Leaders of the Host Community of Oil Producing Areas have asked the Federal Government to scrap the Niger Delta Development Commission and transfer all its allocations to them for effective management.
Benjamin Tamaranebi, President of the Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas, made the request while addressing journalists on the second day of the public hearing on the Petroleum Industry Bill by the Senate joint committee on petroleum upstream, downstream, and Gas, on Tuesday.
According to Tamaranebi, the communities’ request is predicated on the reduction of the host community development trust fund from 10 per cent in 2008 to 2.5 per cent in 2020, alongside other proposals contained in the PIB.
He noted that some proposed provisions in the PIB would deny the people the required funds to develop their communities.
Tamaranebi said NDDC should be scrapped so that the allocation given to the commission could be directly paid to the communities for critical interventions, especially after the revelations that followed the investigative hearing on the commission.
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