Some youth groups in the Niger Delta have expressed their displeasure and outright rejection of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) recently passed by the National Assembly.
The youths threatened to withdraw their social contract as well as support for oil companies if grey areas are not reviewed.
One of the grey areas is the proposed allocation of 30% NNPC profits to the frontier exploration of the Lake Chad and 3% allocation to host communities as against the 10% initially demanded.
The groups, in a briefing in Port Harcourt said the proposed PIB in its entirety is a grand fraud against the oil producing communities and the people of the Niger Delta.
Speaking on behalf of the groups, Coordinator of Ogoni Development Drive (ODD), Comrade Solomon Lenu, stressed that host communities should participate in the management of the oil companies which is one of the major demands of the Niger Delta people, left unaddressed by the bill, for the over 100 years of oil activities in the region.
“The current PIB must be revisited with the views of the host communities carefully considered as this was not the case with the current bundle of pain the National Assembly is trying to foist upon oil producing communities,” he said.
Lenu warned that there will be consequences should government proceed to pass the PIB into law without giving consideration to the alleged anomalies it presently contains as it will endanger the lives of members host Communities.
