Jimitota Onoyume & Inalegwu Shaibu
8 May 2008
THE Niger Delta Peace Parley jointly organised by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) ended yesterday in Port Harcourt with a call on the National Assembly to review laws regulating the oil/gas sector as well as land use.
The call came as the Nigerian Red Cross announced the setting up of a steering committee to control arms proliferation and kidnapping in the Niger Delta.
In a communique at the end of the Port Harcourt parley, participants said ownership and control of offshore and onshore oil should be vested in communities which will "pay royalties to determined levels of government."
Communique makes recommendations on oil and gas, land use
In the communiqué signed by Messrs Akuro George, Chairman NDDC/NBA Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) and George Ero, Vice Chairman NDDC/NBA JIC, participants also said communities should be allowed to participate in decisions concerning oil exploration and production activities in the country as the current regime expropriates the rights of the communities, and that the commission's master plan should be legislated into existence the summit also urged the Federal Government to treat all natural resources in the same manner as against the different treatment given to petroleum and other natural resources.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS), according to them, should be effectively used to map the Niger Delta region to improve the land management, registration and administration of the area with a view to effectively utilising the economic benefits of the area.
"The status of land ownership before the Land Use Act be reverted to and where that is not immediately feasible, land used for petroleum activities be converted as equity contributions as against paying pittance as compensation," the communique recommended, and urged government to hold oil companies responsible for every negative impact of all their operations in the region in accordance with the polluters' pays principle the communiqué also suggested amendment of the NDDC act to address constraints in the areas of funding. And to also make companies in the oil and gas sector be part of the funding arrangement "with appropriate sanctions for defaulting companies."
They called for the creation of a Niger Delta Finance Corporation to fund infrastructural and entrepreneurial development in the region while the corporate law system should be vested in the state and local government areas to boost entrepreneurial development.
They enjoined the Federal Government to release funds due the commission just as it noted the need for a legal framework for public private partnership (PPP) to be created at state, local and federal levels to foster development in the region.
Red Cross sets up c'ttee to check arms proliferation
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Red Cross yesterday revealed that it has set up a steering committee aimed at controlling arms proliferation and kidnapping in the Niger Delta region.
The Red Cross said it had established a climate centre to help control the dangers of climatic changes in the country.
National President of Nigerian Red Cross, Chief Rochas Okorocha, told journalists in Abuja at a briefing to mark the World Red Cross Day that setting up the committee would enable Red Cross reach the core masses of the Niger Delta with relief materials and stop further lost of lives and properties.
He said: "The Niger Delta situation requires the services of the Red Cross. A lot of arms come into the region and most times it is used wrongly. We are already in talks with the Federal Government and the people of the area to seek ways to check proliferation of arms in the region.
"More so, we realise that in every society, there are bounds to be disagreement. That is what is happening in Niger Delta and these conflicts most times resulted in human casualties needing emergency first aid and other treatments.
"What we want to do in this situation now is to put comfort in the lives of the people who have long suffered deprivation. We want to ensure that people who are not getting education before will now have access to education, healthcare facilities and good environment to live in.
"As we provide services, we will also dramatise their plight to get more support from Nigerians and the Federal Government," he said.
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