Leaders of the various residents of the oil bearing areas of the country under the aegis of the Confederation of Oil & Gas Communities of Nigeria, have called on President Bola Tinubu to ignore the petition addressed to him against the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Engr. Gbenga Komolafe.
The petition, signed by one Ufuoma Odiete, has asked President Tinubu to investigate the alleged involvement of the NUPRC Chief Executive in the funds of the Host Communities in the oil and gas areas.
Specifically, the petition claimed that Komolafe flouted the Petroleum Industry Act by allegedly formed, composed and inaugurated a body – Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre Body of Neutrals that is alien to the PIA.
It also alleged bias and nepotism against Komolafe, claiming that 15 out of the 28 members of the alternative dispute resolution body are from the South West with the NUPRC Chief Executive as Chairman.
However, the National Coordinator of the Confederation of Oil and Gas Communities of Nigeria, High Chief George Bucknor, who addressed journalists at a news conference in Abuja yesterday, said the petition lacked merit because it was not based on facts.
Bucknor said, “The petition is malicious.
“The setting-up of the Alternative Dispute Resolution and the inauguration by the Commission Chief Executive is proper, legal and in tandem with letters and spirit of the PIA.
“Chapter 3 of the PIA particularly sections 234 cover the actions being complained of by the petitioner — Ufuoma Odiete.
“Chapter 3 section 234 sub-section 2 of the PIA enables the Commission to make regulations with respect to this Chapter on areas 2 within their competence and jurisdiction as specified in this Act.”
Specifically, Bucknor explained that Subsection 3 under Section 2 of the PIA empowers the Commission to mandatorily set-up regulations which shall include a grievance to resolve disputes between settlors and host mechanism Communities.
He said, “Such members of the ADRC ought to and must be persons neutral standing not of host communities nor settlors as you cannot be a judge in your own cause or case.
On the complaint of funding, Bucknor said the NUPRC is both the regulators and compliant officer, they are neither account managers nor custodians of the funds of the Host Communities.
He said, “The PIA in Section 240 Subsection 2 stipulates that each settlor where applicable through the operator shall make an annual contribution to the applicable host communities development trust fund of an amount equal to 3% of its actual annual operating expenditure of the preceeding financial year in the upstream petroleum operations.
“NUPRC is not a signatory to the accounts of the HCDTs but facilitators, regulators and compliant Commission.
“The petition is not just malicious, vexatious and frivolous but calculated to truncate the smooth operations of the PIA and forment unrest in the South South region of the Niger Delta.
“We strongly caution the petitioner to desist from false information to members of the public as the body of host communities has passed a vote of confidence in Engr Gbenga Komolafe and that the ADRC committee should be up and doing.”
Bucknor therefore called on the relevant security agencies to urgently investigate the matter with a view to setting the record straight.
He said, “We pray for the urgent intervention of responsive security agencies, especially the Department of Security Services to use the earnest powers of their good offices to investigate: Ufoma Odiete subversive interest.
“The intentions of Ufuoma Odiete in his widely circulated malicious vexatious and libelous blackmail against NUPRC and the Commission Chief Executive is capable of truncating: the smooth beneficial running of the PIA and causing unrest in the Oil industry and the Niger Delta Region.”
