Ogun State Government Identifies Littoral Communities To Benefit From Petroleum Industry Act
- The Ogun State Government has commenced the process of determining Coast line communities along the Gulf of Guinea for the operationalisation of the Littoral Host Community Development Trust(HCDT) done in conjunction with the National Boundary Commission.
The exercise is in pursuance of the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act no.6 of 2021, which stipulates that host communities affected by petroleum operations should be entitled to three percent of upstream companies’ actual annual operating expenditure of the preceding financial year, in deriving direct social and economic benefits from petroleum operations within their communities.
The exercise took place following an earlier advocacy visit by the Director- General, National Boundary Commission, Surveyor Adamu Adaji to the office of the Ogun State Deputy Governor, Engineer Noimot Salako-Oyedele who doubles as the Chairman of the State Boundary Committee on the need to ensure adequate representation of the identified Ogun communities in the Host Communities Development Trust.
According to the state Acting Surveyor- General, Surveyor Oladele Ewulo who led the state team on the exercise,the joint field team saddled with the exercise has the mandate of verifying and capturing the Host Communities along the Gulf of Guinea that are within 500 metres buffer from the shore line to satisfy the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) for gazzete purposes.
He added that the verification exercise which was carried out at Ode-Omi in the Ogun waterside Local Government area of the state was done by a technical field team comprising representatives from the federal government, the National Boundary Commission, the Office of the Surveyor- General of the Federation, Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission as well as the Ogun State Boundary Committee.
Speaking on behalf of the concerned communities totalling 60, the Lenuwa of Ode-Omi, Oba Folailu Hassan, appreciated the State and Federal governments for the Initiative,promising the support of his community towards the success of the exercise.#
