Honourable Tim Owhefere is the Chief Whip of the Delta State House of Assembly representing the Isoko North constituency. Owhefere who is also a knight of St. Christopher bared his mind on the recent passage of a bill in the house that sentences kidnappers to death if found guilty and the ten years old democracy […]

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.

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.

I think the bill is a little bit insensitive to the yearnings of the people of the Niger Delta and the oil producing communities. One important instance of this is that all over the world, royalty is an amount paid to the owners of the land.

Former governor of the state, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who was represented at the meeting by an aide, Professor Tunde Samuel, said that the ultimatum, apart “from being totally unwarranted and an abuse of the constitution, in essence seeks to punish the people of Lagos State for being democratic.”

THE whole nation must be on tenterhooks, wondering what the Federal Government will cause to happen in Lagos today as the ultimatum it handed the state government expired last night.

ALHAJI Abubakar Tsav, a retired Lagos State Commissioner of Police, renown social critic and anti-corruption crusader in this interview with Vanguard in Makurdi, spoke on Yar’ Adua’s administration, Obasanjo’s regime, EFCC,amnesty, rotational presidency and other national issues. Excerpts:

Obahiagbon, had in a motion appealed to the House to call on the Federal Government to immortalise the late politician who died on the July 7, 1998 in Federal Government’s custody.

The National Assembly has a self cleansing mechanism and there are plenty of people with such accusations and in any case it is just mere accusation until proven in the court nobody can do anything about it and you cannot blame the president for that.

Until few days ago, Prince Kassim Afegbua, the Acting National Chairman of National Democratic Party, NDP, was the Chief Press     Secretary to the Edo State Governor, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole.