Foremost Itsekiri Activist Blasts NASS Over PIB

Itsekiri youths have condemned the three per cent for oil communities as equity share in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) passed by the Senate, describing it as a slap on the face of oil communities in the Niger Delta region.

A foremost Itsekiri youth activist and immediate past President, Itsekiri National Youth Council  (INYC), Comrade Esimaje Awani, who spoke in Warri, Delta State, said it was another strategy to continue to short-change and pauperize the region.

Continuing, he said even the five per cent passed by the House of Representatives was not enough, adding that agitations were even on to step up the ten per cent equity voted in the original bill for host communities.

Awani said it was even more disturbing to see that the Senate approved 30 per cent to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for oil exploration across the country, stressing that it was ridiculous.

“This PIB is not only a slap to the people of the Niger Delta region but the most barbaric act ever exhibited by human beings since the creation of this earth”, he said.

“How do you give the owner three per cent and you are giving thirty per cent for exploration”, he queried.

“As a youth leader in the Niger Delta region and the immediate past president, Itsekiri National Youth Council (INYC), I condemn the bill in its totality“, he added.

”If this is what they could come out with after all these years then it would have been better they don’t come up with anything”, he said.

“We were saying ten per cent in the original bill was not enough and now the Senate is giving us three per cent. This is man inhumanity to man“, he added.