RIVERS State Governor Nyesom Wike has said there is a need for the government to monitor how three per cent equity share to host communities contained in the recently signed Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) is spent.
The governor, who spoke on Channels Television Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, said the fund might cause a lot of crisis if paid directly to the coffers of the beneficiaries.
“I was thinking that government should have a hand in monitoring the spending of such funds. That’s my own thinking. Not just to allow it. I do agree you don’t need to pay to the government but paying to the host community and leaving them alone will cause a lot of crisis,” he said.
“There should have been someone to checkmate the communities in order not to have a crisis.
“I can assure you that I have no problems with sending that money to the communities for them to spend for development purposes, but how do you checkmate the use of that fund?”
He further said that oil companies would sabotage the Act by sponsoring crises in the communities in order not to send the funds to them.
The governor also noted that the Act’s three per cent allocated to the host communities was not enough, considering the enormous environmental damage caused by oil exploration in the Niger Delta region.
He also argued that President Muhammadu Buhari should have considered the plights of the Niger Delta people before signing the bill.
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Every community should have representators with goverment elected body to monitor the fund and the sharing to avoid dangers in the regoin.our lives are important to us