• Friday, March 29, 2024
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PIB: Host community provision a time bomb – Diri warns

Douye Diri

Bayelsa State governor, Douye Diri, has warned that the definition of a host community in the just passed Petroleum Industry Bill by the National Assembly was a time bomb if not properly addressed.

He also restated the position of governors of the southern states that it was an injustice to allot three percent of oil revenue for the host communities that bear the brunt of exploration and exploitation activities.

Diri spoke on Tuesday when he featured as guest on Channels Television breakfast current affairs programme, Sunrise Daily.

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He was quoted in a press release by his chief press secretary, Daniel Alabrah, that prior to Monday’s meeting of the southern states governors in Lagos, the states had been in consultation with relevant stakeholders on their position, which he said was a minimum of 10 percent to oil-producing communities.

He said it was unthinkable and unacceptable to people of the South that a provision of 30 percent profit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was inserted in the controversial bill for “frontier exploration” in areas that were not clearly specified.

Governor Diri strongly frowned at the definition of oil-producing communities and host communities to include areas where pipelines are laid. He called for a reversal of such proposal, saying it was a time bomb that if not properly addressed could create avoidable crises.

The Bayelsa helmsman restated his commitment and that of his colleagues in the Southern Governors Forum to continuous dialogue to resolve issues that border on the challenges faced by oil-producing communities and states.

Responding to a question on open grazing, Diri described cattle rearing as a private business that the states have power to regulate, stressing that there was no going back on the ban of open grazing in Bayelsa, which he said was no longer sustainable.

He stated that the ban was in force in the state since he assented to the bill on March 11, 2021.

On the issue of the governors’ resolve that the president of the country should emerge from the South in 2023, he said although it was a political decision that required consultations and lobby, a president of Southern extraction in the next election would encourage peaceful coexistence in Nigeria.

“Governors did not wait until now to speak on the PIB. Speaking on behalf of my state, we had a position and it was made very clear during the public hearings.

“It is unthinkable and total injustice to allot three percent to oil-producing communities. We stated our position of 10 percent.

“The definition of host communities or oil-producing communities is also worrisome. Oil-producing communities should not be where pipelines are laid. If the issue of what an oil-producing community is not addressed, it is a time bomb that could explode,” Diri warned.