The Niger Delta Congress has rejected the newly signed Petroleum Industry Bill, saying it disposses the people of the Niger Delta regions of their lands and the rights to their resources.
President Buhari assented to the bill on Monday, amid several objections from interesy groups in the region.
On July 1, the senate and the house of representatives passed the PIB, allocating 3% and 5% percent respectively to host communities. however , at the public hearing on the bill, representatives of the host communities had demanded that they be allocated 10 percent on the grounds that three percentage is not enough to improve the standard of living of their people.
In a statement signed by the spokesman of the NDC, Barr Ovunda C. Eni, and made available to NewsWireNGR on wednesday, the congress expressed their dissastisfaction with the bill and called for it’s rejection.
The statement reads;
”The Petroleum Industry Act recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari does not come as a surprise to the Niger Delta Congress. It would be incredulous for anyone to think that the different ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta will assent to a legislation whose very first clause dispossesses the people of their rights to their resources and by extension, lands.
Bearing this in mind, we believe it will be a total waste of time discussing the contents of the Petroleum Industry Act. Nonetheless, we appreciate the revelations on the obvious tyranny and lack of empathy by the majorities for the region, and also the indolent roles played by the political leaders of the Niger Delta region in the preparation and eventual passage of this bill into Law.
Consequently, the NDC urges all the various ethnic nationalities of the region to reject this obnoxious law and immediately call for a total restructuring of this country and ensure we protect what is rightfully ours.
We also use this medium to call on all peoples of the Niger Delta to make themselves available for the Niger Delta Peoples Conference holding on the 8th and 9th of October, 2021 in Bayelsa State, Nigeria.”
