PIB: South-South group faults Senator Dickson’s position

A group in the Niger Delta region, the South-south Emerging Leaders’ Forum (SELF) has called on former Bayelsa state governor, Seriake Dickson to thread with caution over his recent stance on the bill for an Act to Provide Legal, Governance, Regulatory and Fiscal Framework for the Nigerian Petroleum Industry, the Development of Host  and For Related Matters, 2020 (SB. 510) otherwise known as the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB)

Dickson who is the Senator representing Bayelsa West had on Friday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to decline the Bill his presidential assent.

Senator Dickson who called for a review of the Host Communities Trust Fund from 3 per cent to 5 per cent cautioned that the fund is returned to the initial 5% canvassed in the 54-member Senate Joint Committee on Downstream Petroleum Sector, Petroleum Resources (Upstream) and Gas, led by  Senator representing Jigawa South West, Sabo Mohammed Nakudu.

He further cautioned that failure to review the Fund could instigate violence in the Niger Delta region.

Already, a militant group, Niger Delta Revolutionary Crusaders (NDRC), has threatened to resume hostilities over the three per cent allocated to host communities in the recently passed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by the National Assembly, which it describes as unfavourable.

But the group in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Benjamin Kolowei, accused the former Bayelsa state governor of playing politics with the PIB. 

The statement read in part: “The likes of Senator Dickson are ingrate. Under the PDP administration, with President Goodluck Jonathan from Bayelsa, Dickson as a sitting governor, Alison Madueke as Minister of Petroleum and the PDP dominated National Assembly, the PIB could not see the light of the day.

“The likes of Senator Dickson should bury their heads in shame and by now be answering questions on their ignominious roles instead of heaping blame on patriotic Minister of State for Petroleum.”

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