Oil Producing communities to Gov. Diri: Account for 13% Derivation accruing to Bayelsa

Isaac Ombe, Yenagoa

The Bayelsa State chapter of the Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas (HOSTCOM) has challenged Governor Douye Diri to account for the 13% derivation funds accruing the state since he came board as governor.
The group also called on President Bola Tinubu to withhold the derivation funds due the state from September 2023 until the governor gives proper account.
In a statement issued after an expanded state meeting, in Yenagoa, on Tuesday, the leadership of HOSTCOM, led by its chairman, Pastor Samson Graham Dabbey and Secretary Elder Cool Kwomo Christopher, said that Governor Diri should explain how the funds were used and its impact on the oil producing communities in the state.

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Describing their demand to know how the funds were expended as ‘legitimate’, the HOSTCOM members noted that it was in line with the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.
They alleged that the 13% derivation fund accruing the state had been misappropriated by successive administrations in the state.
The group also noted that the development has led to the continued degradation and underdevelopment of the oil producing communities.
“The infrastructural development of the oil and gas producing communities are being arrested and the suffering of the people has continued to be unattended to, up till this moment” the HOSTCOM members lamented.
The group has also sent a Save our Soul (SOS) to President Tinubu urging him to withhold the monthly release of the derivation fund to the state until the governor satisfactorily explained how he has impacted the oil producers with the funds.
“President Bola Tinubu should withhold forthwith the monthly release of the 13% Derivation Fund accruing Bayelsa State from the month of September, 2023.
“With the passage of the FOI Act in Nigeria by the National Assembly and the assent by the President, it is expected that the Nigerian FOI Act will foster freedom of the press, provide greater opportunity for investigative journalism and promote the good tenets of democracy like transparency and government’s accountability to the people.

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“In line with the FOI Act, we demand a detailed account of how the 13% that had accrued to the states is spent, vis-a-vis it’s impact in the oil and gas producing communities in the state.
“We make bold to state that owing to the misapplication of the 13% Derivation Fund that has accrued to the State from successive administrations to date wherein the infrastructural development of the oil and gas producing Communities (being the target Communities of the Fund) are being arrested and the suffering of the people has continued to be unattended to, up till this moment.”
They called for the establishment of the Bayelsa state Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (BASOPADEC) as the only solution to the sufferings of the oil producing communities in Bayelsa State.
“We are aware that the solution to this anomaly is only through the establishment of the Bayelsa State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (BASOPADEC) that the misapplication of the Fund would have been corrected in line with Section 162, Sub-Section (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
The group says efforts to have audience with the governor to discuss issues on the plight of the oil and gas producing communities has been in vain .
“In what follows, we have officially laid our concern on this subject in writing to Mr. President, Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR), Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria to withhold forthwith the monthly release of the 13% Derivation Fund accruing to Bayelsa State from the month of September, 2023.
“As a result, we are constrained to resorting to this constitutional and peaceful approach collectively and in good faith as an advocacy Organization in furtherance of our Article of Faith – to pursue the course of the down-trodden Host Communities whose right to the 13% Derivation Fund has been denied them for so long in this State.
“Leadership is a sacred trust and transparency, accountability and selflessness is the Hallmark which we seek for in all our leaders in Bayelsa State.”, the group noted.