*Disclose N53.2bn, $92.7m disbursed so far under new law Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja Host Communities of Nigeria (HOSCON) Producing Oil and Gas and Pipeline Impacted States in the Niger Delta, yesterday rose in defence of the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Mr Gbenga Komolafe, against those they described as extortionists.
Briefing the press at the office of the organisation in Abuja, National Chairman of HOSCON, Dr. Mike Emuh, maintained that the unnamed petitioners against Komolafe, are persons the commission had stopped from cutting corners in the oil industry. Some little known groups had recently flooded the media with unsubstantiated allegations against the NUPRC’s chief executive.
But the host communities insisted that the insinuations were instigated by those affected by the changes in the operational ecosystem that has now denied them of corrupt practices. “It is now fashionable for those who have failed in cutting corners in the oil industry, following extensive regulations in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), to resort to alleging corruption within the system and calling for the head of the commission chief executive. “They are reactions from those affected by current wave of reforms in the Nigerian oil and gas industry which has made it impossible for business as usual.
They are fighting back. Corruption is fighting back,” Emuh stated. Stressing that the agenda was to hoodwink and extort the commissio.
