The Niger Delta Youth Council (NDYC) has faulted the National Assembly over the allocation of three per cent oil and gas companies operating cost to oil producing communities in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
In a statement issued in Abuja, NDYC’s National Coordinator, Jator Abido, enjoined Niger Delta stakeholders to insist on the 10 per cent allocation of operating cost of oil firms to host communities before President Muhammadu Buhari signs the bill into law.
It argued that the three per cent as proposed in the bill was unfair since host communities had always been on the receiving end of the environment degradation and deadly diseases caused by oil exploration activities.
“The Niger Delta Youth Council rejects the three per cent to host communities and 30 per cent of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the exploration of oil in frontier basins, as stipulated in the PIB. We demand 10 per cent for host communities and five per cent for impacted communities.”
Prior to the passage of the bill, stakeholders appealed to the National Assembly to allocate five per cent profit to the host communities, insisting that the three per cent was grossly inadequate.
The NYDC also demanded speedy conclusion of the ongoing forensic audit exercise in the Niger Delta Development commission (NDDC) to pave the way for the inauguration of a substantive NDDC board.
ALSO, the Ogoni People’s Assembly (OPA), has the described the three per cent allocation to host communities in the PIB, as an insult to the Ogoni and the Niger Delta region, who have lost their livelihoods and suffered decades of environmental degeneration.
The group, which comprises a coalition of all Ogoni-based civil society, also bemoaned the silence on gas flaring and its negative consequences on the health of the Ogoni people and the entire Niger Delta environment.
In a statement issued by leader of the group, Probel Williams, yesterday, in Port Harcourt, with Ogoni environmental activist, Celestine Akpobari and others, he said the three per cent was more embarrassing when the loss of livelihoods in the region was considered.
