This followed a directive by the Upper Chamber of the
National Assembly on Wednesday, giving NLNG a seven-day ultimatum to appear
before the committee.
The directive by the Senate was sequel to the presentation
of the report of the Committee in respect of a petition from Chief Enyinna
Onuegbu on behalf of 73 communities of Obiafu, Soku to Bonny, in Rivers State
against the NLNG.
The Senate insisted that if the authorities of the NLNG
failed to appear before its Ethics Committee within seven days, the company
would be made to pay the N18.448bn recommended by the panel as compensation to
the 73 communities.
The petitioners accused the NLNG of refusing to pay
compensation for acquiring their land and loss of use of the affected land to
Pipeline Right of Way (ROW) through the communities.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges
and Public Petitions, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, said the NLNG did not pay any
compensation to the communities following acquisition of their land.
Akinyelure said, “Following the incorporation of the Nigeria
LNG Limited, it acquired landed properties in Rivers State in 1996 spanning
over 210km for use as its pipelines Right of Way (ROW) which ended at the
export terminal of the NLNGin Finima Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers
State.
“That there were over 73 communities and over 200 families,
whose hitherto agrarian source of livelihood was negatively impacted upon by
the said acquisition.
“That NLNG neither proved nor showed evidence to the
Committee that it paid compensation to the 73 communities for loss of use of
their land to pipelines Right of Way (ROW; and that there was no Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) signed between the communities and the NLNG on future
obligations in the name of Corporate Social Responsibility with the impacted
communities.
“That there was evidence that oil companies such as Shell
Petroleum Development Company, Totalfina, Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited, Agip
Oil Corporation paid compensation for loss of use of land to their host
communities; and that the communities were claiming the sum of
N18,448,842,500.00 being compensation for the loss of use of their land as at
May, 2020,” he said.
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