Allocate Marginal Oil Fields To Nigerians, Fubara Tells FG

Member of the Rivers State Advisory Council, Professor Dagogo Fubara, has urged the Federal Government to allocate marginal oil fields to indigenous companies in the Niger Delta for development.

Prof Fubara who gave the advice in a paper entitled, “Corporate Social Responsibility; Agenda for Sustainable Peace: The Niger Delta Example” during the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt District 9140, said that the situation could check the spate of illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta.

He described as unnecessary, the recent clamour by some politicians for oversight of the onshore/offshore dichotomy which was laid to rest during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He stated that the recognition of Nigeria as a littoral state by the United Nations was due to the existence of coastal states such as Rivers, stressing that the activities of oil companies offshore was impacting negatively on the coastal states of the country.

The Professor of Geodesy also faulted the Federal Government’s decision to use the money generated from the Niger Delta to search for oil in the Lake Chad Basin, as well as the creation of a public liability company to manage some aspects of the petroleum industry, which according to him had created the opportunity for moneybags to hijack the industry.

Prof Fubara stressed the need for Niger Delta governors to toe the path of their Northern counterparts by setting up a committee to study the new draft of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) with a view to making amendments in areas that could be inimical to the interest of the region.

Earlier, the president of the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt, District 9140, Rotarian Henry Sota, said that the International Night was celebrated every November by the club as the Rotary Foundation Month.

He said that the mission of the Rotary Foundation was to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, the supply of education and the alleviation of poverty.