Urhobos, Itsekiris, Ijaws and other ethnic Nationalities in Delta State
\nare at daggers-drawn over an alleged lopsided nature of the 2016 fiscal
\nplan of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Commission, DESOPADEC,
\ncurrently before the State Assembly for consideration, Pointblanknews.com
\ngathered.<\/p>\n
Findings by Pointblanknews.com, have shown that of the 25 tagged
\n\u2018centralized projects\u2019, amounting to N3,928,903,844.00,\u00a0 the Chairman, Hon
\nGodwin Ebosa and the Managing Director, Chief Williams Makinde, have used
\ntheir\u00a0 positions to corner largest chunks of the projects to
\ntheir Itsekiri and Urhobo ethnic nationalities respectively, a development
\nseen as capable of rekindling the smoldering embers of ethnics disharmony
\nin the state.<\/p>\n
While the Itsekiri ethnic group got a whooping N1,769,257,119.00; for six
\nprojects, the\u00a0 Urhobo ethnic nationality\u00a0 was allocated seven project at
\nthe cost of N572,646,725.00.<\/p>\n
The Ndokwa and Isoko ethinc nationalities has N330,000,000.00 for four
\nprojects and N300, 000,000.00 for 2 projects respectively,while the Ijaw
\ngot a paltry one (1) project of N300, 000,000.00.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, of the five (5) proposed general centralized projects
\namounting to N657,000,000.00, two (2) are allocated to Urhobo and one to
\nthe Ndokwa thereby further increasing the numbers of projects in these
\nareas.<\/p>\n
A detailed perusal of the document before the legislature reveals that all
\nthe projects for the Itsekiri ethnic nationality are sited inthe home
\ncommunities of the Chairman in the Warri North LGA, just as thelargest
\nchunk of projects in the Urhobo area are sited in Oghara, Ethiope West LGA
\nof the MD.<\/p>\n
The commission\u2019s law stipulates among other things that projects should be
\nallocated based on production quantum and the based on this provision, the
\nethnic groups are ranked in this order; Itsekiri, Ijaw,Urhobo , Isoko and
\nNdokwa.<\/p>\n
A source from one of the oil producing communities,who spoke on condition
\nof anonymity, expressed dissatisfaction over the alleged \u2018\u2019lopsided\u2019\u2019
\nallocation of projects,saying that the budget completely fell short of the
\nexpectation of the people.<\/p>\n
The source maintained that the \u2018\u2019people will reject it in its entirety as
\nit does not reflect the true position of production quantum for the ethnic
\nnationalities\u2019\u2019, adding “this is a clear case of crass display of avarice,
\ngreed and deliberate shortchanging of other ethnic nationalities\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
Continuing, the source said: \u2018\u2019This injustice and gross abuse of power as
\ndisplaced in DESOPADEC 2016 budget is condemned in the strongest terms.
\nAnd these anomalies should be immediately addressed by the state assembly
\nand the executive governor before it is made a law to save the state from
\nunpleasant consequences\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the state chapter, Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil The protester demanded full implementation of the 2015 as passed, Stressing the need for higher budgetary allocation for capital spending They stated that all the budget figures were cleverly omitted to Sources also told our reporter that people of the Ijaw ethnic group, which People of the Itsekiri although allocated hefty portion of the budget, 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nand Gas, HOSTCOM, Tuesday<\/span><\/span>, disrupted proceedings at the state assembly,
\nwhen its members protested against the non-accountability of the
\nN16billion in the 2015 budget of the commission.<\/p>\n
\nespecially the projects that had been designed and for which tender
\ndocuments had been prepared and ready for distribution.<\/p>\n
\nthan recurrent, they ordered the legislators to stop the consideration of
\nthe 2016 appropriation bill until the anomalies were appropriately
\naddressed.<\/p>\n
\nshortchange the host communities. The protest was led by the state
\nchairman, Dr. Peter Egedegbe and National Coordinator, Prince Maikpobi
\nOkareme.<\/p>\n
\nproduces the second largest oil quantum are meeting over what they
\ndescribed as \u2018\u2019 the insult, humiliation and marginalization, the Ijaw
\nnation was relegated to in the allocation.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
\nhave kicked the N600million earmarked for security in their allocation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"