Oil and gas host communities in Rivers State have received training on accessing the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to promote development in their areas.
The two-day sensitisation programme, held in Port Harcourt, was organised by the Center for Advanced Law Research at Rivers State University and F1 Team Associates.
The training aimed to educate host communities on relevant PIA provisions and how to access them to protect their rights and promote sustainable development.
Experts at the training emphasised the importance of host communities understanding their rights and the need for political will to accelerate effective implementation of host community development provisions.
Highlighting the essence of the training, Jude Ndubuisi, a legal practitioner, public and oil and gas expert, said the target was to educate host communities on the relevant provisions of the PIA and how they could access them to protect their rights and promote their cause for sustainable development and harmonious co-existence between them and settlors.
Ndubuisi said, “The whole idea is to explain to the people at the local government council level the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act which actually is a revolutionary legislation that has brought a lot of changes in the oil and gas eco-system.
”Rivers State is a major producer of oil and gas in the Nigerian Federation, so it’s important that our people at the local level understand the provisions of the act.”
Speaking on host communities’ rights, another expert, Professor Samuel Dike, a professor of energy and comparative environmental aw, faulted grey areas of the PIA that sought to sideline host communities and which he said some oil companies operating in their areas capitalise on to infringe on the people’s rights.
Dike noted the need for political will to accelerate effective implementation of host community development provisions of the Act and the host community regulations to achieve development.
He called for amendment of PIA host community provisions “to allow for increased host security involvement in HCDT establishment and implementation”, adding that “Settlors should not be the one to choose members of the HCDT boards.”
Also speaking Professor Kato Kingston, a professor of energy and natural resources law at the faculty of law, Rivers State University, said host communities had a right to seek for redress through the channels specified in the PIA when they feel their rights had been violated by the oil companies operating in their domains.
Speaking on the topic, “Host Communities Dispute Resolution”, Prof. Kingston noted that Chapter 3 of the PIA addressed matters relating to the host communities.
