Ijaw elders head for court over marginal field bid round

By Adesina Wahab

Due to the failure of the Federal Government to respond to its demand to put on hold the 2020 marginal field bid round pending the determination of some contentious issues, Ijaw Elders Forum has issued a notice of intention to go to court to challenge the bidding process and seek appropriate redress.

The group also berated the FG for its seeming apathy towards the plights of the oil producing communities, saying it could no longer continue to watch its own people being dehumanised, exploited, humiliated and discriminated against through the auctioning of exploration licenses to the oil companies.

This is just as the group accused the oil companies of mindlessly raping the Niger Delta region through the appropriation of hydrocarbon deposit.

The group has, therefore, sought the services of GI&O Legal Practitioners and Notary Public to seek legal redress on the matter.

Reiterating its determination to defend the rights of its people by all legitimate means, the IEF lamented that oil exploration and drilling activities accounted for the declining economic productivity of the Ijaw nation with the attendant air and water pollution, frequent outbreak of pandemic, deaths, and environmental destruction.

A letter written by GI&O Legal Practitioners and Notaries Public on behalf of the group was dated September 21, and addressed to the office of the Honourable Minister of Petroleum through the Minister of State.

It read in part: “We do not think that our client had asked for too much when they urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to, for the sake of lives and property of its citizens which the head of the government had sworn to protect, halt the 2020 marginal field bid round until steps are taken to address some very basic and salient issues.

“The issues include remediation of the environment of oil-producing communities, compensation for damages already done to the people and communities and to ensure safety in oil exploration activities and protection of oil-bearing communities.”

“It explained that the decision of its client to pursue legal option followed the failure of the authorities concerned to respond to the earlier newspaper advertorials on the matter.

“In view of the foregoing and the seeming apathy of the Federal Government of Nigeria as well as that of the other operators in the oil and gas industry towards the yearnings of our clients and their people, you are by this letter hereby put on notice that our client and the people they represent are now determined to exercise their constitutional right of seeking redress in all available fora and the court of law by instituting legal action against all entities that have continued to subject our client and their communities to inhuman treatment and to activities having deleterious effects on the lives and property of the people,” it added.

Breaking: ASUU suspends 2-week warning strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has suspended its two-week warning strike it declared last week across all public universities in the country. The union announced the suspension on Wednesday at a press conference held at its headquarters in Abuja. President of ASUU, Chris Piwuna, who read a prepared speech before newsmen, explained that the development followed intervention by the Senate and some other well-meaning Nigerians. However, he sad the National Executive Council of the Union resolved to give the government a one-month window to address all contending areas.

JUST IN: If Tinubu Had Told Me, I Wouldn’t Have Agreed To Rivers State Of Emergency Rule – Wike

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Woman Burned to Death, Accused of Kidnapping 7yrs Old Boy in Delta

By Tessy ogbemi An angry mob set ablaze a woman accused in a failed child kidnapping attempt in Agbarho community, Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State. The incident happened on Wednesday, September 24, 2025. An eyewitness disclosed at the scene of the incident at Ekwvere Road claimed that the woman hid the seven year old boy she allegedly abducted in a sack, adding that she was even carrying a Bible on one hand. Community sources said some residents in the area accosted the lady when they observed the way she was dragging the sack, to know what she had in it. "She was unstable when they asked her to disclose what she was carrying in the sack. When the bag was forced open, they found a seven year old child in it. They shouted and it attracted a large crowd,” a source said. It was gathered that the angry mob immediately brought a used tyre to the scene, which they forced down her neck after beating her to a pulp. “The lady and the tyre we...

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