Hon. Victor Afam Ogene, a former representative for the Ogbaru federal district in Anambra State, has criticised the makeup of the proposed state Oil and Gas Development Committee. He asserted that the group was not comprised of the key oil-producing villages in Ogbaru.
In an interview, the former federal lawmaker claimed that the main oil-producing areas in the state are Ogwuaniocha and Ogwuikpele towns in Ogbaru local government area. He claimed that these settlements are home to eight of the state's eleven oil wells, which make Anambra an oil-producing state. However, no one from each community was accepted as a committee member.
“It is unfair and unlawful to exclude people from the main oil-producing communities because such action negates the objective of the Petroleum Industry Act,” Ogene argued, urging Governor Professor Chukwuma Soludo to reconsider the committee’s composition.
Meanwhile, the state government said that on Tuesday, December 13, Governor Soludo would officially inaugurate the Anambra State Oil and Gas Development Committee.
But Ogene, who is also the 2023 House of Representatives candidate of the Labour Party, in Ogbaru, argued that “While that’ll be considered great news for our dear state, Anambra – that is gradually taking its place in the comity of oil-producing states in Nigeria – the apparent exclusion of the main host communities: Ogwuaniocha and Ogwuikpele, both in Ogbaru local government area, remains a disrespectful anomaly that runs contrary to the recently signed Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), that prioritises oil host community engagement and inclusion.
“The PIA describes host communities as communities’ situated in or appurtenant to the area of operation of a settlor and any other community as a settlor may determine.”
He said that although “there are two Ogbaru sons in the Committee, the Commissioner for Information and one other,” the exclusion of anyone from the twin communities of Ogwuaniocha and Ogwuikpele is not only unjust but a development that might give oxygen to future bickering and rancour, which Anambra doesn’t need at this period.
Ogene urged Governor Soludo to investigate the omission immediately so that Ogwuaniocha and Ogwuikpele have adequate representation on the committee for the sake of the state as a whole and the harmony between the two groups.