Group flays protest against pipeline surveillance contractor

• Police arrest security personnel over missing DELSU student
President, Niger Delta Coalition of Coastal Communities, Don Ben, has condemned the protest against pipeline surveillance contractor in the Niger Delta.

Ben said it was unwarranted and stage-managed for the youths to protest at the Delta State Government House, that the contract awarded to Ocean Marine was high jacked.He appealed to governors in the Niger Delta, particularly Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa to protect Ocean Marine Company, and its chairman, Captain Hosa Okunbo, who has been in the struggle for the development of the region.

The ex-militant leader, who addressed journalists in Benin City at the weekend, said the firm followed due process in bidding for the surveillance contract.

“The Chairman of the company is not only from the oil producing state, but also from one of the oil communities in the two local councils of Orhionmwon and Ikpoba-Okha in Edo State,” he said.He said the allegation that Focados Terminal, which is included in the surveillance, is located in Delta State is not correct, because it cut across the base line, and even closer to Rivers State.

Meanwhile, the police say they have arrested a man in connection with a missing 300-level Mass Communication student of the Delta State University, Abraka, Miss Elozino Ogege.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Andrew Aniamaka, disclosed that the missing girl’s phone was traced to the arrested man, who has been transferred to the state police command.The student was said to have gone missing last Friday after a dubious house agent lured her to a location with a promise to give her hostel accommodation.

The university’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Freeborn Aganbi, disclosed yesterday that the details were obtained from the student’s phone records.

A source told The Guardian that before she left that morning, she informed her godmother that she was going to inspect a hostel, adding: “After some few hours, the god-mother received a call from a man through Elozino’s phone, requesting her to pay a certain amount for the apartment.”

According to her, when she asked the man to give the phone to the owner, he ended the call. She said when she called back, it was a woman who picked the call and again, when she requested that the phone be given to the owner, the woman ended the call.The phone has since been switched off, raising fears she has either been kidnapped or killed.