Elder statesman and president of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, has bemoaned the extent of poverty in the Niger Delta region and emphasized that if the region’s 13 percent derivation had been properly managed, militancy in the area would have been reduced.

On Wednesday, Clark criticized former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa for failing to account for the 13 percent derivation he received while serving as governor and complained that Niger Delta governors are now wealthier than the Niger Delta states.

According to him, “The 13 percent derivation was something that was raised at the Constituent Assembly, chaired by the former Justice of the Supreme Court. People like Late General Shehu Yar Adua and others felt that there was need to compensate the people that produce the oil and we were around lobbying and the 13 percent was granted under section 1622 of the constitution which provided for at least 13 percent of the federation account to be given to the oil producing communities for their development.

“If that money was properly spent our boys won’t be agitating. There will be no more militancy in the creeks. We have been facing the federal government and not the governors who have been stealing the money. At the 2014 National confab we asked for an increase to 25 percent, and to 50 percent after five years. They told us that they would give us 18 percent but that we should go home and see what our governors were doing with the 13 percent.

“That is why we decided to ask the governors what they are doing with the money. I remember that in 2015 New Niger Avengers gave a warning to the federal government that they would attack oil pipelines if the derivation money is not used in developing their area. I intervened and appealed to them that I would talk to the governors.

“Recently the former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike revealed in one of his press conferences that a certain amount of money was paid to them by President Buhari under the 13 percent derivation and that Delta State got over N250 billion.

“That annoyed Okowa and he criticised Wike for interfering in their matter. So, I wrote a letter to Okowa to account for the money that he has been collecting. He answered and said that they spent N5 billion in paying pensioners in Delta State. How does that come under 13 percent? Are they oil producing pensioners? He is spending the money on building a university in his own village.

“I engaged a lawyer who went to obtain a certified true copy of all the amount that they paid since 2007. I got a letter from the Accountant General’s office. He stated all what every oil producing state was paid. The one paid to Delta State amounted to N1 trillion, while about N766 billion was received under Okowa.

“We cannot be criticizing the federal government every time for taking our money when those at home who receive the money refuse to account for the receipts. Their monthly allocations are higher than every other state, in addition to the 13 percent derivation,” Clark said.

Game-changers in the real estate sector, Zealand Properties has named Hilda Baci as the newest landlady at one of its estates, Yomade Heritage in Epe. Baci is the holder of the most recent Guinness Book of World Records.

Hilda Baci signed and received her land paperwork earlier today at Zealand’s headquarters in Ikeja, thus establishing her as the landlady at Yomade Heritage.

Recall that when Hilda Baci attempted to break the previous Guinness World Record for a cooking marathon, Zealand Properties had earlier offered to give her a parcel of land at Yomade Heritage Estate worth N5.7 million as a gift.

After receiving her land document and discovering the investment potential in Yomade Heritage, Baci said she’d cash in on the current price and buy one more plot of land for herself

“I’m super excited because they were so kind to gift me a plot of land in one of their prime locations in Epe, and trust me, at the price that they are currently selling, I’d probably buy one for myself because it honestly feels like a steal”.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of Zealand Properties, Mr. Adedeji Agarawu while addressing Hilda Baci stated that her drive and hard work was worthy of emulation by other youths and she deserves to be rewarded.

“I appreciate hard work, and what you pulled out there was incredible hard work. You must have gone the extra mile and conquered a lot of fear to have achieved your feat”.

Hilda Baci’s confirmed new record of 100 hours 40 minutes in a cook-a-thon has officially surpassed India’s Lata Tondon who set the record in 87 hours 45 minutes in 2019.

Former president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and human rights campaigner Chief Olisa Agbakoba has praised the Federal Government for allegedly floating the naira after so many years of maintaining a rigid peg that hurt investors and sapped the economy of money.

A market rate based on a willing buyer and a willing seller is currently being given by banks, who sent emails to certain customers Wednesday morning announcing the move, according to reports that Nigeria has officially floated its naira currency.

The news caused some apprehensions among Nigerians given that it could lead to higher exchange rate from banks, even as we gathered that exchange rate could go as high as between N800 and N1000 by the end of today, according to some bankers, who said the CBN’s next move should be to prioritise supply of dollars to support the naira float.

Speaking to our correspondent, the rights activist and lawyer said this is one piece of good news that would be classified as a good one for him in the last sixty years.

He said much as it could engender higher exchange rate, it was good since the foreign exchange market has become another source of corruption among the few players.

He said: “This is one piece of news that I will say is the best I have heard in the last sixty years. I am hearing it from you and if it is true, I have to commend Tinubu on this. He has shown that he is in charge.

“With these two policies of fuel subsidy and forex market, Tinubu has done very well in the short period he has been the president.

“What is forex market, it is artificial control of the foreign exchange whereby few people manipulate the system to the detriment of the poor and the majority.

“What is fuel subsidy? It is the manipulation of the petroleum subsidy regime whereby few people enrich themselves corruptly in the name of importation of fuel. There is no way Nigerians are consuming 60 million liters of petrol daily but because they are corruptly enriching themselves, they sell what they quoted in other countries.

“But firstly I want the government to fully explain to Nigerians the corruption in the foreign exchange market and the same in the fuel subsidy regime so that they would know why the two have to go and why they should ensure the pain for a while,” he said.

Meanwhile, reminded that the naira float could cause some hardship in the country, he said it was very imperative despite the initial pain.

“Are you saying that we cannot for example bear the pain of say five to six months instead of few people corruptly feeding fat on our commonwealth? I think this is the best news I have heard in the last 60 years,” he said.

The first of its kind in the world, the Federal Government presented a license for the construction of the Belema Sweet Export Terminal on Tuesday in Abuja.

Farouk Ahmed, CEO of the Nigerian Mainstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), presented the license on behalf of the Federal Government to Mr. Tein Jack-Rich, CEO of Belema Oil Producing Limited, and reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to making doing business in Nigeria simple.

He said that by receiving the license, Nigeria had successfully secured its first hybrid crude export terminal, which has a storage capacity of eight million barrels.

Ahmed noted that with the presentation of the licence to Belema Sweet Export Terminal, the indigenous oil company becomes the second to acquire such a license, the first being the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Exploration and Production Limited.

The NMDPRA boss explained that except in accordance with the appropriate licence by the Authority, no company or entity had the right to engage in any exploration activity in the country, except the two companies.

He stressed that:” no entity had the right to operate or establish terminals or other facilities for the export or importation of crude oil or petroleum products.

”In line with this, the authority has processed and hereby approved terminal establishment licenses to these two organisations.

”One is the NNPC Exploration and Production Limited, with 2,179,704 barrels of crude oil terminal at Off Shore Akwa Ibom State within the waters of the exclusive zone.

”The second is the Belema Sweet Export Terminal in Kula, Rivers State, with 2 million barrels of crude oil terminal,” Farouk said.

According to him, the terminals are expected to operate within the provisions of the conditions of the licences as contained in the document.

He, therefore, called on investors to invest in the sector as the government was determined to ensure a business-friendly environment for them.

Speaking after the ceremony, Jack-Rich said the event marked a great milestone for the country, and attestation to the great success story of President Bola Tinubu, in less than two weeks of assuming office.

”With the establishment of Belema Sweet Crude Export Terminal, Nigeria now ranks number one in the world to establish a crude oil Export Terminal that is climate-conscious, where traditional energy and renewable energy integration is operated through a virtual power plant model.

”This is in line with energy efficiency/sustainability to protect our ecosystem,” Jack-Rich said.

”This will also create over 100,000 jobs for families in the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large.

Also speaking, Mr Modibbo Ahmed, who received the licence on behalf of the NNPC, said that Nigeria should expect the crude oil terminal in the next one to three months.

Belema Sweet Export Terminal Project is designed to be the first hybrid crude oil export terminal in the world.

It is a land-based terminal with good proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, via the San Bartholomeo River, for ease of offtake.

The terminal is divided into two sections; the crude oil processing terminal section and the oil export loading terminal section.

The first phase of the project will comprise a 2,000,000 million barrels storage capacity.

The export loading terminal would be able to receive any crude oil carrier size such as Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC), Suezmax, and Aframax, among others.

Another key feature of the Belema Sweet Export Terminal includes 400,000 barrels of Liquid per day central processing facility (CPF).

Professor Yakubu Mahmood, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, is scheduled to appear before the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja on June 15 to testify on behalf of the Peoples Democratic Party and former vice president Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate in the election held on February 25.

The PDP and Atiku are contesting Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s election as president.

The development came after Chief Chris Uche, SAN, of Atiku’s legal team, served Mahmood with a subpoena.

Uche informed the Court that the INEC Chairman would testify regarding the handling of the contentious Presidential election and provide some sensitive documents to help the petitioners.

However, Atiku’s lead counsel did not open up on the nature of documents the INEC boss is expected to give evidence on and tender.

Uche told the PEPC that he decided to announce to the court of his intention to bring Mahmood before the court on Thursday so that the respondents especially Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) would not be caught unaware.

Meanwhile, at Tuesday’s proceedings, Atiku called his first star witness, Dr Alex Adum Ter, a legal practitioner and former Attorney General of Benue State, who in his testimony claimed that the presidential election was highly flawed with monumental irregularities and non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022.

The witness, a National Coordinator, Situation Room for PDP on the February 25, presidential election had tendered three different video clips featuring Mahmood, INEC’s Commissioner in charge of Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye, who in their broadcast assured Nigerians that presidential election results would be electronically transmitted to make the election credible and transparent.

The third video involving European Union Election Observer Mission was admitted as exhibits by the court alongside Guidelines for Election Officers 2022 and Manual for Election Guidelines 2023.

Though, Tinubu and APC opposed the admissibility of the documents, Chairman of PEPC Justice Haruna Tsammani admitted them after which the video clips were played in the open court.

The witness also tendered screen shots of the IReV portal.

However, upon cross examination by INEC’s lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud SAN, the witness admitted that he was not at the National Collation Center but was at the PDP situation room in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The witness also admitted not being an ICT expert but that he based his report from information obtained from agents of the PDP at the collation centers.

The witness faulted INEC for not transmitting presidential election results electronically, adding that calculation errors led the electoral body into grave errors .

Under cross examined by Akin Olujimi SAN, counsel for Tinubu, the witness said he came to the conclusion that the presidential election was a sham by reason of corrupt electoral practices as related to him by PDP agents.