The Host Communities Producing Oil and Gas (HOSTCOM) has again rejected the 2.5 percent equity shareholding recommended for oil-impacted communities in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), insisting that anything less than their initial demand for 10 per cent would be stoutly rejected, and could be a recipe for renewed militancy in the Niger Delta.
The National President of HOSTCOM, High Chief Benjamin Style Tamanarebi, who disclosed this in a statement, in Abuja, said indications point to the fact that the Federal Government was not interested in the passage of the bill because of lack of sincerity.
According to Tamanarebi, the statement is an executive summary of the joint committee on PIB town hall meetings between the National Assembly and the government of the states, stakeholders and HOSTCOM that took place from March 1 to 5, 2021.
He said the Niger Delta militants have been calm because of the high expectation that the HOSTCOM would secure the 10 per cent equity in the PIB to, at least, atone for the monumental degradation of their environment.
According to him, it is in the interest of all stakeholders that the Federal Government stopped treating the Niger Delta with kids’ gloves as it may boomerang.
In the executive summary that was jointly signed by the National President and chairmen of the nine state chapters of the HOSTCOM, they reiterated their position to stand by the Onshore Host Communities so defined as “Host and directly impacted communities 50km radius of the project site which includes pipelines”.
They want Part 111, Sections 3, 4 ,5, which said, “the commission shall not undertake both commercial and regulatory activities at the same time, and should not tamper with federation account funds such as the proposed 10 per cent of rents on petroleum licences and petroleum mining leases which are usually in dollars to be expunged”.
