THE turnout at the beginning of the three-day public hearing on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) last Monday was unprecedented in the ten year history of the present National Assembly. It was perhaps reflective of the serious dominance of oil in the nation’s economy that the Senate hearing was thronged by virtually all stakeholders to the Nigerian project.

Vanguard learnt that the decision to throw out the workers was taken at a meeting of the Board of the Commission in Warri last Wednesday, but the 520 take-off staff would be retained.

According to Chief Oyegun who spoke with Vanguard in an interview in Benin yesterday, “there was no need for the governors to threaten to pull out of the amnesty. The amnesty is in danger; it is in jeopardy unless the Federal Government does something quickly.

Pepsi, the official beverage partner of CAF for all major competitions, has thrown its weight behind Heartland Football Club of Owerri and Kano Pillars FC to excel in the 2009 CAF Champions League.

In a statement by the group’s Chairman, Professor Gabriel Yomere said that if Nigeria is to be truly a federation, it must jettison the present political arrangement.

In the past, the health sector in Cross River State frequently features in the news for the wrong reasons due to the alarmingly high maternal and infant mortality rates recorded every year.But the good news presently is that the State government has decided to take  the bull by the horns in stemming  the unfortunate trend. […]

MTN World Golf Championship action moves to Benin this weekend as the newly refurbished golf course in the ancient city play host to the South-South regional qualifiers, where over 200 amateur golfers are expected to vie for honours.

At a Stakeholders’ Forum, July 20, organized by the Delta State Government in Asaba to sensitize the people on the National Gas Master Plan, the participants and representatives of host communities were agitated by the issue of ownership and what the host communities and indigenes stand to gain by allowing the Federal Government and multinational companies to exploit gas in the state.

President of the group, Dr. Ebipamone Nanakumo, who spoke to Vanguard from his United States base, accused the Federal Government of further aggravating tension in the troubled region and called for the immediate reversal of the said obnoxious and unacceptable policies and plans of the Nigerian government.

They claimed that “new oil and gas companies, like Mid Western Oil and Gas, Platform Petroleum, Pillar Oil, Energia-UPDC, Sterling Global, Chorus Energy and a host of others have discovered huge deposit of Non-Associated Gas (NAG) in the upland areas of Ndokwa and Ukwuani local government areas which can be confirmed with the relevant authorities, making Ndokwa/Ukwuani the rightful hub for the central processing facility (CPF).”