House Committee Cautions NLNG against Dividing Host Communities

By Udora Orizu

The House of Representatives Committee on Host Communities has warned Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) against employing tactics that would divide their host communities in Bonny Kingdom.

The committee handed down the warning while hearing a petition of alleged exclusion, non compensation and neglect by Finima Community Development Council.

Spokesperson for the petitioner, Dr. Bara Kabaka-Brown, while presenting their case said the community had had relations first with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and then NLNG on the exploratory activities in the area.

He said that the oil exploration has resulted in the loss of the 36 out of the 37 of the community’s creeks which had grossly affected their livelihoods.

He stressed that the displacement of the Finima people from their ancestral land to accommodate the NLNG had been without adequate compensation.

The General Manager, External Relations for NLNG and representative of the Managing Director of NLNG, Mrs. Eyono Fatai Williams said that the firm had in no small measure contributed to the development of Bonny Kingdom, which Finima is a part of.

She however acknowledged that the company’s operations were indeed in the petitioner’s lands when asked by a member of the Committee, Mr. Mohammed Umar Bio.

Williams also insisted that Finima was not recognized as a host community on its own, rather as a part of Bonny Kingdom to which host community rights were accorded.

She said the company had operated within a framework designed by the Nigerian government through the intervention of the Rivers state government within Bonny since 2000.

But the hearing took a dramatic dimension when an unknown group to the Committee attempted to a make presentation.

Enquiries by the Chairman of the committee, Hon. Dumnamene Dekor revealed that the attendees were also people from Bonny who were not part of the petitioners and were not invited by the committee to the hearing.

Reacting to the development, Dekor frowned on the presence of uninvited parties to the hearing, saying the group may have been invited by the NLNG.

Speaking to the representatives of NLNG, the lawmaker said; ‘‘it is not your duty to divide Bonny Kingdom, you will not divide Bonny Kingdom. The Kingdom has been there like that before all of us but we must put the records straight.’’

He therefore denied the uninvited party the opportunity to speak, saying they had no petition before the committee.

The lawmaker advised both parties to prepare for dialogue, saying that a date would be communicated to them.