Stakeholders task FG on framework for IOCs' divestment
Port Harcourt -- Niger Delta stakeholders have urged the Federal Government to urgently release a framework to guide the divestment of oil multinationals from onshore communities.
The stakeholders also demanded a review of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, to provide a definite deadline for gas flaring as well as eliminate the section of the PIA that places the responsibility to protect oil installations on host communities.
These were part of the resolutions reached at the 2nd Niger Delta Alternatives Convergence convoked recently by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation in Port Harcourt.
A communique issued by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, Oilwatch Africa and We The People, on
behalf of the delegates at the conference, urged the government to urgently establish frameworks to ensure that corruption is eliminated in the management of oil revenues that accrue to host communities.
Speaking on behalf of the network, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, urged the government to prevail on oil multinationals to fulfil all global memorandum of understanding obligations with their host communities before divesting their assets to indigenous oil operators.
He urged "That the federal government immediately produces a framework and guide for how oil companies disengage from areas where they have operated.
"The government must compel divesting IOCs to fulfill all outstanding Memorandum of Understanding and Global Memorandum of Understanding obligations to communities and their environment before handing over assets to indigenous operators.