By Emma Amaize & Egufe Yafugborhi

WARRI—THE Host Communities Oil and Gas Producing of Nigeria, HOSTCOM, has alleged that the Delta State Government plans to liquidate and replace the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC.

The national leadership of the body at a meeting in Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area, Delta State, emphasised that an executive bill to that effect had already passed first reading at the state House of Assembly.

National Coordinator, HOSTCOM, Prince Maikpobi Okareme, told Vanguard shortly after the meeting that the action reportedly coming from Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan was borne out of ulterior motive against the common interests of DESOPADEC communities.

Okareme said: “Even the sponsor of the bill knows that it is ill-conceived and so they are being very secretive about it just like they did with the political office holders pension bill. The bill has passed first reading and it is not in public domain.

“For us, we can pre-empt that it aims at covering the dirty deals of DESOPADEC over the years. The new arrangement as contained in the bill takes funds accrued to the agency to reward a bloated board membership leaving peanuts for the core objective of developing the host communities.”

He said the body also presumed from the tone of the bill that it is aimed at pre-empting the judgement of the court in the suit by HOSTCOM against the state government in respect of outstanding N230 billion accrued to oil communities through DESOPADEC in the past eight years of the current administration.