The House of Representatives on Wednesday asked the Federal
Government to immediately initiate a “sustainable plan” to end the
militancy in the Niger Delta.
Lawmakers said the “confrontational approaches” adopted by the
government so far would only worsen the bombing of oil facilities by
militants.
In its resolution in Abuja, the House also called on the government
to secure additional N35.8billion funding for the amnesty programme in a
bid to guarantee the continuous payment of allowances and training of
ex-agitators.
The resolution followed a motion jointly sponsored by 31 members of
the House, cutting across the six geo-political zones of the country to
draw attention to the renewed militancy in the Niger Delta by the Niger
Delta Avengers.
A member from Cross River State, Mr. Ekpenyong Ayi, who led the
debate, said the N35.8bn was actually a shortfall of the original
N55.8bn proposed by the Presidential Amnesty Office as its 2016 budget.
He noted, “The House is worried that the N20bn proposed by the
Federal Government for the Presidential Amnesty Office in the 2016
budget is lower than the N55.8bn proposed by the Presidential Amnesty
Office and the amount is grossly inadequate to sustain the payment of
stipends to 25,000 ex-agitators, pay in-training allowances, tuition
fees and other commitments.”
Ayi told the House that the “massive cut” in the amnesty budget
contributed largely to the resurgence of militancy in the oil region,
with production output dropping to a record “990,000 barrels per day by
June 1.”
He recalled that, from the budgetary crude oil target of 2.2mbpd,
production fell to 1.76mbd in February; 1.68mbd in March; and 1.62mbd in
April due to attacks on installations by the avengers.
Ayi added that strategic installations belonging to Chevron, Shell
and Agip had been blown up by militants in the past few months.
“The incessant attacks on oil facilities have led to Nigeria losing
its place as Africa’s largest oil producer because its oil output has
fallen to a 22-year low of 1.4mbd as against the budgetary target of
2.2mbpd, and by June 1, 2016, it was about 990,000bpd”, the lawmaker
stated.
The motion was passed without further debate at the session, which
was presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Suleiman Lasun, to
underscore the urgency of the security and economic development in the
Niger Delta.
Lawmakers also observed that the attacks on gas installations had affected electricity supply to parts of the country.
They said the ugly trend had underscored the need to tap into the potential of coal as an alternative power source.
Lawmakers took the stance while passing another resolution on a
motion on the “urgent need to commence generation of electricity through
coal.”
The motion, which was moved by Mr. Ahmed Abu, observed that the
country had a total coal reserve of about 639million metric tons, “while
the inferred reserves sum up to 2.75billion metric tons.”
The House resolved to “Urge the Federal Government to put all
necessary machinery in motion that will lead to the generation of
electricity through coal in all states where there is proven and
inferred coal reserves.”
Benue, Enugu, Abia and Kogi were listed among states with large
coal deposits in the country, besides “more than 13 additional
undeveloped coal fields.”
Punch Newspaper
No comments:
Post a Comment