The Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) has decried the ‘injustice’ in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, describing it as “a gargantuan” move by some vested interest in the core North to permanently hijack the assets of the indigenous people of the southern territory of Nigeria.
NINAS, the coordinating platform for the umbrella bodies of self-determination groups in the South and Middle Belt of Nigeria with Ilana Omo Oodua (IOO) representing the South West, Lower Niger Congress (LNC) representing the South South and South East and Middle Belt Renaissance Movement (MBRM) representing the Middle Belt Region, made the observation in a statement by its Chairman, Prof Banji Akintoye, through the Communications Manager, Mr. Maxwell Adeleye.
According to the statement, a critical analysis of the Act has shown that non-oil producing states with no environmental degradation like Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa and Katsina are to benefit more from the PIA than oil producing states of Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Delta, Abia, Imo, and Rivers.
To NINAS, the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) “is the biggest fraud of the 21st Century” against the people of Southern Nigeria, whose assets and sovereignty are already allegedly manipulated by some tiny-ruling elites but the group threatened that it would apply the instrumentalities of the law and intellectualism to shoot down the act.