The Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has described as insensitive President Muhammadu Buhari’s assent to the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), despite the overwhelming outcry and condemnation that greeted its passage by the National Assembly, especially as it affects the paltry three percent provision for the Host Communities Development Trust Fund and the brazen appropriation of an outrageous 30% of NNPC Ltd profit for a dubious, nebulous Frontier Oil Exploration Fund.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Ken Robinson, PANDEF insisted that the PIB fell way short of the expectations of the Oil and Gas Producing Communities, which bore the brunt of ‘unconscionable’ industry operations.
It would be recalled PANDEF leader, Chief Edwin Clark, had last month warned that any thing short of 10 per cent as the actual annual operating expenditure of the preceding financial year in the upstream petroleum operations affecting the host communities for funding of the Host Communities Trust Fund, peace and security might not be guaranteed in the Niger Delta region.
According to PANDEF, “this assent by President Buhari simply speaks to the repugnant attitude of disregard, propelled by arrogance, disdain and contempt with which issues concerning the Niger Delta Region are treated, particularly by the present Administration.”
“What this act signifies is an unequivocal message to the Niger Delta people that how they feel and what they say, do not count, at all, in the Schemes of the Nigerian Project,” Robinson stressed.
“That’s insensitive, abominable and afar every boundary of proper Democratic practice, and, therefore, unacceptable to the good people of the Niger Delta, the critical economic nexus of the entire Nigerian territory.
“The Niger Delta people will speak, shortly, after full consultations, on this callous act, on the best legal and political response.”
