Oil communities demand 50% Excess Crude fund

By Emma Amaize
WARRI—OIL producing communities and other stakeholders in Delta State have demanded the inclusion of proceeds from the Excess Crude Account to the 50 percent of the 13 percent Derivation Fund allocated to the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, by the state government.

Each speaker at a brainstorming session by a Committee recently inaugurated by the state government to review the laws of DESOPADEC, yesterday, at Effurun, Delta State, frowned at a situation where money from the Excess Crude Account was not calculated as part of the money that should go into the funding of DESOPADEC activities.

They, however, commended the state Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan for inaugurating the Committee, headed by Prince Okareme Maikpobi.

Some of the ethnic groups, Traditional Rulers of Oil Producing Communities of Nigeria, TROMPCON, non- governmental organisations and stakeholders came to the meeting with their memoranda, which they submitted to the Committee.

However, just when the meeting, chaired by the state representative on the Board of the National Revenue, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Major_General Emmanuel Obada (rtd)   was coming to an end, suspected hooligans, believed to be working for a governorship aspirant in the state, stormed the venue  and disrupted proceedings over the plan to include a certain clause in the new law.

Pandemonium ensued, as people ran for their lives. Some participants were dispossessed of personal belongings, including money and GSM handsets in the process.

The thugs bolted away after the attack and the committee, despite the incident, to return to the venue and continued with the sitting.