THE proposed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), has continued to receive knocks from stakeholders and other concerned individuals and groups with workers in the upstream sector of the petroleum industry faulting among others, the absence of specific provisions on expatriate quota and local manpower training.

Dr. Edmund Daukoru, the Amayanabo of Nembe Kingdom in Bayelsa state and former minister of energy has expressed total support for efforts at optimizing government’s socio/economic return in petroleum arrangements.

The National Association of Microfinance Banks of Nigeria (NAMFBIN) and Association of Microfinance Bank in Nigeria (AMBN) have merged to further serve the interest of both customers and member banks better.

PRECIOUS Mines & Mineral Processing Company (PMMPC) Limited, a subsidiary of DVCF Oil & Gas Plc, has announced its readiness to deliver over 51% of the country’s local demand for marble and other precious stones.

ABUJA — A Polish developer, Polnord SA, is leading a coalition of various coal and power companies from the European country to invest in Nigeria ’’s moribund coal industry, towards boosting the Federal Government’’s coal to power project.

An unidentified middle aged man, suspected to be a member of a gang specialised in vandalism of Power Holding Company of Nigeria’s ( PHCN) installation has been electrocuted to death. The suspect died last Tuesday, after he neatly cut off a 3-core armored up riser cable serving 7-up bottling company and environs from the ground and later climbed the High Tension (H.T) pole.

Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has called on African leaders to harness the continent’s potential and opportunities to better the lot of the citizens.

A PDP chieftain in Abia State and member of the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT), Chief Benjamin Apugo, has called on the people of the state to rally round and rescue Governor Theodore Orji from what he called, the ‘bondage of his party, the Progressive People Alliance (PPA).’

Vanguard learnt that two other students, who received gun-shot wounds during the shoot-out, were said to be in critical condition at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Intensive Care Unit (ICU), just as it was further gathered that the three students who were killed were all “shot at very close range.”

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said
that the nation’s crude oil production capacity has recorded a quantum leap in
the aftermath of the amnesty programme and the return of peace in the Niger
Delta area.

TEACHERS in Edo state are to be paid based on the Teachers Salary Structure (TSS) with effect from January 2010.

JOURNALISTS in the zone C Area of Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ), comprising of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states, have threatened to embark on hunger strike to protest the bad conditions of federal roads in the zone.

GOVERNOR Rotimi Amaechi has scored some local government chairmen in the state low in terms of performance.

TEN communities in Anambra State have been presented with Micro Enterprises Equipment by Governor Peter Obi as part of the government’s poverty alleviation programme.

By Jimitota Onoyume PORT HARCOURT — MINISTER of Power, Dr Olaranrewaju Babalola, said gas supply to power stations round the country has improved. And with the current situation the projected 6000 megawatts was realisable.