Cynthia Unoma Ude for investiture as President Lions Club

  

The International Association of Lions Club will on Saturday, November 26^th, 2016 present Lion Cynthia Unoma Ude as the Centennial President of Asaba Nnebisi Central Lions Club for the 2016-2017 Lions year of District 404 A1, Nigeria.

The event which will hold at Nelrose Hotels, Asaba at 12 noon will also see to the presentation of other club officers, as well as double as a fund raising luncheon. It will be chaired by the Chairman/Chief executive officer of Ugoland Continental Limited, Mr. Basil Ohiaeriaku.

The invitation card to the event indicated that gate fee of N1,000 will be taken per guest.  

OKOWA INAUGURATES DTSCTDA BOARD, CHARGE MEMBERS TO IMPLEMENT ASABA MASTER PLAN

  

DELTA State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa has inaugurated the Chairman and Members of the Delta State Capital Territory Development Agency (DSCTDA) Board with a charge on them to faithfully implement the master plan of the state capital.

Governor Okowa congratulating Chif tom Amioku

Former Commissioner for Works in the state, Chief Tom Amioku is the Chairman of DSCTDA while other members of the agency include Chief Austine Igbine, Hon. Chinwe Monu-Olarewaju and Hon. Sunny Emeyese.

 Chief Clement Ofuani has earlier been sworn in as Director General of the Agency.
During the inauguration ceremony which took place at the Government House, Asaba, Governor Okowa disclosed that though the country was facing financial challenges, the chairman and members should think outside the box, get investors and ensure that Asaba wears befitting look as the capital of oil-rich Delta State.

Governor Okowa in red cap with members of the board.

"We believe that an Agency has to be established to give Asaba a befitting look as capital city; we have tested gentlemen and a woman to pilot the affairs of the agency," the governor said, "it is going to be a great challenge based on the current financial situation in the country and our state but, it is time for us to implement the master plan of Asaba, address the problems of infrastructure and tackle the issues of waste disposal by liaising with Oshimili South local government council and the Waste Management Board."

He added, "at a time when there is not a enough fund, this is time to be very proactive in partnering with the private sector to achieve developmental goals of the captial territory, we must all realise that where we find ourselves as a state and as a nation, it is time to prepare a future for our children."

"The foundation requires that we must engage the private sector to develop the capital city which is well located as it is within the reach of many places; I strongly believe we can develop Asaba as a state capital," Governor Okowa reiterated.

He congratulated the Chairman and members of the  DSCTDA, urging them to also, look at the industrial park located within the capital city with a view to ensure that it was put to proper use, especially, by industrialists.

Responding on behalf of members of the DSCTDA, the Chairman, Chief Amioku thanked Governor Okowa for finding them worthy to serve the government and people of Delta State in that capacity, assuring that they will do their best to carry out their functions effectively.

"As members of the newly inaugurated Board, we share Your Excellency's vision for a full and ramified development of Asaba Capital Territory infrastructurally, environmentally, ecologically and aesthetically; a full and all round development of the state capital territory will no doubt promote tourism in the state, provide more comfort to all Deltans and non-Deltans alike that come to the state capital for one reason or the other, and ultimately boost business and commercial activities in the state capital, thereby, enhancing the economic viability of the state," Chief Amioku asserted.

Locked Assembly gate: Delta Speaker turns street boxer, engages protesting workers in fisticuffs

·         Workers express lack of trust in House leadership

·         Call Speaker ‘Sapele thug’

·         PASAN suspends strike following assurances by Timi, Mayuku, Okeme, Osanebi

It was a show of emotions, anger, fury and frustration on Wednesday (16/11/2016) morning when the Speaker of Delta state House of Assembly, Monday Igbuya before bewildered onlookers, resorted to the use of violence to gain access to the Assembly complex locked by striking workers who also formed human shield to barricade the gate to press home their demand for the payment of their entitlements.

Speaker's vehicle at the Assembly complex gate.

The Speaker’s official Lexus jeep drove to the gate of the Assembly complex and was stopped by the protesting workers who resisted his attempt to forcefully enter the complex without addressing their demands. Enraged by the boldness of the determined workers, the Speaker alighted from his jeep, walked furiously to the gate, and physically shoved aside a protesting staff blocking his move to enter the premises, in the ensuing melee, he clenched his fist like a boxer, angrily taunting the massed workers to approach him for exchange of blows.

PASAN leaders reporting back to workers on the meeting
with House Principal officers.

Seeing that the situation was degenerating into a free-for-all, the security orderlies attached to him swiftly moved him out of the brawl line, walking him through the foot path gate into the complex. Not done, the Speaker made for the gate to open it from his vantage position inside, the obviously now enraged workers resisted him forcefully, contested the gate with him in a tug of war, and successfully prevented him from opening the gate. Stupefied by the Speaker’s resort to violence, the workers rained abuses on him calling him “Sapele thug.”

To stop the hullaballo from further degenerating, other legislators quickly alighted from their vehicles, and went to broker peace with the Speaker and the workers. Their intervention paid off, creating an enabling atmosphere for a dialogue between the Speaker and other legislators, and the leadership of the workers, who were protesting under the aegis of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN).

Inside the Assembly complex when the enraged Speaker
was being pacified to calm down.

Earlier in the brief congress the workers had during which the PASAN Chairman, Comrade Emmanuel Edozie reported the outcome of their meeting with the speaker the previous day, he said:

PASAN members enforcing no entry into the Assembly
complex .

“The earlier strike was not called off but suspended, since the resumed strike, we have gathered in the Speaker’s house yesterday, (Tuesday, 15/11/2016) for a tripartite meeting involving PASAN executive, NLC and the principal officers of the Assembly. There, we gathered in the Speaker’s house that His Excellency, the Governor has approved our demands. We have been assured that Governor has approved our demands, and I believe they cannot lie to NLC. I have not seen the approval, but I believe that the entire House cannot lie,”

House members's vehicles prevented from entering the Assembly
complex by the protesting PASAN members.

In their response, the workers some of who took turns to speak were wary of the promises. One of them said: “The leadership of the House of Assembly has not earned our trust. We advocate that the status quo remains until we receive concrete evidence of the approval. We know how politicians do, and have their way. No alert, no strike call-off. We have been deceived before."          

With the Speaker now calm and the equally calm attention of the workers secured,  Dr. Tonye Timi, Barrister Daniel Mayuku, both lawmakers, Deputy Speaker Rt. Hon. Friday Osanebi and Mr. Mike Okeme, special adviser on Labour to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa were able to speak with the PASAN members, reassuring them that their four-point demand has been approved by the governor; that the Governor has approved payment of outfit allowance; that the staff clinic will be equipped with drugs, and that the appointment of deputy clerk will be handled administratively. They pleaded with the workers to open the gate, suspend their strike and give them the benefit of doubt about the promise of approval.

After a heated congress later, the PASAN leadership suspended the strike. A statement to this effect signed by Comrade Emmanuel Edozie and secretary Comrade Emmanuel Osubor stated: “ Arising from the intervention of the Special assistant to the Governor of Delta State on labour matters and the Nigerian Labour congress, and based on the negotiations and avowals of the leadership of the Delta state house of Assembly, PASAN in confidence and trust that the issues raised in our communiqué of 31^st October, 2016 would be resolved immediately, hereby suspend the ongoing strike.

“PASAN also has the assurances of the leadership of the House that no member staff of the House of Assembly Service Commission would be victimized or witch-hunted in anyway, form or manner by reason of this industrial action.

“To this end, staff of the House of Assembly Service Commission and the Delta State House of Assembly Complex are advised to resume and go about their normal duties.”   

PASAN strike: Lawmakers can’t seat for 2nd reading of Okowa’s 2017 budget

The strike embarked upon by workers of the Delta state House of Assembly entered its second day today disrupting the seating of legislators who had adjourned last Thursday to resume plenary today.  

The workers under the auspices of their union, Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), in the early hours of Monday, shut the two gates leading to the assembly complex, declaring a resumption of the strike they suspended in February 2016.

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa

PASAN leader, Mr. Emmanuel Edozie told reporters that they had to resume the strike when the leadership of the Assembly refused to dialogue with the workers’ union to determine pending issues which the workers want the Assembly to resolve.

On the demands of the workers, Edozie said: “Apart from imprest and running cost, the four main items are funding of our clinic, appointment of a deputy clerk, outfit allowance and payment of outstanding death benefits.”

A visit to the Assembly complex showed that the gates to the complex were firmly locked, while policemen and their vans were standing by. No law maker was in sight, as they all stayed away from the complex.

Monday Igbuya, DTHA Speaker

After Governor Ifeanyi Okowa presented his 2017 budget proposal to the legislators, the House after first reading of the budget bill adjourned till Tuesday (today) for the second reading, apparently unknown to them that the workers had planned to embark on strike to press home their demands.

The workers are insisting that the strike will remain indefinite until the Speaker, Monday Igbuya decides to call them for dialogue.

He told journalists: “As a matter of fact, the staffs planned to do the protest last Thursday but we did everything to prevail on them. When the governor was driving in we were having a congress meeting. If you noticed that day, all the staffs were wearing black outfits because we are mourning our staffs who died. We lost one staff on Sunday morning and another on Wednesday evening, an interval of four days. That day people were putting on black and wanted to protest to the governor for him to see their plight. But we decided to prevail on them out of respect for the governor.”

Edozie continued: “although the Speaker said he did not receive our communiqué but we passed the letter through the right channel that we have always used in the past. And this channel is through the Clerk of the house, and we copied all principal officers.

“We are more interested in the resolution of this matter. How long the strike will last will depend on how long it will take the Speaker to call us for dialogue.”

Efforts to get the Speaker to speak failed. His Chief Press Secretary Mr. Henry Enireiri told Banner Media Network on phone that the speaker and most of the legislators were not around, and that he was not aware of any strike action declared by PASAN. 

Obasanjo wanted life presidency not third term, reveals Atiku

By Seun Opejobi 

Erstwhile Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has revealed how former President Olusegun Obasanjo attempted to become a lifetime President and not third term.

Chirf Olusegun Obasanjo, right, and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar

Speaking with Zero Tolerance, a magazine published by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the former Vice President alleged that Obasanjo tried to amend the constitution to make way for his agenda.

Abubakar insisted that his former principal under the guise of attempting to amend the constitution carefully removed the aspect of tenure limitation but he kicked against it.

He said, “My offence was that I disagreed with him on the amendment of the constitution to remove tenure/term limits or what was popularly called the ‘third term agenda’.

“In fact, he sent the then Attorney-General and Prof. Jerry Gana to my office to bring the draft amendments to the constitution. After going through (them), I found out that tenure limits had been removed. In other words, he could be President for life.

“I then asked them that ‘if I send you to the President, can you deliver this message?’ They said yes. I said ‘go and tell him I will not support it and (I) will fight it’.”

·         Source: Daily Post

Okowa felicitates with Ayo Fayose at 56

Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa has felicitated with his Ekiti State counterpart, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, eulogizing him as a game-changer, an admirable politician, an influential political leader who commands a cult followership among the ordinary people and pedestrian Ekiti masses with whom he openly fraternizes.

Governor Ayo Fayose

 He described Governor Fayose as a  thorough bred, extremely simplistic yet overtly charismatic leader with the magic wand to deliver on his mandate freely given to him by the people of Ekiti State.

The statement read in part:"I am deeply enthralled by your love for your people and your urge to transform Ekiti totally which earned you the sobriquet 'Architect of modern Ekiti'.

"As a bastion of inspiration, a man of great political depth and insight, a leader of leaders and a prolific master of the political game, you have been a towering and outstanding defender of the ideals of our great party (PDP).

"On behalf of the government and people of Delta State, I celebrate a true son of the fountain who is as strong as the unicorn, energetic, untiring, relentless, purposeful and focused as he turns 56 years today.''

According to Aniagwu, Okowa wishes Governor Ayodele Fayose, a fulfilling birthday celebration and prays that the Almighty God grant him many more years of good health and strength to continue with his effective leadership of the Land of Honour.

Delta Assembly shut down as workers resume suspended strike

·      Passage of Okowa’s 2017 state budget may suffer delay

Signs that the 2017 budget proposal of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa presented to the Delta State House of Assembly last Thursday may suffer some delay in passage emerged when the workers locked up the gates to the assembly to protest unresolved welfare issues due to them.

Rt. Hon. Monday Igbuya, Speaker DTHA

State Chairman of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), Comrade Edozie Emmanuel told journalists that the workers called the strike as a continuation of the strike that was suspended in February 2016 because the leadership of the State House of Assembly has not responded to the demands of the workers since the strike was suspended.

Accordingly, staffers of the Assembly and the Assembly’s service commission stayed away from work in obedience to the directives of the PASAN leaders. The two gates leading to the Assembly Complex were sealed with keys, while the union leaders stationed at the gate to monitor effective compliance by workers. Also, the police with two of their vehicles are stationed at the gate to keep the peace.

On the contending issues and reasons for the resumption of strike, Comrade Edozie Emmanuel said: “Apart from imprest and running cost, the four main items on demand include funding of our clinic, appointment of deputy Clerk, payment of outfit allowance and payment of outstanding death benefits of deceased staffs.”

He said having sent a letter of notification of a planned strike to the speaker if nothing was done to meet their demands, he explained that copies of the letter was given to the Clerk, and all the principal officers of the House about two weeks ago. And that since then, nothing was done to meet with the union executives. “We decided in line with congress resolution after two weeks of sending our letter to the and we did not get any response from them, we have no option than to resume our earlier suspended strike.

“We suspended our earlier strike February last year. When we suspended the strike last year, we did a Memorandum of Understanding , which the then state Exco of the workers signed with the Speaker, and since then nothing has been done.  Explaining the importance of the four main items on the workers’ demand list, Comrade Edozie Emmanuel said: “The first is the House of assembly clinic that has no drugs in the staff clinic. They said there is no money. It is affecting staffs. As aresult we lost two staffs last week. In the past two months we’ve lost about four staffs. And what is happening is not good for the system. Even if they cannot do all, let some drugs be provided for the clinic because you cannot leave that place empty.

“Also, we need another doctor in that clinic because only one doctor is servicing the assembly staffs, the Honourable members and their relatives and the Assembly Service Commission staffs. As we talk now there is no drug in that clinic.”

Edozie continued: “The second issue is the appointment of a deputy clerk. Last year our deputy clerk retired, and since then, we’ve been singing this son. Appoint a deputy clerk, there can’t be a vacuum in the system. And there is a law passed by this house for that position. They said it is not our matter, but we said you are appointing a staff and not a politician.

“The third is the outfit allowance; it is a yearly ritual, and something that has existed over the years. It is for the staffs of the legislative houses across the nation; they receive outfit allowance and special duty allowance. And we’ve been on this outfit allowance. We asked that the Speaker should send the file to the governor, but the story has been no money, no money. Yet it is something that touches the workers because it is important to them.  

“The fourth issue is that a lot of our staffs have died and in the rules the government is supposed to cater for certain things. When someone dies in active service the rule is that some burial expenses are supposed to be borne by government. But we now see in the Delta state House of Assembly that when someone dies it is the family that now shoulders the entire burial responsibilities. Memos are written, sometimes they are approved, yet nothing is done. This has continued since 2008. Persons that have died far back 2008, the government has failed to carry out its due diligence on them. If you cannot enjoy life while living, even the government cannot do what it is supposed to do for them?”

Asked how long the strike will last, Comrade Edozie Emmanuel said it will last as long as it takes the speaker  to meet with the workers’ union leaders for dialogue on the issues in question. “We are more interested in the resolution of this matter. How long it will last will depend on how long it will take the Speaker to call us for dialogue,” the PASAN leader said.