The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has opined that the Federal Government should not pay the 3% allocation as contained in the new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), directly to the host communities.
Wike stressed on the need for the federal government to monitor the spending of the allocation to avoid crisis.
The governor said this on Tuesday, August 17, while featuring on Channels TV Sunrise daily.
He however noted that the 3% allocated to the host communities is not enough considering the enormous environmental damage caused by oil exploration in the Niger Delta region.
Wike also added that the President, Muhammadu Buhari should have considered the plights of the Niger Delta people before signing the Petroleum Industry bill into law.
“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 government but paying to the host community and leaving them alone will cause a lot of crisis.
“There should have been someone to checkmate the communities in order not to have crisis.
“I can assure you that sending that money to the communities for them to spend for development purposes I have no problems but how do you checkmate the use of that fund?
“I can tell you knowing the IOCs very well, what they will do is to sponsor crisis for them not to send such funds to them,” Wike said.