As the issue of oil bloc ownership continues to occupy the front burner of national discourse, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other relevant agencies have been asked to make public a comprehensive? list of all oil block owners.
This recent call was made by a former minister? Sani Zangon Daura, who urged the northern senators to compel the NNPC to make the allocation list public with a view to putting to rest questions surrounding ownership of oil blocs in Nigeria.
This is coming on the heels of claims made by Senator Ita Enang, in his contribution to the debate on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) on? the floor of the Senate that northerners own 83 per cent of oil blocs in Nigeria.
Apart from the list of oil bloc owners, Daura also stated that a comprehensive list of all oil lifters and a list of all oil bunkerers, both local and foreign should be made public.
“It is when all these information are honestly and sincerely collated and quickly submitted to the Senate for? scrutiny and evaluation that Senator Enang will stand and be counted either way.
“As for me, Enang has just danced to the gallery knowing that most of our National Assembly members don’t bother to undertake research in their respective assignments to enable them participate meaningfully in any debate,” Daura said.
He further expressed his support for the need for fair distribution of all oil blocs, oil lifting slots including bunkering proceeds in accordance with federal character principles as enshrined in the nation’s constitution.
He also urged the Northern Senators not to be deterred or intimidated? by what he described as “the realistic patriotic rejection of creating the proposed 10 per cent host communities development fund as selfishly inserted in the PIB.”
While maintaining that oil belongs to the entire country, Daura however, regretted that the Niger Delta Ministry, NDDC and 13 per cent derivation have been created solely for the development of the Niger Delta, thereby creating super-rich states along with super-poor states in one country.??