The Akwa Ibom Oil Producing Community Development Network (AKIPCON) has commended the speaker of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, for constituting ad-hoc committee to investigate oil spills in oil producing states.
This follows the newspaper advertorial by the House of Representatives in one of the national dailies ordering all the oil companies operating in the country to submit their oil spills reports to the Ad-Hoc Committee on Oil Spill Clean-Up and Remediation in the Oil Producing States for investigation.
The group said the investigation was a bold step taken in the right direction to bring sanity as well as clean sustainable environment for the well being of people in the Niger Delta region.
In a statement signed by the President General of AKIPCON, Dr. Ufot Phenson, made available to our correspondent in Uyo on Monday, while thanking the House of Representatives for the action, the group appealed to both the speaker and the chairman, Ad-hoc Committee on Oil Spill Clean-up and Remediation in the oil producing states, Amiru Idris, to invite the host communities to make their own representation for balanced conclusion at the end of the investigation.
They said the terms of reference of the committee should be amended to include details on compensation payments by oil companies to the victims affected by their oil spills.
