Ijaw Diaspora council seeks review of PIA

Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa

The Ijaw Diaspora Council (IDC) on Thursday advocated a review of the Petroleum Industry Act to review the host community fund to 10 per cent and put its management in the hands of oil communities.

According to a statement signed by Prof. Mondy Gold, President and Dr Edward Perekebina Agbai, General Secretary of IDC,

the Board of the IDC arrived at the decision amongst others after a meeting on July 23 to review of current developments at home.

“On the Petroleum Industry Act, the board frowned at the 3% of operational expenses allocated to the Host Community Trust Fund for the oil-bearing communities and advocated that it be reviewed to 10 Percent. The Ijaw Diaspora Board also demands that the various organs envisaged under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) for the administration of the Host Community Fund be inaugurated.

“However, the Act should be swiftly amended to put indigenes of host communities in charge of them, rather than the current provisions that vest the powers of appointment and control of the Host Community Fund structures in the operating companies, thereby leaving the destiny of host communities to the whims and caprices of oil companies who are mere tenants.

“The Ijaw Diaspora seeks the speedy amendment and implementation of these provisions through the establishment of the Host Communities Development Trust to aid in developing the economic and social infrastructure of communities in petroleum-producing areas such as the Niger Delta,’ the statement read in part.

The IDC recommended the establishment of Decommissioning and Abandonment Fund (DAF) to maintain and manage the Licensees and Lessees to be held by reputable financial institutions in an escrow account.

According to the group, the funds should be accessible to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and or the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority.

They said that the fund should be used to pay decommissioning and abandonment costs based on the yearly decommissioning and abandonment plan.

IDC criticised the recent Marginal Fields bid round and award, without first addressing the continuing environmental devastation of the Niger Delta by the oil industry.

“It is made worse because the 49 awards for more than N200 billion or $477 million were made in clear disobedience to the pending court order against it by the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

“We ask the Federal Government to cancel the bid round and make the process comply with the court order and equitable to the Ijaw Ethnic Nationality and other people and environment of the Niger Delta region,’ the group stated.

The group also noted that the Water Resources Bill presently in the House of Representatives is against the interest of the Ijaw people and the entire Niger Delta especially sections 22 – 31 which gives absolute powers to the commission not to be questioned and power over the surface and underground waters and adjoining lands.

It frowned at one of the provisions in the bill which compels Nigerians to obtain permits and pay taxes to the federal government like oil and gas operators before they drill boreholes in their backyards.

They noted that the bill also seeks to cede ownership of waterways, river banks and others to the federal government, which is against the Land Use Act that vests these powers with the state governor to administer the land.

The group called for establishing the Bayelsa State Tourism Development Endowment Fund to generate employment and the earliest possible completion of the Ijaw Diaspora Village in Ijaw land to improve Bayelsa State’s reputation on national, continental, and international levels.

IDC urged the commencement of the Oloibiri Museum and Research Center, in recognition of the pioneer oil and gas town in the nation.

On the Nembe-Brass Road, the group applauded the Bayelsa government for kick-starting the project adding that it should be completed without delay by the federal government using the taxes credit option from oil and gas companies, particularly Agip.

The Ijaw group also demanded immediate relocation of the Presidential Amnesty Program from Abuja to Bayelsa State.

They urged Ijaw political leaders to close ranks and go beyond party lines and stand in unison in the overall interest of Ijaws and jettison egocentric unsolved grievances and fragmentation in the Ijaw area.