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Former Governor of Delta State, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan has enjoined the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to ensure governors in the Niger Delta region were part of the engagement process towards resolving militancy and challenges of under development in the region.

The Federal Government has been advised to consider the appointment of a new leader for Boko Haram, Sheikh Abu Musab Al-Barnawi as a very serious and dangerous development in the ongoing war against terrorism and insurgency.

For the first time since the flop of the parley, major factors that aborted a planned meeting between the Minister of Sports and Youths Development, Comrade Solomon Dalung, and key Niger Delta militant leaders, emerged last night.
The facilitator of the failed meeting, Jude Tabai and former Special Adviser to Bayelsa Governor on Security, told Saturday Vanguard that the minister messed up the meeting by claiming that he was ‘going to Oporoza to meet with Niger Delta Avengers’, a claim that infuriated the natives of the Ijaw community even before his arrival.
“Niger Delta Avengers do not reside in Oporoza” Tabai, who claims to have deep knowledge of the Niger Delta and all the major actors in the Niger Delta imbroglio, told Saturday Vanguard, adding that the natives of the community felt they were being stigmatized as ‘harbingers’ of evil men.
“What happened was that I took the minister as Oporoza in what was supposed to be a ‘coded visit’ that was to known to only concerned ‘stakeholders’ in the militant camps.
“The journey took us two hours from Warri to Kurutie to Oporoza with a stopover at Okorenkeko, which is the site of the National Maritime University spearheaded by the previous administration and currently one of the sources of the faceoff between the militants and the Federal Government’’

“Unfortunately, we did not even reach the first camp in the vast creeks when some of the leaders who were waiting in their various locations to meet with us started calling me that the meeting had leaked and they were no longer comfortable to meet with us.
“That was why the key actors and community leaders became angry with us and began to make negative remarks against me and the minister, accusing us of trying to impugn them and we could not do much during the trip.
“I also strongly believe that some of the elements, who want to make money from the Federal Government by continuously bombing oil facilities by giving impossible conditions, got wind of our proposed meeting and decided to stir up strife among the major people who would have received us and everything collapsed,” Tabai said.
The former governor’s aide also blamed a top security official attached to the Minister of State for Petroleum, who was to be part of the peace team to Oporoza but opted out of the team on reaching Warri, apparently not to be seen as working with our own team to achieve peace.
According to Tabai, who claims he belongs to neither the Niger Delta Avengers nor MEND, chided the unnamed minister’s aide for feigning ‘stomach ache’ and turning back from the Oporoza journey as they arrived Warri on the instruction of those he called the ‘real enemies’ of peace in the Niger Delta, who have given them false hope that they were in charge of the ‘situation’ in the creeks.
Tabai pointed out that the ‘impostors’ were responsible for coning top government officials into parting with huge sums of money with no result achieved at the end of the day.
The former governor’s aide blamed the acrimony between Chief Ayiri and Michael Johnny on one hand and Government Ekpemopolo alias Tompolo, for the rising crisis in the region, saying that until peace was restored between the two factions, it would be difficult to achieve any meaningful dialogue in the Niger Delta.
According to him, Ayiri and Johnny were opposed to Tompolo because they see the Buhari’s government as their ‘turn’ to also eat from the federal government while regarding Tompolo as a man of the past who had had his fair share of oil money and contracts from the previous government.
Tabai stated that unless those he called ‘fifth columnists’ are cleared from the Niger Delta actors; it would be difficult to make headway in the peace effort to put things right in the Niger Delta.
Lalung has come under severe flaks for making the Niger Delta trip without the authorisation of the presidency, earning a query in the process.
But the minister has not been able to speak on the matter, almost a month after the aborted controversial trip still causing ripples.

In Nigeria, it is expected that when a man or lady gets of age, he or she should move away from under the shadows of the parents and get married. Even the Holy Books strongly advise this, so it’s no surprise that marriage is seen as such a big deal in this part of the world.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja, yesterday, dashed the hope of governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Abia state, Dr. Alex Otti, to benefit from the High Court judgment that sacked Governor Okezie Ikpeazu from office.

For viewers of the first edition of the famous MTN Project Fame West Africa, Annette Cookey needs no introduction as she emerged the 3rd runner-up in the 2008 edition of the contest. But since her emergence, the all-round entertainer seems not to have done much when it comes to releasing singles and albums.

Seyi Sodimu is a Nigerian Afro soul music star and songwriter. The former U.S- based singer who relocated to Nigeria recently released the remix of his evergreen song, ‘Love Me Jeje’ which featured American R&B singer K. Michelle.

Rep. Abdulmumin Jibrin, the anti-padding crusader, and born-again activist is in the mind of some of several critics of the legislature, a godsend for the country’s anti-corruption campaign.

Following the incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers across the federation, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his administration would not tolerate any acts of banditry and criminality. He said that the security agencies in the country had been mandated to adequately deal with such act as it was capable of truncating the peace of the country.

A group, Reformed Niger Delta Avengers, RNDA, claiming to be a breakaway faction of the
Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, emerged, yesterday, backed out of the continued attacks on pipelines by the principal organization, threatening to expose the identities of NDA fighters and their sponsors if the militant group do not cease hostilities.

Even with the calls for his resignation closely reaching crescendo, Speaker Yakubu Dogara of the House of Representatives has said he would not resign. “Resign for what?” He said during an interface with the State House Correspondents at the presidential villa yester-day.

Since the creation of man, man has always wanted to have things his own way. Often, he feels, his ways are the best. Sometimes no matter how well you try to get him to understand the truth (JN 17:17), man will still tell you that he knows best. What man often fails to understand is that, he is a created being, created by someone greater than him. The simple question now is; can the creature be greater than the creator? If your answer is no, then why spend your quality time leaning on your own understanding as opposed to trusting in God, who is your maker and knows the best for you.

Imo State is in the news again and probably for what some concerned citizens and labour leaders called “the wrong reasons”. They have equally not failed to wonder why “obnoxious policies and equally vexatious labour practices should start from the state”.

There is no doubt that corruption has remained a central defining theme of the Buhari administration since its inception in May of 2015. President Buhari, prior to his inauguration as President, once stated, “So the point I want to make here is that the problem of Nigeria is not ethnic or religious, it is corruption…..we should try to kill corruption before corruption kills Nigeria…..corruption is fast becoming a culture and to try to caution people is not an easy task but it must be done.”