Stakeholders in the oil Niger Delta region have listed provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), that need quick review by the Federal Government to meet the desired need of the Act.

This came during the Second Niger Delta Alternative Convergence (NDAC), with support from Oil Watch Africa and HOMEF, which was held in Port Harcourt yesterday.

Speaking, the Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, Nimmo Bassey, during the event, stressed the need for a quick review of the PIA, adding that its current state does not sure justice for the host communities of the region.

Bassey said it was good that there is a document on the operations of companies in the region, but that the PIA was defective and needs quick review.

He said: “The PIA we have is defective in some areas. How could we at this age give oil communities the authority to determine who is the host community? How can oil companies who are foreigners know more about our communities?

“How could we allow oil companies to determine who will be on the board that will determine how the money for the host communities is utilized?

“How can we in all conscience allow a law that criminalizes the local people; that assumes that when there is pipeline vandalism it is caused by the community?

“We know that oil theft is not done by the local people or poor people, but by the rich people. We have gathered that Nigeria has lost huge revenue recently not by oil theft but by faulty metering. There is no proper metering,” he stated.

He said the need for the review is urgent, adding that oil companies that not also assume a regulatory function of their dealings with their hosts.

Bassey said: “There is a need for a quick review of the PIA, the section that talks about the NNPC going to search for crude oil. Oil companies cannot tell us who we are. They should not have the right to tell us who the host communities are. They shouldn’t be the ones that nominate the executive members of the board that handles the funding of host communities.

“Host communities should not be criminalized if there is any infringement on facilities of the oil companies because they are not the police, Navy or the Civil Defense Corps.

“Lastly, rather than raising revenue from gas flaring to invest in no gas collection, there should be a definite deadline to stop gas flaring,” he insisted.

He said the conference gives an opportunity for the people of the Niger Delta to chat about a way forward in their quest for peace and development, regretting that the government have not shown responsibility.

Nimmo Bassey said: “We gathered today to agree on steps going forward. The problems of Nigeria have refused to disappear principally because for 65 years there is no definite step taken by governing structures at the federal or state level to hold polluters accountable. We have only seen a bit of this in the Ogoni situation where the polluter was made to pay for the environmental assessment as well as the commencement of the clean up.”

However, Hon. Ken Robinson, the National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, in his speech bemoaned a lack of preparedness of the governments for the 2023 flooding, adding that the government has failed to budget for the natural deserter.

He said: “On the issues of flooding, that of this year is coastal flooding because of the surge of the sea level. No provisions have been made in the budget for the flooding for this year

“This meeting should amplify it; and for the people to be vigilant and the government to be proactive. We need to put our government on alert to ensure that measures are put in place for the people,” he added. (Vanguard)

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