RE: Tension Grips Delta Poly Over Killing Of Student As Police Demands Money Before Investigations By Celestina Kalu

1. The attention of Delta State Police Command has been drawn to an online publication of July 6, 2016 by Sahara Reporters with the above caption and wish to state that the said story is malicious, misleading, and an attempt to tarnish the image of the Command and its officers before the public and undiscerning readers.

2. It is pertinent to point out that on 2/7/2016, the DPO Oghara Division received information that a corpse of a lady was found lying by the fence of Delta State Polytechnic, Otefe-Oghara. Consequently, the DPO led detectives to the scene, viewed the corpse and observed no visible marks of violence on the body except whitish foam from the nose and mouth. The victim was identified as Udu Edith Bugbemi ‘f’, a part-time ND 1 student of Science Laboratory and Technology Dept, Delta State Polytechnic Otefe-Oghara.

The detectives after photographing the scene evacuated the corpse to Delta State Teaching hospital Mortuary-Oghara, and filled out coroner’s forms which were served on the doctor for post mortem examination in order to ascertain the cause of her death.

3. The Command equally wishes to state as a matter of fact that the DPO Oghara and his men did not demand money from the victim’s parents or any other person before carrying out investigation as alleged by the Sahara Reporters. It is also worth stating here that the Police Public Relations officer (PPRO), SP. 

Celestina Kalu never rebuffed any caller from Sahara Reporters as no call was made to her GSM line by Sahara Reporters correspondent as claimed. The PPRO has no reason to rebuff call from Sahara Reporters or any other caller since she knows her roles as the Command’s spokesperson.

4. Investigation into the incident is ongoing while the result of the post mortem examination is being awaited to determine the cause of death.

5. Finally, the Command urges the public to disregard the said publication as false, malicious, and speculative and a mere figment of the author’s imagination. We also wish to counsel the Sahara Reporters to practice responsible journalism by getting facts of incidents before rushing to press.

SP. CELESTINA KALU,
POLICE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER,
DELTA STATE COMMAND.

Niger Delta Militants blow up oil pipelines in Bayelsa

 













Militants launched a fresh round of attacks on oil pipelines in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta energy hub belonging to Italy's Eni and Aiteo, Nigerian security forces, Eni and a militant group said.

The attacks are the latest in a spate targeting oil and gas facilities in the OPEC member's Niger Delta region over the last few months which briefly pushed oil production this spring to 30-year lows.

The renewed violence could further cut into exports that were depressed as a result of infrastructure damage, underscoring the serious security threat to the oil production on which Nigeria relies for around 70 percent of its revenue.

Niger Delta Avengers, the group that has carried out most of the attacks, said on its website that it blew up the Nembe 1, 2 and 3 trunkline in Bayelsa and Rivers states which is owned by the Aiteo group in an early hours attack.

A spokesman for Eni confirmed that a separate attack on a crude pipeline in Bayelsa state, operated through its subsidiary, Nigerian Agip Oil Company, had taken place. No group has claimed responsibility for that attack.

The company said the impact on the group's equity production was 4,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL), a 100-kilometre long pipeline capable of carrying 600,000 barrels per day (bpd), moves Bonny Light crude oil to the export terminal.

Suicide bomber kills at least nine at mosque in Damboa North-East Nigeria's

No fewer than 9 people were killed by a suicide bomber  and 12 others were injured on Friday in an attack on a mosque in Damboa, northeastern Nigerian during early morning prayers, a military source said.

 

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack in the town of Damboa, which is in Borno state, but it bore the hallmarks of Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

A member of a grassroots civilian joint task force set up to defend local people against Boko Haram also confirmed Friday's attack on the mosque.

Chai! See How People Are Being Transported in China Due to Heavy Rainfall 

Chinese citizens are now taking shocking measures to escape to safety following heavy downpour in the area.

 

 

 

 

Because of heavy downpour, people now transport themselves using construction vehicles. Na wa o!

According to a report by CCTVNews, flooding in China has caused people to now commute using construction vehicles.

 

The report has it hat due to continuous rainfall in Wuhan, provincial capital of central China’s Hubei Province, daily life activities have been disrupted, everyday work have been halted and public transport cut off due to flooding.

 

In order to escape the waterlogged streets, people are now using shovel loaders, construction trucks and even bulldozers to get to school or work. As of today, 19 roads in the city are still cut off due to the flood.

At least 48 people have died and seven are still missing in Hubei, according to the latest statistics released by the Department of Civil Affairs of Hubei Province.

 

Some 11.6 million people in the province have been affected. The severe weather has damaged around 73,000 houses and nearly 332,000 people are in urgent need of basic living assistance.

 

 

 

 

Lecturer seeks resumption of oil exploration in Chad Basin

A lecturer with Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Dr Sadiq Rajab, has urged the Federal Government to resume Oil and Gas exploration activities in the Lake Chad Basin and other areas of the North.

He made the call on Friday in Keffi. He said that the significance of oil exploration in the Chad Basin would boost the economic fortunes of the country.

The search for oil in Nigeria’s Chad basin, which is adjacent to Niger Republic, Cameroon and Chad, had been on for three decades. He explained that oil exploration in the area would increase the nation’s earnings in view of the current economic challenges and the hostilities of Niger Delta Avengers. 

The don added that exploration would provide employment for thousands of the youths, reduce poverty and insecurity in the region.

Rajab stressed the need for the federal government to assist the states that have oil to engage multinational oil companies to develop the community.

He said that states alone could not shoulder the responsibility of engaging multinational cooperation to harness the oil in the Lake Chad basin and the north.

“We are appealing to the federal government to assist those states that oil is discovered in them to be able to develop it for national development,’’ Rajab said.

Similarly, the don advised the federal government to support farmers with 20,000 tractors to boost rice production in the country.

He said that if the federal government wants to put an end to rice importation, it must assist real farmers with the necessary farm implements to ensure massive production.

“I am confident if government assists farmers with such implements, we will not have business with rice importation either through the sea or land next year.

“We are not asking government to provide free tractors to farmers rather it will be based on loan at a subsidised rate.

“It is brightest idea for the federal government to encourage farming, but it must assist farmers to achieve the desire result,’’ Rajab said.

Besides, Rajab called on governors to provide at least 5,000 tractors to farmers in their state annually in order to encourage farming and improve their Internally Generated Revenue.

According to him, if federal and state governments pay enough attention to agriculture, it will develop the nation’s economy in no distance time.

Rajab commended President Muhammadu Buhari for taking steps to diversify the nation’s economy in order to reduce too much dependency on petroleum resources.

NAN

JAMB Issues New Guidelines For 2016/2017 Admission

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has on Monday announced the point system option as its new guideline for 2016/2017 admission into tertiary institutions in the country.
The announcement was made after an extensive one-week meeting between officials of JAMB, stakeholders, universities and other tertiary institutions’ administrators.

  

 
The admission process would work for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UMTE) candidates and direct entry (DE) students while universities are to charge fees for screening of candidates at the end of the process for admission.

The board explained that the new method uses a point system, which is divided into other processes, that is easy to understand.

According to JAMB, “the new method uses a point system to offer provisional admission to candidates.”
“Before a candidate can be considered for screening, he/she must have been offered a provisional admission by JAMB. The JAMB admission checker portal is going to be opened soon for this process, so praying is all you can do now,” the board said.

The statement said, “JAMB’s provisional admission no longer makes much sense this year, your points tally will decide your faith. The points are evenly spread out between your O’ Level and JAMB results to provide a level-playing field for all.

“In the first case, any candidate who submits only one result which contains his/her relevant subjects already has 10 points. The exam could be NECO, WASSCE, November/December WASSCE etc, but any candidate who has two sittings only gets 2 points. So this means that candidates with only one result are at an advantage but only just.”

The organisation added that the “next point grades fell into the O’ Level grades where each grade would have it equivalent point; A=6 marks, B=4 marks, C=3 marks, so the better the candidates’ grades, the better his or her chances of securing admission this year.

“The next point is the UTME scores where each score range has its equivalent point which can be summarised thus, 180-200=20-23 marks, 200-250=24-33 points, 251-300=34-43, 300-400=44-60 points,” JAMB explained.

In summary, JAMB explained that each category would contain five JAMB results per point added.

For example a candidate with 180-185 gets 20 points, while a candidate with 186-190 gets 21 points.

JAMB added that the point system for direct entry would be released soon.

JAMB stated that fees would still be charged for screening which would replace the Post UTME test.

JAMB also emphasised that catchment and educationally less-developed state would still be used for admission into the nation’s tertiary institutions.

JAMB said, “Merit contains 45 per cent of the total candidates for a particular course, Catchment contains 35 per cent and ELDS and staff lists contains the rest. Cut off marks will be released by the institutions this year in the form of points and not marks.

“If a school declares its cut off mark for Medicine as 90 points and JAMB grants a candidate with 250 a provisional admission but his/her total points falls short of the 90 points, then he/she will lose the admission. So the provisional admission is just a means to an end, not the end in itself.”

If you've not been praying, start now o!

NANS say NO to N2,500 post-UTME screening fee

The National Association of Nigerian Students has rejected the introduction of the admission screening fee of N2,500 by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Education.

According to a statement credited to NANS Vice President, Gbenga Ayenuro, which was made available to newsmen in Akure on Friday, “NANS, which has been, and will always be, at the forefront of any and every kind of exploitation of Nigerian students in any guise was relieved by the recent ban on post-UTME.
“As it was a long overdue decision to end the exploitation of prospectively- Nigerian students seeking admission.

“And it was a policy that endeared the Federal Government to the hearts of Nigerian masses; it was widely jubilated and welcomed by all concerned stakeholders in the Nigerian education sector,” he said.
According to him, it is surprising, appalling, anti-masses and unethical, for the federal government to submit to pressure from the heads of tertiary institutions by introducing the post-UTME screening fee.

He noted that the policy somersault was tantamount to the government being insensitive to the growing economic meltdown being experienced by parents and guardians of prospective students all over the country.
Ayenuro said that NANS viewed the introduction of the post-UTME screening fee as another way of extorting and exploiting potential students.

He alleged that it was another avenue of enriching management of various tertiary institutions across the length and breadth of Nigeria.
“Nigerian students can no longer keep mute in the face of the general hardship confronting the Nigerian masses.

“Our parents and guardians have become incapable of sending us stipends for our upkeep let alone of paying for our tuition fees.

“The food and provision stores in all our various campuses are undergoing abysmally low patronage from students due to the ever increasing high price tag of virtually all commodities.
“We cannot continue to keep mute while our future is being mortgaged and short changed by this present administration,’’ he alleged.

Ayenuro therefore issued a three-working day ultimatum to the ministry to reverse its decision on imposition of post-UTME screening fee as the most important stakeholder in the Nigerian education sector.
He said that failure to reverse the new policy would result in a peaceful protest at the Ministry of Education, Abuja, at a date to be announced.

(NAN)