Assent to PIGB without delay, stakeholders urge Buhari

Stakeholders have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) without delay.

The call was part of resolutions contained in a communique issued at the end of a stakeholders’ colloquium on the Petroleum Host & Impacted Communities Development Bill (PHICDB) organised by Orderpaper Advocacy Initiative and held in Abuja.

The colloquium brought together stakeholders in impacted communities in the northern parts of the country with the objective to aggregate the positions of the region on the PHICDB.

The communiqué, which was signed by the Executive Director, OrderPaper Advocacy Initiative, said the participants agreed that the 8th National Assembly must consider the passage of the PHICDB and the remaining components of the PIB before the expiration of its tenure next year.

They also said the challenges of development, despoliation and despair in the Niger Delta must be addressed in the PHICDB, expressing concern about the funding matrix for the Community Trusts as proposed in the PHICDB.

The Chief Whip of the House of Representatives and Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), who chaired the colloquium, Alhassan Doguwa, said the National Assembly was keen to pass the cluster of legislations that make up the PIB before the expiration of its term in 2019.