Urhobos, Itsekiris, Ijaws and other ethnic Nationalities in Delta State
are at daggers-drawn over an alleged lopsided nature of the 2016 fiscal
plan of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Commission, DESOPADEC,
currently before the State Assembly for consideration, Pointblanknews.com
gathered.
Findings by Pointblanknews.com, have shown that of the 25 tagged
‘centralized projects’, amounting to N3,928,903,844.00, the Chairman, Hon
Godwin Ebosa and the Managing Director, Chief Williams Makinde, have used
their positions to corner largest chunks of the projects to
their Itsekiri and Urhobo ethnic nationalities respectively, a development
seen as capable of rekindling the smoldering embers of ethnics disharmony
in the state.
While the Itsekiri ethnic group got a whooping N1,769,257,119.00; for six
projects, the Urhobo ethnic nationality was allocated seven project at
the cost of N572,646,725.00.
The Ndokwa and Isoko ethinc nationalities has N330,000,000.00 for four
projects and N300, 000,000.00 for 2 projects respectively,while the Ijaw
got a paltry one (1) project of N300, 000,000.00.
Furthermore, of the five (5) proposed general centralized projects
amounting to N657,000,000.00, two (2) are allocated to Urhobo and one to
the Ndokwa thereby further increasing the numbers of projects in these
areas.
A detailed perusal of the document before the legislature reveals that all
the projects for the Itsekiri ethnic nationality are sited inthe home
communities of the Chairman in the Warri North LGA, just as thelargest
chunk of projects in the Urhobo area are sited in Oghara, Ethiope West LGA
of the MD.
The commission’s law stipulates among other things that projects should be
allocated based on production quantum and the based on this provision, the
ethnic groups are ranked in this order; Itsekiri, Ijaw,Urhobo , Isoko and
Ndokwa.
A source from one of the oil producing communities,who spoke on condition
of anonymity, expressed dissatisfaction over the alleged ‘’lopsided’’
allocation of projects,saying that the budget completely fell short of the
expectation of the people.
The source maintained that the ‘’people will reject it in its entirety as
it does not reflect the true position of production quantum for the ethnic
nationalities’’, adding “this is a clear case of crass display of avarice,
greed and deliberate shortchanging of other ethnic nationalities’’.
Continuing, the source said: ‘’This injustice and gross abuse of power as
displaced in DESOPADEC 2016 budget is condemned in the strongest terms.
And these anomalies should be immediately addressed by the state assembly
and the executive governor before it is made a law to save the state from
unpleasant consequences’’.
Meanwhile, the state chapter, Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil
and Gas, HOSTCOM, Tuesday, disrupted proceedings at the state assembly,
when its members protested against the non-accountability of the
N16billion in the 2015 budget of the commission.
The protester demanded full implementation of the 2015 as passed,
especially the projects that had been designed and for which tender
documents had been prepared and ready for distribution.
Stressing the need for higher budgetary allocation for capital spending
than recurrent, they ordered the legislators to stop the consideration of
the 2016 appropriation bill until the anomalies were appropriately
addressed.
They stated that all the budget figures were cleverly omitted to
shortchange the host communities. The protest was led by the state
chairman, Dr. Peter Egedegbe and National Coordinator, Prince Maikpobi
Okareme.
Sources also told our reporter that people of the Ijaw ethnic group, which
produces the second largest oil quantum are meeting over what they
described as ‘’ the insult, humiliation and marginalization, the Ijaw
nation was relegated to in the allocation.’’
People of the Itsekiri although allocated hefty portion of the budget,
have kicked the N600million earmarked for security in their allocation.