By Christiana Ekpa
The House of Representative committee on Host Communities has disclosed that the agitation of the communities had been melted with crass injustice, adding that they have been left to suffer untold hardship.
The chairman of the committee Rep Dumnamene Dekor, lamented the injustice at its inaugural meeting on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said that the agitation of the host communities had been melted with crass injustice, adding that they have been left to suffer untold hardship.
The lawmaker said that host communities have felt little or no impact from their oil in spite the fact that much revenues were been derived from them.
“Nothing to show for their god given wealth, their social life have been neglected, how can people so endowed have little or nothing to show for it,” he asked.
He blamed the injustice melted to host communities by oil companies on the seaming silence of government, adding that the inability of government to protect host communities was a violation of their rights.
Dekor said that such injustice had led to their water being contaminated and ejection from their ancestral homes couple with absolute denial of their means of livelihood.
He said that part of what the committee was set to achieve is to enhance peaceful coexistence between oil companies and the host communities, adding that whatever that should accrued to them should not be denied.
He said that the 13 per cent derivation had been plagued with many issues such as lack of consultation, treacherous behaviours of some oil companies, holding unto Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among others.
He said that the host communities must be given their needed benefits, adding that he had always been worry about things that bothered oil communities and they could be treated.
