By Samuel Oyadongha, Festus Ahon, Emman Ovuakporie, Johnbosco Agbakwuru, Egufe Yafugborhi, Godwin Oghre, Perez Brisibe & Ochuko Akuopha

Reactions have continued to trail the reported removal of Host Community Development Fund in the redesigned Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, with Niger Delta rights activist, Zik Gbemre, describing the action by the National Assembly as ungodly and morally wrong.

Also, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions, Uzoma Nkem-Abonta, yesterday,  described the PIB draft, submitted by the Senate for consideration, as parochial by excluding host communities from the 10 per cent development fund paid by oil companies operating in Nigeria.

Abonta, who represents Ukwa East/West in Abia State, said denying host communities development funds would make them perpetual spectators and not partakers in the resources exploited and explored  from their lands.

Briefing  journalists in Abuja, while reacting to the Senate draft,  Abonta said those promoting such an agenda in the Senate have failed to understand the extent of the neglect and suffering experienced by host communities as a result of  oil exploration activities by oil prospecting companies.

He cautioned that the Senate PIB legislation, if passed into law, “will keep restiveness alive in the oil producing communities.’’

According to him, it sounds ridiculous that “while you are denying host communities any financial benefits from the natural resources found in their backyard, you are taking money realized from the sale of crude oil to prospect for oil in other parts of the country.”

Ijaw Youth Council

Similarly, Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, called on legislators from the Niger Delta to oppose the removal of the fund from the new version of PIB.

Spokesman for IYC, Mr Eric Omare, said the proposal was retrogressive and should be opposed by all legislators, especially those from the Niger Delta in both chambers of National Assembly.

He said: “The oil community development fund is a laudable initiative aimed at making oil producing communities stakeholders in the oil resources that is produced in their communities and address sabotage and associated challenges.

“We call on members of the National Assembly, especially those from the Niger Delta region, to reject this oppressive, anti-Niger Delta and retrogressive decision. The IYC enjoin Nigerians and men of conscience to reject this decision.”

NDPC

Gbemre, National Coordinator, Niger Delta Peace Coalition, NDPC, said in Warri, yesterday, that the deliberate removal of the said provision in the original bill suggested that the 8th Assembly had strong hatred for the people of the Niger Delta.

He noted that all farmlands, rivers and creeks in the oil producing environment have suffered degradation and have been made unprofitable to non-oil investments, particularly agriculture over the past five decades of ceaseless oil and gas exploration and production in the Niger Delta.

He said: “By removing the said 10% Host Community Development Fund, what then do the host communities hold on to as benefits to compensate for their sufferings incurred from the extractive industry all these years? This sort of atrocity is not tenable in other countries where oil and gas production is mainstay.

“Host communities deserve better treatment. We, therefore, call on the National Assembly to, as a matter of urgency, retain the host community fund in their so called new version of the PIGB which has suffered all manner of political interests, abuse in the last eight years.”

Gbaramatu Ijaw

Godspower Gbenekama, Chairman, Fact Finding Committee on Pipeline Vandalism in Warri South-West, who spoke on behalf of Gbaramatu Ijaw, said:   “We are warning that all members of the NASS from Niger Delta must resist the new bill with all sense of seriousness till the removed portion is restored.

“For those of our Niger Delta governors winning and dining with enemies of the Niger Delta, we are waiting for them back. If they don’t sit up, we will show them the way out. Anyone involved in this unholy alliance to shortchange us is an enemy of the Niger Delta.”

Another Niger Delta activist and National Coordinator, Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice, CEPEJ, Mr Sheriff Mulade, said the removal of the Host Community Development Fund from the new PIB smacked of irresponsibility.

Mulade, in a telephone chat with Vanguard, said the removal of the 10 per cent oil producing communities fund from the bill clearly showed the insensitivity of the Buhari-led Federal Government to the sufferings of the oil producing communities of the Niger Delta.

His words:   “We make bold to state that the new bill is the handiwork of those who have always believed that the Niger Delta should be seen as a conquered territory and that it should continue to remain impoverished, despite the fact that it is the treasure trove of the nation.’’