Some youths from the oil-rich Niger Delta region have rejected the 3 to 5 percent equity shares allotted to oil host communities in the Petroleum Industry Bill recently passed by both chambers of the National Assembly warning the President that there would be consequences should he decide to assent such bill.
The youth groups made their position known during a protest in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital on Monday, lamenting that the region has been ‘stripped off of their rights and entitlement after sixty-five years of oil discovery, exploration, sacrifices, and devastation of their environment in the region.
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One of the leaders of the protest, Solomon Lenu who read out the position of the youths threatened to withdraw cooperation with oil multinational companies should President Muhammadu Buhari accede to the bill.
Lenu demanded for ‘a ten percent equity shares’ for the host communities in the interest of peace and justice.
He also noted that the region fears that it ‘will be worse off than we were under this system that appears to be careless about the collective survival and future of the people even though the keys to the economic engine that keeps Nigeria is domiciled in our backyard’.
Other leaders of the protest who spoke during the journalist also threatened that the youths will withdraw their ‘social license’ for the oil companies in the region if the President goes ahead to ‘accent’ the bill.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
