By Gabriel Enogholase

BENIN—HOST Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas, Edo State chapter, has appealed to the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, to shun the planned removal of the 10 percent equity for host communities in the draft Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, to avoid returning the country to the dark days of rancour, restiveness and instability.

In an open letter to the leadership of the National Assembly by Deacon Friday Osazuwa, Chairman, Edo State chapter of Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas, HOSTCOM, in Benin, yesterday, the group said that the dangerous voyage and manipulations by a few anti- progressive elements that lack faith in the Nigerian project would always create a rancorous atmosphere, mayhem and general instability in the Niger Delta region if allowed to fester.

It recalled that it was the late President Umaru Yar’Adua of that muted the idea of 10 percent equity to host communities as a way out of the perennial problems of instability and restiveness in the Niger Delta due to of decades of neglect of oil producing communities by government at all levels, oil companies as well as government agencies and departments.

The group lamented that oil producing communities have watched helplessly as multinational oil producing companies have continued to deny indigenes of Niger Delta employment and provision of social amenities on the excuse that they were granted license to operate by the Federal Government and that they pay royalty to government.

“We watched helplessly for decades as the mighty hands carted away our resources under the principle of national unity with our farm lands desecrated, our waters where we fish polluted and the human population dehumanized apparently as a result of oil production and associated issues of oil spill, gas flaring to mention but a few.

“As a peace loving Nigerian, late President Yar’Adua of blessed memory initiated the 10 percent equity to balance the lopsided oil production and revenue sharing equation by integrating the host communities.”