Category: News

Again, PBIF Holds Annual Medical Outreach

…As Indigents Receive Scholarship Up to University Level

By Onochie Igwesi (Enugu)

It was a bright day and a fulfilling Christmas for the people of Achi in Oji-River Local Government Area of Enugu State as the Paul Basil Iloegbouba Foundation (PBIF) held her annual medical outreach on 21st December, 2020 at Anglican Girls Secondary School, Achi, Oji-River, Enugu State. The now traditional medical outreach which has continued to hold for about five years, keeps on getting better with each edition.

Speaking to our correspondent after the outreach, the President of Paul Basil Iloegbouba Foundation, Engr. Paul Basil Iloegbouba said the foundation was set up to give hope to the poor by making sure their physical health was at an optimal level, not forgetting their spiritual health. Iloegbouba who is also a Minister of God at Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Enugu Central, observed that testimonies abounded of healings that had been recorded in previous editions as a result of the spiritual impact made through the prayers usually offered during the outreach.

This year, the foundation chose to go a bit further by offering scholarships up to university level to twelve persons in Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools. Iloegbouba said he was encouraged to do all these because of what he saw while growing up. “Let me lay a foundation by saying that my Father was a Carpenter and my Mother was a petty Trader. Trying to put things together to raise us as children wasn’t funny. Growing up, we struggled to get basic things done. I didn’t want people to go through what I experienced. Secondly, while growing up, I saw my father as poor as he was, always willing to give or share the very little things he had with people. His joy stemmed from doing that. My mum was also like him in that way. So, all these impacted a lot in me, thus birthing the Paul Basil Iloegbouba Foundation, and we have done a lot, beyond free medical programs, in different places in Enugu and beyond.” While returning all glory to God for enabling him to do the little he had done, he called on other well-meaning Nigerians to partner with NGOs such as his to uplift more downtrodden persons in the society. He also said he looked forward to holding a bigger outreach in the coming year. Other highlights of the event were distribution of food items to everyone present and donation of grinding machines to the shortlisted names.

It would be recalled that Engr. Paul Basil Iloegbouba is the CEO of Horizontal City Property Developers Ltd, a reputable real estate firm in Nigeria, that had presented a brand new car to their best marketer of the 2020 business year during their recently concluded Gala/Award Night in Enugu. He is also the Director of Thesaurus Schools.

Press Release
20/12/20

Timi Frank Gives FG 14-day ultimatum to rescind appointment of sole administrator for NDDC

…Says Akpabio’s defense insult to Niger Deltans

Political Activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, on Monday, gave the Federal Government a 14- day ultimatum to rescind its illegal appointment of a Sole Administrator for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) or face legal consequences.

Frank in a statement in Abuja also insisted that the defense put up by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio for appointing his cousin, Effiong Akwa, as the new helmsman of the NDDC, was an insult to the people of Niger Delta Region.

He warned the Federal Government to immediately nominate a substantive board for the NDDC as provided for in its establishment Act or face massive streets protests in the Niger Delta region and lawsuit after the expiration of his ultimatum.

He described Akpabio’s claim that Sole Administrators had overseen the affairs of the intervention agency in the past as untenable saying “illegality 20 years ago remains illegality today and tomorrow.”

The Bayelsa-born political activist insisted that that there is no law that says that a statutory board of the NDDC cannot be in place while Akpabio is carrying out his phony forensic audit at the Commission.

He called for the arrest and prosecution of Akpabio for violating his Oath of Office by working against the interest of the people of Niger Delta and the development of the region.

He called on the Governors of the Niger Delta states, Ijaw Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, traditional rulers and all federal lawmakers from the zone to speak up in order to rescue the NDDC and stop attempts to destroy it and by extension the hopes and aspirations of Niger Deltans – living and those yet unborn.

“I appeal to all leaders in the Niger Delta to break their silence on this criminal hijack of the NDDC by Akpabio and his collaborators in the Presidency as God will not forgive us if we allow the future of our children to be mortgaged by greedy ambition and illegal scheming at the Commission,” Frank said.

He equally called on the National Assembly, especially the leaders of the opposition caucus – Minority Leader in the Senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndidi Elumelu – to ensure that the 2021 Budget of the NDDC is not approved or handed over to Effiong Akwa for onward delivery to his uncle, Akpabio.

He said that failure to act in the public’s interest on this issue would make the National Assembly an accomplice in the ongoing anti-Niger Delta arrangement to illegally divert the resources of the NDDC by one family.

“Minority Leaders in both chambers must ensure that the budget of the NDDC is not passed except they have chosen to aid and abet a ploy to arrest the development of the region.

“They must use their positions as opposition leaders in the National Assembly to ensure that the people of the Niger Delta derive maximum benefit from the Commission in terms of concrete socio-economic enhancements,” he said.

He said that the hijack of the NDDC by Akpabio portents doom for the Agency and people of the region who have continued to languish in abject poverty occasioned by environmental degradation following decades of oil exploration in the region.

He said: “The NDDC is not a family empire where Akpabio can appoint his cousin as Sole Administrator.

“It is disheartening that the primary objective of setting up the NDDC was abandoned immediately Akpabio took over as Minister and made sure that the agency was removed from the Presidency and placed under his ministerial portfolio.”

He equally vowed to a legal action against the leadership of the National Assembly should they proceed to approve the 2021 budget of the Commission under the present illegal management being supervised by a Sole Administrator.

END

Signed

Comrade Timi Frank
Political Activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC (more…)