The National Coordinator of Center for Peace and Environmental Justice, CEPEJ, Comrade Sheriff Mulade has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to establish and inaugurate the Host Community Trust Fund, HCTF, for the management of the 3% Petroleum Industry Fund for host communities.
Mulade, who made the call in Warri on Monday, while chatting with newsmen on the 30th-anniversary celebration of the creation of Delta State, opined that the body when inaugurated as enshrined in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), would ensure effective management of the 3% towards addressing environmental and infrastructural issues affecting oil and gas producing host communities in the country.
The environmental activist condemned the idea that the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs or the Governors of oil and gas producing States should control and manage the 3% allocation provided for in the PIA.
He noted that if the Minister or State Governors control the 3% fund, it might be mismanaged the same way the 13% derivation fund allocated to oil and gas producing states for the development of oil and gas host communities is being misappropriated.
He stressed that the 3% PIA fund should be managed by the Host Community Trust Fund, HCTF, as stipulated by Section 2 of the PIA.
While appreciating President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Assembly and all those who worked tirelessly to ensure the passage of the PIB, Comrade Mulade charged the PIA Implementation Committee headed by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, to expedite action on the development and positive growth of oil and gas host communities, which are the backbone and live wire of the Nigerian economy.
