By Emma Amaize
WHY is the new bill by the Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, for a law to provide for the establishment of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Commission, Five Ethnic Nationalities Oil Producing Areas Development Agencies, Five Ethnic Nationalities Oil Producing Areas Investment Corporations and for Other Matters Connected Therewith, generated so much furore in the state?
Some leaders of the oil communities, last Monday, stayed away from a meeting with Governor Uduaghan at Government House, Asaba, to find a common ground, while the state government published the entire bill, last Wednesday, to prove that it had no ulterior motive. Niger-Delta Voice probed deeper.
WARRI- FORMER Chairman of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission DESOPADEC, and founding father of Chief of Host Communities Producing Oil and Gas, HOSTCOM, Chief Wellington Okrika, aka Mr. 13 per cent, is an authority when it comes to agitation for better life for oil communities in the state and when he speaks, people listen.
And so, when he told Niger-Delta Voice, Monday evening in Warri, that the bill proposed by Governor Uduaghan is the best thing to have happened to oil communities in the state, he sounded very confident.
Okrika, Bubor, Okareme disagree
Uduaghan
Hear him, “I am the initiator for better life for oil communities in the state, the founding father of HOSTCOM and former chairman of DESOPADEC, I can tell you with all due respects that the governor is doing the right thing. What he is doing now is what we initially planned, DESOPADEC is a temporal arrangement and the bill should be passed.”
But, the current national chairman of HOSTCOM, Chief Alfred Bubor and national coordinator of HOSTCOM, Prince Maikpobi Okareme, told Niger-Delta Voice they smell a rat and urged the state House of Assembly to throw away the bill.
Iwetan/Egedegbe HOSTCOM rivalry
In a letter to the Speaker of the House of Assembly, rejecting the passage of the bill, signed by Dr. P.K Egedegbe, who claimed to be the chairman of HOSTCOM, in the state and seven others, they said, the bill was a clever plot to “cover up the ills in the Commission for the past eight years of its existence.”
However, Mr. Benjamin Iwetan, who identified himself as the authentic chairman, HOSTCOM, Delta state, describing Egedegbe as an intruder, said, “HOSTCOM in the state is fully in support of the passage of the bill because for the first time, the money is going directly to the people, and not to powerful chairman, secretary and commissioners, who sit in Warri, approbate and appropriate the money on their behalf.”
National secretary of the Association of Oil and Gas Producing Communities on 13 per cent Derivation, Mr. Hendrix Opukeme, national public relations officer, HOSTCOM and secretary, the Board of Trustees, Dr. Mike Emuh, however, told Niger Delta Voice that Iwetan is the authentic chairman of HOSTCOM in the state. Emuh added that there is no position of national coordinator as claimed by Prince Okareme.
Mr. Gabriel Isibeluo, who said he is the secretary of the Egedegbe-led executive, dismissed the claim of the Iwetan as state chairman of HOSTCOM, adding, “There is no division in HOSTCOM, we are against the bill, Iwetan is an impostor. There is a court order against him to stop parading himself as chairman and his flouting it.”
He said DESOPADEC as presently constituted does not need new laws, but strengthening the existing structures to serve the purpose of the founding fathers. HOSTCOM national chairman, Chief Bubor, disclaimed both Emuh and Iwetan, saying Prince Okareme is the national coordinator of HOSTCOM.
Peace meeting with Uduaghan
Contrary to the thinking that rival group, coordinated by Prince Okareme decided to spite the governor, it was reliably learned that its anger was that the rival Iwetan-led HOSTCOM, which it does not recognize, made a publication claiming that Delta HOSTCOM was in support of the passage of the bill.
National secretary of the Association of Oil and Gas Producing Communities on 13 per cent Derivation, Mr. Hendrix Opukeme, who attended the meeting with Uduaghan, said it was an illuminating get-together, where the governor explained his patriotic motivation for the bill, adding, “After listening to him, it was clear that he meant well for the oil communities.”
Okrika, who is presently the national president of the Oil and Gas Producing Communities of Nigeria believes the bone of contention would be resolved, but his concerted attempt to make the contenting parties meet with the governor met a stonewall. He told Niger-Delta Voice, weekend that the reconciliation moves were still on.
Okareme insists bill is deceitful
Prince Okareme in an interview, asserted, “There is nothing the present bill seek to provide that is not only stipulated in the existing DESOPADEC law. DESOPADEC have an investment department, all that need to be done is to strengthen it, each of the ethnic producing oil communities knows what amount is due to their respective areas and the respective commissioners appropriate the money. So there is nothing new other than to cover up a racket.”
He alleged that only 25 per cent of the 50 per cent allocation due to DESOPADEC was being remitted it and investigations showed that the commission was being owed over N200 billion by the state government, adding, “We are saying that this money and others borrowed from the commission should be given back to DESOPADEC.”
Obiomah, Emuh, Ijomah, Fregene, Awani, Timiyan carpet Okareme
Dr. Emuh, secretary and youth leader, Oil and Gas Communities in the state, Princess (Mrs) Grace Fregene and Jackson Timiyan respectively, former secretary, Itsekiri HOSTCOM and a member of the committee set up by the state government to make input to the bill, Deaconess Awani Akande, all threw their weight behind the bill.
Akande specifically raised issues about the legality of the Chief Bubor as national chairman of HOSTCOM, saying, “Bubor has served for eight years and his executive should be dissolved. Why should he be saying that Iwetan’s executive is dissolved after four years when his own is not dissolved?”
There should be no fuss over my chairmanship- Iwetan
Chairman, Oil and Gas Producing Communities of Nigeria, Delta state chapter, Hon Oconnel Obiomah, said there was no disagreement between the group and HOSTCOM over the passage of the bill, saying his counterpart in HOSTCOM, Mr. Benjamin Iwetan, is in support of the new bill.
Iwetan maintained he does not see the reason for all the fuss about his chairmanship as his tenure has not expired. Founder and national leader of HOSTCOM and Oil and Gas Producing Communities of Nigeria in Ndokwa nation, Mr. Osita Ijomah, told Niger Delta Voice, “As far as I know, Mr. Iwetan is the state chairman of HOSCTOM.”
In the hallowed chamber
Meanwhile, both sides have intensified efforts to get the lawmakers to do their bidding on the bill. The bill, however, did not come up for second reading last Tuesday as planned because of the protesters that stormed the House of Assembly and on the succeeding day it was slated, the lawmakers went to collect their certificates from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
It was also gathered that the legislators were divided on the bill just at leaders of the oil communities are. Whereas, some want the bill passed, others were employing delay tactics to allow Governor Uduaghan leave office on May 29.
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