Assembly Probes Kom-Kom Incident

Last week, the Rivers State House of Assembly commenced deliberations to set up standing committees.
Though the House suspended the constituting of the committee till last week, it had initially set up two adhoc committees to investigate the various petitions on the table.
The first Adhoc committee was set up during the 9th Assembly third sitting, when members representing Degema State Constituency, Hon. Anthony Soberekon submitted a petition on behalf of his constituents from Bille community who had suffered frequent pirate attacks in recent times.
With the absence of the House Committee on Public Petitions, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Ikuinyi-Owaji Ibani under order 22 of the House, set up an adhoc committee chaired by member representing Gokana State Constituency, Hon. Dumle Maol to investigate the matter and report back to the House in two weeks time.
Last week at the Assembly, the Hon. Maol led Adhoc committee submitted its report, which was later adopted for further deliberation by the legislators.
However, summarily, Hon Maol said the committee among other issues addressed made recommendations after it met with the stakeholders in the area over the petition.
Among the recommendation made were that the security agencies should investigate the frequent sea piracy along the Port Harcourt-Bille sea route and fish out the miscreants responsible. It also tasked the council authorities in Degema Local Government Area to also beef-up their support to security agencies towards making the sea route safer.
Before the House heard the report of the Maol led committee, it received a petition from member representing Oyigbo State Constituency, Hon Promise Nwankwo over pipeline rupture that killed scores of residents at Kom-Kom in Oyigbo two weeks ago.
The petition was signed by one Chief S. Nazu and Atkins Okorie, indigenes of Kom-Kom community.
The lawmaker accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for failing to respond to the plight of the community, as the pipeline that ruptured was not an act of sabotage, but had rusted and become weak, hence the explosion that killed scores of people living around the area.
Currently, Hon Nwankwo lamented that the water, environment and social life of the people in the area have been adversely affected, stating that since after the incident, no response or palliative measure has been put in place by the authorities involved.
Responding to the petition, the Speaker relying on House Order 22 set up an ad-hoc committee to be chaired by member representing Eleme, Hon Igwe Aforji, to investigate and report back to the House on the matter.
Other members of the ad-hoc committee to investigate the Kom-Kom explosion are members from Tai, Opobo/Nkoro and Oyigbo state constituencies.
Earlier, the Speaker had announced two standing committees to oversee some aspects of the House activities. They are: Rules and Business Committee for the selection of members into various committees and chaired by the majority leader and committee on matters of comfort and convenience of the House. Hon Azeru Opara chairs the committee on convenience and comfort of the House.