A rights group, the Centre for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade (CHURAC), has said that the speed at with which President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is suspicious.
The group’s statement on Wednesday wondered why the president, who had been on self-isolation, could not have waited till he resumed fully before giving assent to the controversial bill.
Barrister Cleric E. Alaowei, CHURAC’s President/Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), in the statement, said it appeared Buhari seemed to have yielded to the desires of a section of the country, especially the core Northern supremacists in signing the bill.
He said: “For us in the Niger Delta, the hasty signing into law of that rather repressive Act, only marked another draconian legal regime where the region is being subjected to the whims and caprices of the inimical petroleum laws.
“The new Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) only adds up to the laws that have being colonising the Niger Delta people. The 3% host community funds is an insult to the beleaguered oil bearing, but environmentally degraded communities as far as 30% is approved for oil exploration at the frontier basin, which is tactically provided to favour the northern states.
“Niger Delta people need 10% equity share. The 3% cannot remedy the despoliation of our environment occasioned by the years of unhindered oil exploration.
“We suggest that the President and the National Assembly initiate the amendment of the new Act in order to forestall possible breakdown of law and order in the region.”
