(Senate News Updates)Senate moves against companies involved in oil spill….More

(Senate News Updates)Senate moves against companies involved in oil spill….More
November 28 04:40 2019 Print This Article

….Seeks end to Nigeria’s cyber security crises

….Senate President urges NLNG to make cooking gas readily available

….Senate wants States to dedicate funds for border communities

……Ensure adequate funding for NACA to control spread of HIV, Senate tells Executive

The Senate has commenced moves to put an end to what it described as the “illegal” activities of oil companies engaged in exploration resulting in oil spills and environmental degradation of host communities in Nigeria. 

The Senate on Wednesday mandated its Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) to comprehensively review relevant laws governing abandonment, decommissioning and remediation with a view to establishing the level of compliance by oil companies operating in Nigeria.

The upper chamber also charged its committee to urge all oil companies operating in Nigeria to give a comprehensive account of budgeted allocations in their annual budgets for mandatory abandonment and decommissioning, running into billions of dollars unaccounted for.

It further called for further investigations as to how budgeted allocations for this purpose were applied or expended over the years.

These formed part of resolutions reached by the upper chamber sequel to the consideration of a motion on “the need to investigate the degree of enforcement of Abandonment and Decommissioning Obligations in Oil and Gas Exploration Contracts.”

Senator Gershom Bassey (APC, Cross River South), who sponsored the motion, drew the attention of the upper chamber to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas Art 60(3), the Geneva Convention Article 5(5), the Oslo and Paris Convention for the Protection of Marine Environment, the 1967 Territorial Water Act and 1969 Petroleum Act.

According to the lawmaker, such laws make sufficient provisions for mandatory abandonment and decommissioning for oil companies.

Senator Bassey bemoaned the conduct of oil companies in Nigeria for “failing to restore exploited sites after the expiration of their lease as witnessed in the Niger Delta.”

He added that at the point of transfer of interest by one company to another, “there is lack of clarity in many instances with regards to financial liability for abandonment and decommissioning thereby causing untold hardship to the host community.”

Contributing, Senator Stella Oduah (PDP, Anambra North), a co-sponsor of the motion, described same as “critical”, given how degradation affects host communities under oil exploration.

Oduah noted that the incidence of spills were preventable, if only funds set aside for the purpose of clean-ups are duly utilized.

In a related development, the Senate on Wednesday also mandated its Committee on ICT and Cybercrime to engage stakeholders with a view to coming up with a broad-based approach to address Nigeria’s digital and cyber security crises.

The upper chamber while calling for engagements with Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government to identify cyber security constraints and remedial measures, urged the Federal Government to improve on budgetary provisions for digital technology and cyber-dependence safety.

These were resolutions reached after consideration of a motion on “The Growth of Digital Technology and the Challenge of Cybercrime.”

Sponsor of the motion, Senator Yakubu Oseni (APC, Kogi Central), warned that “the gains of digital technology are being dampened by rapid evolution of cybersecurity threat, with increased attacks in both sophistication and severity.”

According to him, the cyber-related activities are already costing the world huge losses in trillions of dollars, recalling that the NotPetya malware alone caused billions of dollars in damage to many industries globally.

“Global ransomeware damage alone has been predicted to cost the world over 11 billion dollars in 2019 and 20 billion dollars in 2021.

“It is also predicted that a business will fall every 14 seconds in 2019 and 11 seconds in 2021, and that overall Cybercrime is predicted to cost the world over six trillion dollars annually from 2021,” Yakubu said.

The lawmaker further bemoaned that Nigeria is already plagued with the destructive cyber-crises resulting in a loss to the tune of N250 billion to Cybercrime activities in 2017 alone.

He noted that the 2018 report of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Cooperation (NDIC) indicates that there were 37,817 reported fraud cases within the year, out of which 59.2 percent were internet and technology based.

Yakubu added that eighty-one percent of cyber-security incidents in the country are either unreported or unresolved, leaving room for proliferation and escalation of illicit cyber activities.

“Nigeria still lags behind in infrastructure sophistication, data Management and digital security which are critical to the developmental agenda.

“In fact, federal allocation to the ICT sector of the economy can only be considered as lip service, compared to the enormity of challenges,” the lawmaker said.

………..Senate President urges NLNG to make cooking gas readily available

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on Wednesday called on the management of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas to make Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas readily available for domestic use.

Lawan told the Managing Director of the NLNG, Tony Attah, who led a delegation on a courtesy visit, to ensure an improved supply of the cooking gas in the country.

“The LPG you bring to the country, you should bring more because if we have to move away from using the firewood and so many other things that can cause problems to the environment, we have to have more LPG for cooking.

“I believe that you have the wherewithal. If it requires a policy or legislation, I believe there is need to fast track our ability to make the LPG available to Nigerians.

“Today what is available to Nigerians is very low. I believe that we can do much better than that,” Lawan said.

The Senate President said NLNG is one project that is so important and critical to Nigeria.

He said although so far the project is doing well but can still do much better adding that “Nigeria can benefit better from gas resource than even from oil.”

Lawan told the NLNG team to work closely with the relevant committees in the National Assembly with a view to fast tracking the realization of the objectives of the project.

The Senate President underscored the fact that Nigeria is reputed to be more of a gas nation than oil adding that “we have what it takes to be very ambitious” like other leading gas-endowed nations.

Lawan said there is also a need to ensure stability in the Niger Delta to sustain an uninterrupted operations in the region.

“We believe that we should work to ensure stability in the Niger Delta. A lot of projections for our budget every year are based on crude availability. That requires that we should continue to have a stable Niger Delta environment where our oil and gas are produced.

“We should make every possible effort to provide amenities either through corporate responsibility and of course through government intervention to make that place stable so that we can continue to have the operations going on uninterrupted,” Lawan said.

Earlier, Mr Attah said the visit was to intimate the Senate President with the progress made by the company.

He said that the NLNG is seen as the fasted growing NLNG company in the world.

“We are a global player but we are 100 percent Nigerian company and a major source of pride to the nation.

“This year defines our 30th anniversary of safely operating and when we talk to our customers, they refer to us as reliable, responsible but most importantly trusted.

“And we think that is really helping the image of our Nigeria because our ships go all over the world on a daily basis and we carry the flag to represent the country positively,” Attah said.

Senate wants States to dedicate funds for border communities

…to probe compliance with Border Community Development law

The Senate on Wednesday called on the 21 Border States to dedicate 1.5 percent of consolidated revenue fund and 30 percent of ecological fund for the development of Border Communities in the country.

The upper chamber urged the Federal Government to increase the funding of the Border Community Development Agency (BCDA), while mandating its Committee on States and Local Government to carry out a holistic investigation on the level of compliance with the Act establishing the BCDA.

The resolutions were reached after the consideration of a motion on “the need to pay attention to the plight of border communities in Nigeria” during plenary.

Sponsor of the motion, Senator Sadiq Suleiman Umar (APC, Kwara North) explained that when the BCDA was established, the agency had a detailed counterpart funding mechanism under the Border Communities Development Agency Act 2003 to ensure development of border communities.

According to him, the funding mechanisms included 7.5 percent of the total allocation due to the Federal Government deductible at source; 15 percent of monthly statutory allocation due to member states of the agency deductible at source; 55 percent of the monies due to members states of the Agency from the ecological fund, and 10 percent of the monthly statutory allocation due to the border local governments deducted at source.

He added that the deductions made from these accounts at source even before the commencement of the commission had no significant impact on member states, local governments and border communities.

This, according to Umar, necessitated the subsequent amendment of Section 9 of the BCDA Act by the National Assembly in 2006 after a protest by Governors of Border States.

“Border communities are in dire need of development in the area of infrastructure, health, education, water and access roads, but the BCDA has not been able to cater for the needs of these communities because of insufficient funding,” Senator Umar said.

The lawmaker recalled that in 2009, about 84 school children were drowned in a river from Bukoro, a border community in Baruten Local Government in Kwara North, while going to school in neighbouring border community in Benin Republic.

According to Umar, “authorities from Benin Republic responded to that incidence and constructed a bridge across the river, but Nigeria did nothing in respect of same, resulting in Bukuro community threatening to secede from Nigeria.”

While noting that neighbouring border communities of other countries such as Cameroon and Niger enjoy world class facilities, the lawmaker lamented that indigenes of border communities in Nigeria are at the mercy of other countries for their medical and educational needs, a situation with attendant security risk to the country.

He, therefore, called for the Federal Government’s intervention in providing infrastructure and social amenities for border communities so as to create a sense of belonging among residents.

While lending his voice in support of the motion, another lawmaker, Senator Jibrin Isah Echocho (APC, Kogi East), emphasised the need for the Federal Government to create a separate intervention fund to address the problems of border communities in Nigeria.

According to Echocho, such alternative presents a better opportunity to permanently take care of the multifarious challenges faced by residents of border communities.

Ensure adequate funding for NACA to control spread of HIV, Senate tells Executive

***Appeals against stigmatization, discrimination of persons living with the virus

The Senate on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to ensure adequate funding of the National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA) for the fight and control of the spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in the country.

This was even as the upper chamber appealed to Nigerians not to stigmatize and discriminate against persons living with the virus, as well as advised all adults to know their HIV status by subjecting themselves to screening.

Accordingly, the Senate also called on the private Sector in the country to embrace the fight against HIV/AIDS by partnering with Government to fund the exercise.

These were resolutions reached by the Senate after consideration of a motion on “World Aids Day” sponsored by Senator Chukwuka Utazi (PDP, Enugu North).

Utazi, who brought forward his motion through orders 42 and 52 of the Senate Standing Rules, said there are fears in the HIV community that intervention funders may leave Nigeria soon for places where the deadly virus is yet to be kept at bay.

The lawmaker stated that such fears were as a result of the outcome of the report of the National HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari in March, this year, which showed that prevalence of the virus in Nigeria dropped from 2.8 percent to 1.4 percent among adults aged 15-49 years.

According to Utazi, out of the 1.9 million people living with HIV in Nigeria, over a million of them are currently accessing treatment to achieve viral suppression.

He added, “With the appreciable control of this epidemic and the increasing expectation of further shrinking, the usual funding from foreign donors will equally shrink leaving Nigeria to battle in funding the management and care of people with HIV.”

Worried about the sustainability of the fight against HIV infection and control in Nigeria, the lawmaker posited that in a situation where funding partners pull out of the country, it would become imperative for private sector involvement in raising the needed fund to support government at the Federal and State levels.

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