Oil-producing communities in Ondo State on Sunday called on the Federal Government to set up a National Administrative Board for direct disbursement of the 13 Per cent Oil Mineral Derivation Fund accruable to oil-bearing communities in the country, to the beneficiaries.
They insisted that the current system of releasing the fund through state governments was counter- productive.
The call was part of a six-point communiqué issued on Sunday after a meeting of stakeholders, mainly women and youth groups representing the oil communities of the state, under the aegis of the Ondo State Oil and Gas Producing Communities of Nigeria, in Okitipupa.
The people said the board became necessary because of the alleged failure of the state governments to remit the statutory fund to the communities for their human and physical development, as envisaged by the 1999 Constitution.
They also alleged that the current practice of disbursement through the state government, in some cases, had led to funds diversion or outright embezzlement.
The meeting was presided over by a former Chairman of the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, Chief Adewale Omojuwa, and attended by representatives of all the traditional rulers in the two riverside local councils of Ilaje and Ese-Odo.
Other special interests represented, according to the communique, included the Christian Association of Nigeria, which was represented by its Chairman in Ilaje council, Revd. Samuel Obakulejo; and the Ilaje intelligentsia, represented by a former Rector of the state-owned Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Dr. Soji Omowole, among others.
The non-political gathering lamented the ecological degradation of the environment and economic deprivation of the residents of the oil areas despite the billions of naira that were being set aside on a monthly basis for the development of the communities.
The meeting also lamented what it called, "lack of government interest at catapulting the education pedigree of the youths in the mandate area of the oil and gas communities through scholarship and bursary."
The communique added, "The forum resolved that the diversion of the 13 percent allocation fund accruing to the oil and gas producing area to non-oil producing areas will no longer be tolerated as every available machinery or apparatus would be used to counterblast such diversion henceforth.
"The stakeholders therefore called on the relevant agents or agencies especially, Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Allocation Commission to rescue the legitimate oil and gas producing communities from underdevelopment by channeling our 13 percent Oil Derivation Fund to us as against channeling it through the state governments."
Meanwhile, Omojuwa while welcoming the people, lamented the socio-economic condition of the residents of oil producing communities in the state.
He said, "This agitation became necessary due to unimaginable neglect, frustration and the poverty-stricken state of the people and communities.
"The call now is, 'give us our money directly, we want to manage it by ourselves.' No more third party arrangement, government has failed us, we can't trust her again."
The Punch