PIA: Ex-militants blow hot, blame Sylva, senators

Former Niger Delta agitators have vowed to make the region ungovernable until the Petroleum Industry Act is reviewed to increase the three per cent equity share to oil-bearing host communities.

The Urhobo-Isoko Youth Wing and ex-agitator leaders of phase I, II, III of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), blamed the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, and Niger Delta senators for the deprivation of the region.

They said the minister and senators from the region backed President Muhammadu Buhari in hurriedly signing the bill into law, for selfish interests.

Chairman of Urhobo-Isoko Ex-militants Phase I, II, III, Joseph Figbele and his vice Solomon Adu who spoke on behalf of the group said the ‘I-don’t-care’ attitude of both Sylva and Niger Delta senators was responsible for the three per cent for the oil-bearing communities because of their personal aggrandisement.

The group said the controversial three per cent was not only an affront to the lamentation of the oil-bearing communities but also a total disregard to the plights and agitations of the people of the region over the years.

He said that the region will not know peace if the review is not affected, they insisted that host communities had suffered several degradations over the decades of oil exploration by oil companies.

The group said if the bill is sent back to the National Assembly for upward review, it will give some level of developmental leverage to the host communities without agitation.

According to them, the region can no longer be short-changed, intimidated and oppressed.

(Daily Sun)