Clark rejects PIB, demands immediate reversal of provisions

Leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Edwin Clark, has described the newly passed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), ready for harmonisation as satanic, unjust, embarrassing, and has dashed the hope of the people of the Niger Delta.

Clark, who is also the leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), said the provision that allocated a huge 30percent of profits for further frontier oil exploration in the north was a source of concern, especially in a fast-changing world of investment shifts away from fossil oil.

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He said the PIB does not reflect the long clamour by the people of the region for equity, fairness and justice, noting that the bill has dashed the hopes of the people of the Niger Delta.

Clark who was represented at a press conference in Abuja by PANDEF’s National Publicity Secretary, Ken Robinson, declared that the region has had enough of the colonial oppression and will be resisting it.

“It 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,” he said.

“But 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.

Clarke said the entire people of the Niger Delta region, for and on behalf of the host communities, vehemently reject the 3percent and 5percent of operating expenditure granted to the host communities; the fraudulent and provocative 30percent provision for the frontier exploration fund.

He demanded that the PIB be reversed, reviewed and amended to ensure that the oil-bearing communities receive not less than 10percent of operating cost.

“If 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,” he added.

The two chambers of the National Assembly last week Thursday passed the PIB, after about 13 years of legislative fireworks.

The bill was first sent to the National Assembly in 2008 by President Umaru Yar’Adua, now deceased, without translating it into an Act.

The PIB, 2020 seeks to introduce far-reaching reforms in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

Clark said the PIB passed does not reflect the long clamour by the people of the region for equity, fairness and justice.