Host communities beg FG to disband NDDC

Elites of the Host Community of Oil Producing Areas on Tuesday called on the Federal Government to disband the Niger Delta Development Commission and transfer all its activites to them for effective management.

The President, National Executive of the Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas, High Chief Benjamin Tamaranebi, stated this while addressing journalists on the second day of the public hearing on the Petroleum Industry Bill by the Senate joint committee on Petroleum Upstream, downstream, and Gas.

He said with the reduction of the host community development trust fund from 10 per cent in 2008 to 2.5 percent in 2020 PIB proposed documents would deny the people the required funds to develop their areas.

Tamaranebi said NDDC should be scrapped so that the allocation given to the commission could be directly paid to HOSTCOMS for these critical interventions, especially after the revelations that followed the investigative hearing on the commission