A coalition of civil society organizations in NIgeria’s Niger Delta region say the public hearing organised by the National Assembly on the Petroleum Industry Bill PIB is a sham and designed to stoke conflicts among oil producing communities of the Niger Delta.
The group also said that the manner the National Assembly has managed the public hearing on the bill would promote environmental impunity in the oil industry and cause social dislocation in oil bearing communities in the region.
This was contained in text of a briefing at the National Assembly organised by the coalition led by Ken Henshaw of the Niger Delta Dialogue and a host other civil society organizations.
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They expressed dissatisfaction with the way both chambers of the apex organised the 2-day hearing on the PIB and particularly lamented that members of the oil bearing host communities, civil society groups, and other critical stakeholders were deliberately denied access to the hearing venue.
The group also said it was also unfortunate that environmental pollution and other ecological concerns of the Niger Delta region which the bill was carefully crafted to take care of were entirely ignored while more focus was on production and the commercial viability of the oil industry to the Federal Government.
Edited by Oloyede Oworu
