By Amos Okioma,
Yenagoa
The federal government of Nigeria and international oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region have been called upon to urgently address the neglect and underdevelopment in the region.
Bayelsa State Commissioner of Mineral Resources, Elder Markson Fefegha, made the appeal at the just concluded Nigeria International Petroleum Summit organized by the Federal Mineral of Petroleum.
Fefegha spoke on “Maximizing Nigeria’s Gas Potential; Learning from past. Preparing for the future” at the panel which was chaired by Chief Don Etiebet, the former minister of Petroleum Resources.
Citing Oloibiri in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State as a poignant symbol of neglect and deprivation of oil producing areas, the commissioner emphasized that there should be inclusiveness and deliberate plans to revers the development in the region.
This, he maintained, could be achieved by drawing up a more robust and comprehensive fiscal regime by the federal government through legislation and policies framework, implemented by the federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
Quoting Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, Fefegha said that a purposeful inclusion of oil producing areas for development was necessary because “what others call oil wells are indeed the ancestral properties of the Niger Delta Region,” he said.