 Welcome back to The Breakfast here on P.L.A.S. TV Africa. It's time for Today in History and I'm going back to the year 2008. We're once again going to be sharing a story of a bombing of oil pipelines. This took place in 2008, a day after the movement for the emancipation of the 90 Delta leader then, Henry Oka, was, of course, what the government had declared that he will be tried in secret. Three pipelines were on this day blown up by militants from the movement for the emancipation of the Niger Delta and, of course, forced Royal Dutch Shell to hold 170,000 boroughs per day of oil exports. Men eventually claimed responsibility for that attack and, of course, it aided in pushing oil prices to a record, $120 a barrel on this day in 2008. Sometimes last week we had shared a similar occurrence and I was saying then that this was a period where it was pretty common and that was what we on Nigeria knew then as attacks on Nigeria's facilities are very, very different from what we are seeing today where lives are being lost in their dozens and in their hundreds across the country. But this was in the time when the movement for the emancipation of the Niger Delta was still very popular among the news stories in Nigeria for kidnappings and for bombings of oil facilities and the likes. Oil companies at this time also paid dearly, paying out ransom and, of course, having to fix oil pipelines. And you can also, I think I was also mentioned that some of these bombings also led to, may not make a large percentage, but it does, should be also named, led to the pollution in the Niger Delta. This happened in Biosystate and so when we're talking about cleanup of the Niger Delta and the oil pollution that has occurred there over years, it should also be mentioned, I believe, that some of the bombings of oil pipelines also led to the pollution of the waters and of the natural resources of the Niger Delta, even if the oil companies' responsibility to clean up and to fix the damage that has been caused. But it was on this day that three oil pipelines were bombed and, of course, it was the day after the government had declared that Henrioka will be tried in secret. Yes, and they continued to threaten that they will bomb more oil infrastructure, installations and all of that because the demands are not being met, the infrastructure decay in that area of Nigeria and just so, you know, when you assume that, you know, people who are residents in an area with so much wealth, you know, you would imagine that these people would be one of the most, you know, affluent basically in Nigeria, but the reverse is the case, but these bombings do not, they do make a statement, but it doesn't go beyond the destruction, right? What steps of the government do afterwards? We see now there's still batting the derivation fund and all of that, so a holistic approach to governance really is what we need, like Nisatsunde Kulawoli just said, on Off the Press. Yeah, absolutely. You know, in 10 seconds I'll also mention, you know, that unfortunately when we have these conversations and when these actions are taken, you know, I always like to remind people that the failure of government is not just from Aso Rock, you know, it also is in your government house, in each of these oil producing states, it's also in your local government offices in these oil producing states and so the focus should also be on, you know, in those people. All the money that has been paid out to these militants, the amnesty that was granted, the billions of money that have been given in contracts with these people has not in any way changed or affected the lives of the people of the Niger Delta and so the agitations and whatever it is that they have achieved and received from the agitations has not in any way changed much with regards to the quality of life of the people of the Niger Delta. So the focus once again should never just be, you know, on Aso Rock, it should be in the governance at the very, very local level and the closest level to you. All right. So next, in talking about a story that happened in 2007, this story remains a mystery to now and as far back as early as 2019, Netflix released a documentary about this, you know, very sad event that occurred in the year 2007. On this day in history, in May 3rd, 2007, a three-year-old British girl by the name Madeleine McCann disappears in Portugal. So her family had gone on a vacation from the United Kingdom to southern Portugal and, you know, the parents had been checking up on the kids, you know, checking up on them and they discovered that Madeleine was nowhere to be found. She was not in her room with her, you know, her siblings, they searched for her everywhere, you know, there were lots of media trials at that time, especially, you know, because the media had, you know, insinuated that the parents may have had a hand in the disappearance of their little girl, Madeleine, you know. So they basically, you know, subjected them to lots of that and you had newspapers then, especially the Express Newspapers, later issuing apologies to the parents, you know, for insinuating that they had a hand in the, you know, abduction or kidnap of Madeleine. So basically, the parents are still looking for their daughter. Many years later, the documentary on Netflix, I watched that, you know, a while back and you could still see the hope in the parents' eyes, even though police say it's likely that, you know, she's dead, she, she went missing when she was just three years old. You know, police say it's likely that she's dead, but the parents say no, that they have the belief that she'll be found alive. You know, it's almost, you know, 14, 15 years after she went missing at the age of three in 2007. You know, there was a suspect who was arrested, a 43-year-old German, you know, but he was never, basically, he was called in for questioning, but he was never arrested because they didn't find any leads. So basically, this, like I mentioned, is the most reported missing person's case. You know, the parents went all out involving the media, like I told you, you know what it means to do a documentary, an eight-part documentary series, you know, about the life of Madeleine and, you know, the parents just sharing about, you know, their little girl, you know, newspapers, you know, publishing the story. And it's just so sad. I mean, look, that's the cover of, you know, the Netflix series, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and the parents just do have hope in their hearts that your daughter will be found alive. Well, yes. And I remember when this was really, really big, it was on all the major news channels across the world. You know, it even got to a stage where I think there is a May and the British government had to also step in, you know, with their own investigations and with their own, you know, level of support with the hopes of still finding her, you know, for a very, very long time. There has been conversations in human trafficking and sexual slavery and all of that, you know, across the world. This is one of those incidents where some of those, you know, conversations came up once again. How does a three-year-old girl just disappear at night, you know, from her room? And that's one of the reasons why people, you know, the media and some persons started to blame the parents also. There were insinuations that it was a domestic accident that led to her death and so they had to then act like, you know, she was taken or she was missing because it makes, still made no sense, you know, whatsoever, that she just disappeared at night. They had gone on a dinner. The children were at home sometime around 8.30 or so. They got back by 10 o'clock and that's why I think it was around 10 o'clock, 10 p.m., that they realized that she was missing and, you know, the search for her started. I think there was also a little criticism of the delay in, you know, finding out when she was missing and then the time that they eventually reported to the police. So it's a really sad case. I would also stay on the side of the parents and hope that she's still alive somewhere safe and she will be found someday in this life. Nobody knows, you know, where she is. I mean, overhead cases like this, people will go missing for years and years and they, you know, they show up somewhere. Hopefully, she is still found someday. Madeline McCann once again. All right, those are our stories for you today in history, April 3rd. Take a short break. When we come back, we're talking COVID-19. India has been, in the last couple of weeks, been ravaged. The surge has been mind-blowing. Over 400,000 cases of record high in a day. And there's, of course, countries now starting to take steps to ensure that they do not get to experience that type of surge. There's a new strain, I believe, that has also been reported for the large numbers of infections in India. And so we're talking about that next. Nigeria has banned flights from Turkey, from India, and from Brazil. Is that the right move? Is it too little too late? How can Nigeria also ensure that we do not experience what India is currently dealing with? We'll be back after the short break.