Governor Chukwuma Soludo has signed into law, the Anambra State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, ANSOPADEC Bill.

 

The commission is saddled with the responsibility of seeing to the development of host communities according to their needs assessment.

 

The Commissioner for Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Barrister Anthony Ifeanya, announced this during a two-day Capacity Building workshop for leaders of Oil and Gas Producing Host Communities in the Niger Delta on Strategic Leadership Skills and Host Communities Provision in the Petroleum Industrial Act, PIA.

 

The workshop, organized in Awka, had in attendance, participants from Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers States.

 

In his welcome address, Barrister Ifeanya charged the forum to also deliberate, the establishment of Management Committee for host communities in Ogbaru Council Area, which should have been established thirty days after the establishment of Host Communities Trust Fund by SIPPCO as well as Advisory Committee by Management Committee, thirty days after their establishment.

 

Commissioner Ifeanya, who disclosed that all these are registered by Corporate Affairs Commission and supervised by Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulations Commission, NUPRC and backed by law to arrest restiveness and crisis, frowned that bunkering has started rearing its ugly head in Anambra despite Governor Soludo’s commitment to making host communities, model communities.

 

He however stressed the urgent need for confidence building between operators, state and host communities since a total of four states are involved in the derivation computation of OML one hundred and forty-three due to the surface closure of the reservoir.

 

The workshop was targeted at fostering collaboration and partnership among leaders, IOCs, and other stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of the Host Communities Provision in the PIA and enhance the capacity of leaders to facilitate inclusive and sustainable development in their communities through effective leadership and stakeholder engagement, among others.

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