In a four-page communiqué issued yesterday at the end of its emergency meeting and signed by Comrade Mark Tarilayefa (Bayelsa) and Comrade Bernard Francis (Rivers),the maritime workers accused the men of the Joint Task Force of engaging in brazen extortion of money and torture of passengers on boats plying the area.

He maintained that the caretaker committee was put in place as a result of the dissolution of the immediate past executive and expressed the readiness of the present leadership of the party to promote discipline and cohesion in the party.

FIRST son of late Albert Badey, one of the four prominent Ogoni chiefs that were killed in Giokoo, Gokana local government area on May 21st, 1994, Mr. Swaga Alex Badey, in this interview with Vanguard described the recent decision by Shell to pay compensation to families of late Ken Saro Wiwa and the other eight that were hung as sad and divisive. Instead of compensation, he said, Shell should have shown sincere resolve to address the devastation and degradation caused by its operations in Ogoni land.

Egheruaye Quarters further urged the court to grant an order of injunction restraining Shell Development Company from further paying monies due to them as compensation on the land to the defendants or any persons except them, just as they prayed the court to particularly restrain Timothy Igben, Darosha Emesa and George Idogun who are 8th, 9th and 10th defendants respectively from maltreating, discriminating and witch hunting the plaintiffs or doing any act whatsoever capable of prejudicing the plaintiffs.

President of MOSOP, Mr. Goodluck Diigbo, said “Ateke Tom’s readiness to give peace a chance at a point when most observers of happenings in the Niger Delta felt that the crisis in the region will escalate, is a pointer to the fact that it could be resolved within us.

QUITE unexpectedly, Cross Rivers State has suddenly found itself out of the club of oil producing states in the country. Obviously this will have telling effects on the state revenue and by implication, affect governance. In this interview with journalists, Gov Liyel Imoke spoke on efforts to reverse the development and how the state is presently coping. He also spoke on power sector and South-South states. Excerpts:

Speaking at the Faculty of Law Distinguished Jurists lecture of Lagos State University, Sagay said, “how do you expect a free and fair election from INEC, when Maurice Iwu is a board member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in disguise who would do anything to see his party win elections?”

He argued that “these problems notwithstanding, it is however, obvious that the major challenge of popular participation in the management of state affairs by the people themselves, has become sacrosanct in the present democratic dispensation.

With a radical disposition forged in the lecture theatre of the famous Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) of the Ahmadu Bello University in the early seventies, Kuta yet carries on as a comrade with vituperations against the bourgeoisie class. Despite signs of comfort here and there like the air-conditioning in his office which he said is for his visitors, Comrade Senator Kuta nevertheless remained one of the voices of the masses in the Senate.

Governor Amaechi also ordered the demolition of shops around the schools. He visited Community Secondary school, Rumuapara, and State School, Orogbum at D/Line, where he directed the construction of another model primary school, based on the high population of pupils in Orogbum.