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Demands review of NDDC board, pipeline surveillance contract
From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The People of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area (ONELGA) of Rivers State have accused the Federal and State governments of injustices, total neglect and underdevelopment.
They have also given the federal and state governments, as well as interventionist agencies 21 days deadline to engage them in a dialogue to address their grievances.
Speaking through the body, ONELGA Host Communities Stakeholders Forum, the people condemned the current composition of the board of directors of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and urged President Bola Tinubu to review the membership.
The people, who titled the theme of the press conference as ‘Injustices, Total Neglect and Underdevelopment of our People by the State and Federal Governments”, said it was condemnable that with ONELGA’s contributions to the national economy, in terms of oil and gas, it lacks commensurable development.
Briefing reporters in Omoku, headquarters of ONELGA, Rivers State, on Wednesday, Chairman of the Forum, Nelson Ekperi, berated federal government for not recognizing people from the area in the award of pipeline surveillance contract.
Ekperi said: “We hereby give 21 days ultimatum from the day of this conference to both the Rivers State Government and the Federal Government to enter into serious dialogue with us on the way forward.
“We thank God Almighty for blessing ONELGA with abundant natural mineral resources, while we demand for equity and fairness in the distribution of the proceeds of these resources by the Federal Government and Rivers State Government.
“The Federal Pipeline Surveillance Contract in ONELGA, Rivers State, should be properly reviewed to capture all landlords in ONELGA as the highest oil and gas producing local government area in Nigeria.
“It is sad to note that Egi zone of ONELGA is not captured in the current Federal Pipeline Surveillance Contract. We, therefore, call for the total review and increment of the number of chances for ONELGA to accommodate Egi and other zones in the area.
“It is also instructive to note that there is no single mega project from NDDC located in the entire ONELGA since the inception of this intervention agency. All we have are few micro projects that are mostly in abandoned stage and this may be a direct correlation of the lack of representation on the management and board of the NDDC.”
The Forum further demanded: “The immediate appointment of an ONELGA indigene into the NDDC Board of Directors. We advice that the recent appointment of NDDC Board of Directors should be revisited to accommodate an ONELGA indigene as duly envisaged in the Act” establishing the commission.”
The group called on the Federal Ministry of Environment, Nigerians Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Total energy, Seplats, Addax, Indorama, Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and other firms to urgently address the environmental degradation and pollution of the entire ONELGA.
Also, the Forum has called on the state governor , Siminalayi Fubara and Rivers State House of Assembly to enact a law and establish RISOPADEC from the 13 percent derivation fund, to enable host communities to benefit more directly from what belongs to them and create more jobs for the teeming unemployed youths.
