By Egufe Yafugborhi
WARRI-IJAWS in Delta State have kicked against the new executive bill intended by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to change the nomenclature and composition of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, contending that the bill if allowed to sail through would be unfair to oil bearing and impacted communities.
In a position paper on the bill by leaders of Gbaramatu, Ogulagha, Ogbe-Ijoh, Egbema and Diebiri clans, who addressed newsmen in Warri, yesterday, the Delta Ijaw Oil Producing Communities, said that they welcome an amended DESOPADEC bill, but not on any of the terms expressed by the governor. Those who signed the position paper include Chief Favour Izoukumor for Ogbe-Ijoh Kingdom, Sheriff Mulade (Gbaramatu), Dickson Asoki (Egbema), Prefugha Karawei (Ogulagha) and Samuel Ako on behalf of Ijaw’s of Diebiri Kingdom. They said “Section 2 of the proposed bill seeks to delete Delta State Oil and Gas Producing Areas and recast it as Delta State Oil and Gas Producing Ethnic Nationalities. To open DESOPADEC to the entire ethnic nationalities instead of the oil producing communities would defeat the essence of addressing impacted communities’ peculiar needs. “What is accruable to DESOPADEC is only 50 percent of the 13 percent derivation. The remaining 50 percent, the statutory allocation and internal generated revenue can apply to the development of the entire state. It is provocative to take back the 50 percent and now devote same to developing the entire state. “This proposal should be rejected by the state House of Assembly. When salt loses its savour, it loses its value. It is not only illogical, but also semantically incoherent. The negative effect is that politicians who are not from core oil producing communities would be the ones to determine the direction of the commission to the detriment of the oil and gas producing communities.” According to the Delta Ijaws, the problem with DESOOADEC is not with its name but primarily due to lack of transparency and over bearing interference by government officials in the commission while also calling for equal representation among the ethnic spread of the commission as currently constituted. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com
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