House OrderS Total Energies To Establish Host Community Dev Commission In Akwa Ibom Communities
Judex OKORO
The House of Representatives committee on Public Petitions has ordered Total Energies Nigeria Limited and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission to immediately establish a separate Host Community Development Trust for Ikot Abasi, Ibeno and Mbo communities in Akwa Ibom state.
This followed a petition to the House requesting that Total and NUPRC be compelled to abide by the letters of a Memorandum of Understanding Total Energies had entered into with local governments in Akwa Ibom taking a local government area as a community for the purpose of determining their host communities.
However, by August 2022, Total Energies excluded the said communities from the HCDT and has failed to respond to several pleas to add them back.
In his ruling, the Chairman of the Committee, Mike Etaba frowned at the way Total Energies and NUPRC treated the communities despite their resort to genuine means of redress and reconciliation.
He emphasised that the 10th House of Representatives is the Peoples House and would always ensure that no Nigerian suffers unduly.
He therefore ordered Total Energies and NUPRC to immediately redress the situation and add the communities to the Host Communities Development Trust.
Reacting to the ruling, Eyoh Asuquo, counsel to the communities expressed delight at the ruling, saying "on behalf of the Communities of Mbo, Ibeno and Ikot Abasi, I express our profound gratitude to The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abass, and Rt. Hon. Mike Etaba, the Chairman of the House Committee on Public Petitions and the House Committee on Public Petitions.
" Your decision on our petition is a testament that you are indeed the Representatives of the people who would uphold and protect Nigerians against the oppressive and obnoxious decisions of oil companies and regulators especially Total Energies" he enthused.
"The ruling will be entrenched in history as a testimonial of the positive effects the House of Representatives have on the lives of the common man."
