Author: Editor
Nonsochukwu Uwa, Owerri Unknown gunmen attacked the house of the Imo State Commissioner for Labour and Productivity, Ford Ozumba, in his hometown Umuhu, Okabia community in Orsu Local Government Area of Imo State, with Improvised Explosive Devices, IED, early hours of Friday. The commissioner confirmed this to Ikengaonline in Owerri, adding that no life was lost but his house was damaged by the explosives. The commissioner stated: “I am in Owerri, they called me this morning and told me that my house was attacked this morning. They threw explosives on it and it was burnt. Nobody died. But the house…
Nonsochukwu Uwa, Owerri. The Imo State Police Command has confirmed that hoodlums in large numbers came and attacked Mbieri Police station in Mbaitoli Local Government Area in the early hours of Friday. The state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Michael Abattam, confirmed this to newsmen in Owerri. According to him, the hoodlums attacked the police station with Improvised Explosive Devices, IED, adding that the explosives caused damage to the station. He, however, said no life was lost and no ammunition was carted away. Abattam said the hoodlums were repelled. Ikengaonline reports that last month, hoodlums had attacked police stations in …
Ogochukwu Anioke, Abakaliki Four hotels have been sealed in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, South-East Nigeria, for allegedly refusing to pay ground rent. The action was carried out on Tuesday by the State Government, with a threat to seal more. Emmanuel Igwe, the Special Assistant to Governor David Umahi on Lands and Survey, said the enforcement of payment of ground rent had commenced in the state and any hotel or property owner who fails to comply with the government directives would have its premises sealed without delay. “We are in the process of enforcing the payment of ground rate by…
Michael Onwuka, Enugu. The Court of Appeal, Enugu Division on Friday dismissed an appeal seeking to remove Gov. Dave Umahi of Ebonyi and his deputy Mr. Kelechi Igwe from office. In a lead judgment delivered by Justice J. O. K. Oyewole, the court held that the appellants, Sen. Sonni Ogbuoji and Mbam Ogodo, had no locus in their bid to supplant the respondents. Oyewole said that though the defection of the governor and his deputy from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) might appear immoral but the constitution did not provide for their removal from…
Ike Nnachi, Abakaliki Gunmen have killed another operative of the Ebubeagu security outfit in Ebonyi State. The operative, Iboko Christian, was allegedly killed on Thursday night by unknown gunmen. The victim was said to have been a graduate who joined Ebubeagu due to his inability to secure a job after graduation. He was said to have been attacked by the gunmen who trailed him to his house in Nduogbuovu community in Izzi Local Government Area of the state. The lawmaker representing Izzi East Constituency in Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Anthony Nwegede, confirmed the killing. The Lawmaker, who is an…
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia It was an outpouring of goodwill messages, Thursday evening, as Ikengaonline, the media arm of Africa Centre for Transparency was formally unveiled. Eminent personalities from all walks of life, including Nigerians in the diaspora, joined in the virtual launch as a legal luminary, Chief Mike Ahamba, formally presented the online media platform. Professor Okey Ndibe in a keynote speech, noted that the South-East had remained under reported since the return of democracy in 1999. This, according to him, was because most media organisations are concentrated in the South-West and the northern part of the country. Ndibe regretted…
Dave Chukwuji …he stirred; waking up from an abyss so deep it had no form. Reality was still a few miles out, he reached out, grabbing at lights dangling in front of him like carrots before a panting donkey. Slowly he began to crawl out of the abyss. The smell of burning flesh assailed him. The crackle of burning cables and fume of fuel suffused his senses. Somewhere in the recesses of his subconscious mind the smell stirred him and he began the audacious climb from the abyss to the burning cavernous hold of the plane. As soon as…
By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu Like the elder brother I never I had, Dambudzo Marechera, I left my House of Hunger in a hurry. All I knew was that I was leaving the city for good, abandoning the bright lights and big city of Lagos for the dust and darkness of my rural hometown of Alanso. I was aiming after anonymity, dying to dissolve into the nothingness of poverty. Much to my surprise I ran into a bedlam. Democracy or the talk of it happened to be all the rage. It was as though the town dam had burst as a…
By Azu Ishiekwene One week before Hollywood, Nigeria hosted a different kind of Oscar moment. At the swearing-in ceremony of Charles Soludo, former Governor of the Central Bank and new governor of the most commercially significant southeast state, the wife of the outgoing governor, Ebele Obiano, staged an unusual drama. Ebele, Nigeria’s modest answer to Kenya’s tempestuous Lucy Kibaki, floated across the dais to where Bianca Ojukwu, Nigeria’s former ambassador to Spain, was sitting to mockingly question what she was doing at the ceremony after years of being a thorn in the government’s side. What followed wasn’t as pretty as Ebele’s butterfly-sleeved pink…
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia Senior Advocate of Nigeria and legal luminary, Chief Mike Ahamba, has called for the exposure of those behind bandits that are wreaking havoc in parts of the country. Chief Ahamba made the call while formally unveiling Ikengaonline, the media arm of African Centre for Transparency (ACT). He regretted that no media organisation in the country has been courageous enough to expose the sponsors of banditry and terrorism chocking Nigeria to death. The senior lawyer commended the publishers of Ikengaonline for the laudable initiative, and charged the online media platform to focus more on investigative journalism if it…