Politics
N’Delta groups threaten showdown with lawmakers over 3% PIB allocation
In the wake of the resolution of the National Assembly to ensure a three percent allocation to host communities within the framework of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) some Niger Delta groups have rejected the proposition.
Amongst these groups are the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) who stated that they will not be able to guarantee peace due to the conflict that might result from the mandate.
In a statement in Friday, the President of the INC, Prof. Benjamin Okaba, said the Ijaw remained resolute on their rejection of the three per cent equity share and demanded 10 per cent.
He said, “Since our appeal as the leadership of the Ijaw nation appears to have fallen on deaf ears, we cannot promise or guarantee that we shall be able to contain any recourse to restiveness that could arise in Ijaw land.”
Okaba described the protest by the senators and House of Representatives members from the area as historic and symbolic.
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He said their action was a clear message to Nigeria and the international community of the Ijaw people’s rejection of the three per cent share.
Okaba said, “The Ijaw nation shall continue to condemn any policy that attempts to make what duly belongs to us as belonging to everybody and anybody without first respecting our right to ownership as we have at no time assumed ownership and control over what belongs to others.
Similarly, the President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke, in a statement, described the bill as unbalanced, unfair, unreasonable, discriminatory and unrealistic.
Nsuke said, “MOSOP therefore rejects the PIB and urges the President, Muhammadu Buhari, to return the PIB to the National Assembly for amendments before it becomes law:
“We reject the PIB as an instrument to deprive the Ogoni people and the entire Niger Delta region of the benefits derivable from its natural endowments.
“MOSOP expects 25 per cent allocation to host communities, we reject the three per cent allocated to host communities in the PIB and consider it a part of an enslavement design to drive the oil-producing communities to death.”
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