The leader of Pan -Nigeria Delta Forum (PANDEF), Edwin Clark has faulted the newly passed Petroleum Industry Bill(PIB) by the Senate and House of Representatives.
He described the passed bill as “satanic, unjust, and embarrassing”
The national assembly passed the PIB last week raising the frontier basins exploration fund to 30 percent.
Reacting to the passed bill, Clark, who is also the leader of the South-South and Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) in an open letter addressed to the Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Speaker house of representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila condemned the provision and allocation of 30% of profits for further frontier oil exploration in the north.
Clark said the passed bill does not reflect the long clamour by the people of the region for equity, fairness and justice, adding that the bill has dashed the hopes of the Niger Delta.
Clark said people of the Niger Delta, at all levels both at home and abroad, have expressed their great displeasure over the satanic and obnoxious allocation of a paltry percentage of operating expenditure to oil producing communities by the national assembly.
âIt is important to state clearly here to all well-meaning Nigerians that the demand of the oil bearing communities of the Niger Delta Region was for a minimum of 10% equity participation,â he said.
âBut you Mr. Senate President, the Right Honourable Speaker and some of your colleagues in the National Assembly, have further shown your disdain to the Niger Delta people by redefining host communities to include pipeline-bearing pathway communities, in which case States where pipelines pass through to aid them with the privilege of cheap supplies of Niger Delta petroleum products could also be entitled to the ridiculous and unacceptable percentages that the legislators are willing to cede to oil-bearing Communities.
âWe want to warn seriously, that the people of the Niger Delta have had enough of this colonial and oppressive mentality of our Northern brothers and friends. Today, the north controls the Oil Sector, even though day-to-day operations are being handled by the International Oil Companies (IOCs) on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.â
âIf this is not done, the Niger Delta people may be forced to take their destiny into their own hands and all IOCs may find themselves denied access to their oil activities in such communities,â he added.
