Akwa Ibom Lawmaker decries 2.5% allocation to Niger Delta as NASS set to pass PIB

As the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) evolves towards its passage into law at the National Assembly (NASS), the member of the House of Representatives for Etinan Federal Constituency, Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Onofiok Luke, has frowned at the 2.5 per cent allocation to Niger Delta region.

Speaking in Uyo, the state capital, at the weekend, Luke, who presented his score card in the last 17 months, reeled his contribution to the PIB document as one of his major achievements in his first stint at the lower legislative chamber of NASS.

According to the former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, “my position was that ‘considering the impact of crude exploration and exploitation by the International Oil Companies (IOCs), the 2.5 percent was too minimal to address the development issues in the region.”

“That is why my position is that the allocation should be up to five percent”, he explained, adding that “the roads into the oil producing communities especially Eastern Obolo, have completely collapsed”, arguing that more funding could go a long way towards tackling the infrastructural challenges plaguing the region.

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“If you go to Eastern Obolo and other oil bearing communities, the roads have been destroyed due to heavy-duty trucks carrying equipment and other facilities to the crude exploration sites of the IOC’s, ” Luke noted.

He disclosed that working with the lawmaker representing Ikot Abasi\Eastern Obolo in the House of Representatives, Mr. Charles Uduyork and other NASS members from Akwa Ibom, the state has witnessed effective representation and the resulting impact from the centre.

Luke, who took time off to visit some isolated on shore oil communities of Eastern Obolo, Oron, Eket and Ibeno Local Government Areas, expressed dismay at those he described the forgotten people and charged the media to “do proper investigative reports on these people and communities to attract government intervention.”

“If you don’t report on the plights of these communities in the secluded settlements in the Atlantic ocean, no government assistance would come to these people.

“These communities are completely cut off from schools, hospitals, access roads, clean water and other essential amenities and it is only through media exposure that could help governments, their representatives and other agencies to address their problems, ” he explained.

He, therefore, stressed the need for increased funding for the Niger Delta project towards a lasting peace in the region.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE