Bayelsa Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has described the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) as evil and oppressive to people of the Niger Delta.
Diri said the three per cent allotted to host communities in the Act was paltry and would continue to be opposed until justice was served.
The governor spoke yesterday at a special thanksgiving service for his Special Adviser on Special Duties and Director of Transport, Government House, Mr. Lucky Yobougha, at El-Shaddai Ministries International, Yenagoa.
He said the passage of the bill was a slap on the face on the Ijaw and Niger Delta people, especially against the backdrop of the 30 per cent allotted for frontier exploration in basins that were more in the northern part of the country.
He said the law was “ill-conceived, dehumanising and unacceptable” to Niger Delta people and asked that it be repealed and amended.
He aligned himself with the walkout staged by aggrieved senators during its passage, stating that the action had its place in history.
Said Diri: “Now it is incumbent on us as citizens of this state, and particularly the host communities, to rise up against this ill-conceived, oppressive and dehumanising law that it is not acceptable to us. A lot of ignorant people were against the former governor of Bayelsa State, who rose and championed a walkout in the Senate. But that is what a true son of Ijawland should do. You cannot be part of a decision that dehumanises and takes away the riches of your people. That is one of the weapons we use as minority against the so-called majority in the National Assembly.”
The governor called for the unification of the Ijaw which he said had been deliberately balkanised into five other states in the country, apart from Bayelsa, stating that it was a ploy to distress the Ijaw.
Diri promised to stand for the actualisation of the creation of two additional states for the Ijaw ethnic group, namely the Oil River and Toru-Ibe states.