

Vanguard

naptu2:
This was one of the biggest hits in Nigeria in 1986.

Yvonne Chaka Chaka - Umqombothi (1986)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl-kqz8CWaU

by Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa September 9, 2019

Ijaw youths on Monday told the Bayelsa State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that they would resist his attempt to make someone from the Urhobo ethnic group a Deputy Governor in Bayelsa, the only Ijaw homogeneous state.

The youths, who rose from their meeting in Warri, Delta State, vowed to mobilise people to vote massively against the PDP in Bayelsa if its running mate had questionable identity.

The youths, who said they met under the auspices of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, said Bayelsa belongs to Ijaw people adding that they would only support known indigenes, whose roots are traceable to other states.

The group in a statement signed by James Kombowei appealed to the people of Bayelsa to beware of PDP’s antics and wondered why the party leadership allowed the ambition of a few persons to colour its style of politics.

He said: “We have observed what is happening in Bayelsa PDP and it is indeed a sad commentary. We don’t know Governor Seriake Dickson with this kind of politics. Despite the hullabaloo against his choice of the PDP candidate, he still gave him the ticket. Diri is a known Ijaw man and we are comfortable with him.

“What we can’t allow is imposing anybody, whose lineage is linked to Urhobo on Ijaw people as a deputy governor. We are asking the PDP and the governor to drop the idea if they are nursing it. Anyway even if they don’t stop because they may be blinded by some ambition, we don’t have any qualms with that.


Read Also; Crisis rocks Bayelsa PDP over choice of running mate


“We only pity them. Thank God there is credible alternative elsewhere. So, we are asking all the Ijaw people in Bayelsa to reject the pair of PDP motivated by greed and direct their votes to other parties that have the interest of Ijaw people”.

He urged Dickson to steer clear from those who wanted the downfall of the only homogenous Ijaw state by imposing an Urhobo man as the deputy governor of the state.

He described the act as the shame of the century nurtured under the supervision of governor Dickson, adding that persons blindfolded by their personal and selfish political ambitions would always fail.

He said the Ijaw people had resolved never to mortgage the only homogenous state to a non-Ijaw insisting that it was an abominable act to try to impose an Urhobo deputy governor on Ijaw people.

“We will campaign round the Ijaw Nation especially Bayelsa State to elect only 100% Ijaw tickets. We will prefer to elect even an uneducated Ijaw person to govern over our Ijaw state than allow a non-Ijaw to lead our proud Ijaw nation.

“We believe that Governor Dickson will not allow this evil which is clearly against the ethos and logos of the Ijaw struggle which he has always stood for”, he said.

immortalityk:
Who gives a fukk about a celebrant family
Im telling u the real truth
I will show u a Facebook page and videos of ilaje people in ondo and u will weep for them
An average Yoruba leader should not have time for this crap
I know what I'm talking about,this is for the next generation of Yoruba people
I know what I'm saying
I research a lot, trust me I don't like what I see
It just pains me that I'm not a leader in Yoruba land maybe even a honourable or councillor, u will see me do wonder
U guys are blinded by all this extravaganza rubbish
If awolowo was like this,do u think he would achieve what he did?
Even that tinubu is useless
Aaaaarrrrgghhhh!!!!!
I'm so fukkin mad
It just pains that nobody understands me

immortalityk:
Please Ondofirstborn what's the meaning of this dumb ceremony akeredolu is attending
Tell aketi there is poverty in ondo
There is huge poverty in ondo riverine areas
In ilaje land where most of ondo oil come from,I don't like their situation at all
I'm a Yoruba person, but this is y I said Yoruba's lack leaders
If u see how ilaje people are crying of ocean encroachment on their land,oil spill in their rivers
But sorry I have to admit this fact
Igbos have leaders, Yoruba's seriously don't
This dunderhead akeredolu supposed to build a mini city for the ilaje people, build at least 5000 housing estates for them
Even build 3,000 housing estate each in each local governments in ondo
But what do u expect,Yoruba leaders are dunderheads
Its only Lagos government that engages in mass housing
Other sw states don't do anything
The only thing u will see them do is road
Ondofirstborn tell akeredolu to build at least 3000 housing estate in ondo state local governments
Ondo has oil money, in fact ondo is one of sw states that collects much faac
All this stupid ceremony has no usefulness
When will yorubas have sense
Whyyy??!?!!!!!?

Oh my gosh!

iybee24:
Ogun has always bn the best in term of security since 2011, this gesture taking by Dapo is just to compliment there efforts.

oneconnerguy:
dem never tell us the real koko

*Says IPOB has no power to issue travel ban

Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja by Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

September 5, 2019

Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi on Thursday said the South-East governors have no apology to tender to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

In a recent open letter to the governors, IPOB had made some demands including an open apology.

But briefing State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Umahi said “We have no apology to tender.”

The governor also noted that the South-East governors did not proscribe IPOB because it didn’t have the power to do so.

He also said IPOB lacked the power to issue travel ban to the South East governors.

Details shortly…

GavelSlam:
You must be a poor dad.