Some stakeholders have called for amendment of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, to abolish section 257 which criminalised an entire community, should oil facility be tampered with by any hoodlum within the area.
The stakeholders which include leaders of host communities, Civil Society Organisations ,CSOs, legal and environmental activists made the call at the Third Edition of the Niger Delta Socio-Ecological Alternatives Convergence, NDAC, in Abuja on Wednesday.
The conference which was organised by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, also demanded justice for people of the region for the many years of environmental degradation by oil companies.
They also called for the restoration of the Niger Delta environment before the global transition to clean energy is concluded.
In his remarks, Prof. Lucky Worika, the Director, Center for Advanced Law Research, River State University, said that section 257 should be deleted.
He decried the clause, saying the PIA which took 20 years before it was passed into law should not have had such a clause in the first place.
“Section 257 that deals with the fact that if there is sabotage or alleged sabotage in communities, that they cannot benefit from the Host Community Trust Fund.
“That is basically criminalising an entire community for the offense of one or a few; it is not done anywhere.
“The is the most anachronistic section in that legislation that I think needs to be deleted immediately because the communities are not happy.
“They have suffered enough then if some miscreants in the communities now go and tamper with installations you now hold the entire community; who does that? He said.
