The Senate plenary session of Thursday, June 2, 2016
witnessed the consideration and passage of three Motions. The Motions
that got the nod of the Upper Legislative Chamber include: The Urgent
need for the Senate to look into the
Nigerian Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Oil, Gas and Solid Minerals
Audit Report, sponsored by Sen. Tijani Yahaya Kaura (Zamfara North).
Sen.
Kaura, while leading the debate noted that NEITI was created by an Act
of the National Assembly in 2007. He stated that one of the key
statutory functions of the Agency is to conduct regular audits of
extractive sector as provided in section 4 of the extant Act. He
disclosed that details from the 2013 Audit and Financial Report of
activities in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry conducted by NEITI has
shown that Nigeria made $58.07 billion from its hydrocarbon industry in
2013.
While, the country also realized N33.86
billion from Solid Minerals sector in 2013 as contained in the Solid
Minerals Audit Report of NEITI. Accordingly, the Senate is disturbed
that between 2005 and 2013, the sum of $12.9 billion was paid by the
Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) to NNPC which was not remitted to
the Federation Account.
The Hallowed Chamber is worried that
the NEITI report showed that the country lost $5.966 billion and N20.4
billion in the sector from the operation of Offshore Processing
Agreement (OPA) by state oil firm the NNPC crude oil swap and theft etc.
The Motion sailed through with only one resolution below:
a) Invite the Executive Secretary of NEITI to brief the Senate on the missing fund and cause of such leakages.
1) Urgent Remediation of Lead Poisoning in Shikira Community of Niger State, sponsored by Sen. David Umaru (Niger East).
According
to Sen. David Umaru there was a lead outbreak epidemic that recorded 65
cases way back in May, 2015 in a small rural mining community in Rafi
Local Government Area of Niger State, where more than 28 children died
of suspected lead poisoning in two villages of Ungwar Magiro and Ungwar
Kawo. The law-maker was shocked at the survey result of Federal Ministry
of Health confirming that all the 149 children under five years of age
tested for lead 80% had more than 45mcg/dl (the threshold above which
chelation is indicated in a clean environment). The Motion scaled
through with three resolutions below:
a) Call
upon the Federal Government, (Ministries of Health, Solid Minerals and
Environment) to urgently remediate the environment, treat all cases and
promote safer mining programmes for artisanal miners.
b) Urge
the Federal Government to urgently approve and release the needed
intervention fund from the Ecological Fund Office for urgent remediation
to help save Shikira and other communities affected by lead poisoning.
c) Urge
the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals to review the 2007 Mining Act to
reflect present realities in the sector as it affects local communities
and artisanal miners.
2) Fire
Incident involving victims of insurgency from Nigeria in Gagamari
Refugee Camp, Diffa State, Niger Republic, sponsored by Sen. Abubakar
Kyari, Sen. Ali Ndume and Sen Baba Kaka Bashir Garbai (Borno North,
South & Central).
Sen. Kyari asserted that the current
insurgency in the North-East has led to massive dislocation of the
populace who are in several Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Camps
nationwide and in Niger Republic, Chad and Cameroon since 2009. The
Senator was saddened that on Monday, 25th April, 2016 at about 4:00pm,
there was a fire incident that razed the whole Gagamari Refugee Camp,
Diffa State, Niger Republic where over 4, 000 Nigerians were further
displaced, living without shelter, food, water etc.
The
law-maker was further saddened by the death of three Nigerian children
and an aged woman that sustained severe injuries among the 120, 000
Nigerian IDPs currently in Niger Republic. Accordingly, the Motion was
passed with three resolutions below:
a) Urge
the Federal Government to immediately provide relief materials such as
food, shelter, clothing, water etc. to the affected persons in Gagamari
Refugee Camp.
b) Urge the Federal Government to galvanize the public and private sectors to relocate the refugees back to their homes in Nigeria.
c) Urge the Federal Government to sustain the tempo of the fight against terrorism to bring an end to the Boko Haram insurgency.
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