Fresh facts have emerged why the people of the state especially the Ijaws<\/p>\n
in the riverine communities of Delta State did not disrupt the reception
\nof Nigeria\u2019s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, during his recent
\nvisit to the state.<\/p>\n
The VP, penultimate week, visited the Forcados Terminal, a major export line
\noperated by the Anglo-Dutch oil firm, Shell Petroleum Development Company
\n(SPDC), which was destroyed by a shadowy militant group, Niger Delta
\nAvengers (NDA), over alleged witch hunting of the ex-warlord, Chief
\nGovernment Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo , who is facing prosecution in
\nabsentia for corrupt enrichment.
\nPointblanknews.com, gathered that the people had planned to stage protests
\nover the travails of the former commander of the defunct Movement for the
\nEmancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) on one hand and the lingering fuel
\nshortage on the other as well as the underdevelopment of the Niger Delta.<\/p>\n
Sensing that the protests would mar the visit, the state government
\nreportedly moved swiftly and appeased the communities with cash gifts
\nrunning into several millions of naira and top government officials from
\nthe areas were charged to nip the protests in the bud.<\/p>\n
Sources confided in our reporter that about N5 million each was doled out to
\ncommunity leaders in the riverside communities and hosts to the facility
\neven as Osubi community in Okpe council where the airport is situated also
\ngot her fair share of the largesse.<\/p>\n
Even at that, security was water tight during the VP\u2019s visit. Nigeria Vice
\nPresident, Professor Yemi Osinbajo had after inspecting the damaged
\npipeline, described it as the worst kind of terrorism, but stressed that
\nthe Federal and State government were committed to ensure its quick repair
\nto ease the hardship faced by Nigerians because fuel shortage.<\/p>\n
He said the federal government would not condone such dastardly act
\nbecause it was criminal and had adverse effect on the economy.<\/p>\n
“Federal government is working with the state and Shell Petroleum
\nDevelopment Company to ensure that the damaged pipeline is repaired
\nquickly because government is losing a lot of money since that terminal
\nstopped working about 300,000 barrels of crude oil daily is shut in which
\nis a great loss to our economy.<\/p>\n
“Pipeline vandalism is what we are trying to curtail and we are beefing up
\nsecurity in the area to ensure that such incident does not happen again
\nbecause it has also affected gas production in the country resulting in
\nthe epileptic power supply being experienced in the country,” he said.<\/p>\n
In his remarks, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa said the Focardos Terminal was
\nimportant to both the federal and state governments as “all production on
\nland both crude and gas by Shell has been reduced. This is affecting power
\nsupply in the country.”<\/p>\n
He expressed optimism that the repair works on the damaged pipeline would be
\ncompleted by May ending for operations to commence saying ” we were
\nbriefed by Shell that the repair works on the pipeline will be completed
\nby May ending, it means that the terminal will become functional soon.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fresh facts have emerged why the people of the state especially the Ijaws in the riverine communities of Delta State did not disrupt the reception of Nigeria\u2019s Vice President, Professor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n