As a way of integration into the Petroleum Industry Act, five itsekiri host communities in Warri South-West Council area of Delta state have launched their own “Ikpere Host Community Development Trust” to facilitate smooth implementation.
They also gave Shell Petroleum Development Company seven days ultimatum to directly engage with them on the PIA implementation.
This was their unanimous agreement at a general meeting in the area where they confirmed that Chevron Nigeria Limited is responding to their demands
Last month the oil bearing Ugborodo Community staged a protest against Chevron Nigeria Limited demanding full implementation of petroleum industry act in the area.
As a follow-up to the protest, the leadership of the five communities of Ugborodo converged on Ode-Ugborodo to align to themselves with section of the Petroleum Industry Act which focuses on community development and to provide for the establishment of Host Community Development Trusts to increase social spending by oil and gas companies in host communities.
After much deliberation here, they settled on launching their own development Trust
Members of the host communities are happy that their engagements with the management of Chevron Nigeria Limited are yielding positive results but the same cannot be said about other oil companies operating in their area
In the coming days there will be a follow up tripartite meeting involving Chevron Nigeria Limited, The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and Ugborodo community.
