A civil society organisation known as Connected Development has called for the domestication of the Freedom of Information Act in Rivers.

The state support officer for the group, Charles Uffort, made the call at a one-day training workshop for the oil host communities in Rivers, organised by CODE in Port Harcourt.

Mr Uffort said that the workshop, tagged ‘Enhancing the Capacity of Community towards Project and Fund Management to Safeguard Community Rights around the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA)’, was sponsored by Oxfam Nigeria.

He said that the workshop was to train the host communities on how to engage oil companies and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission to access their three per cent derivation fund as provided for by PIA.

According to him, the workshop was to review the PIA on how communities and host community development trusts would access their funds and implement social projects needed in their communities, such as schools, health centres, boreholes, streetlights, roads, and others.

“This will also help them to constitute the Board of Trustees, Advisory Committee, and Non-Advisory Committee to get their three per cent oil derivation fund.

“The PIA, passed into law August 5, 2021, with not less than 165 communities incorporated, has yet to get funds. We urge communities to amplify their voices and call on state governments to domesticate the FOI Act to enable them to get access to information about dilapidated government structures in their respective communities.

“Our call is that Rivers and other states yet to implement the PIA law, including the Federal Capital Territory, should domesticate the law. Some states have domesticated it, while some, including Rivers, have not. So, we urge citizens of the state to join their voices in calling on the government to domesticate the law,” Mr Uffort said.

He also listed some of the challenges faced by host communities in accessing the three per cent derivation fund, including the lack of required information from the oil companies.

He called on NUPRC and other regulatory bodies to champion the advocacy on the domestication of PIA.

“We noticed that many communities do not understand the implications of the PIA. So, we are calling on the regulatory bodies to sensitise communities and not leave it to fall back to the civil society organisations,” Mr Uffort said.

Also, the lead research unit of CODE, Augustine Okere, emphasised the importance of host communities leveraging media platforms to amplify their voices and press home their demands.

One of the stakeholders, Sophia Daniels, underscored the importance of using media platforms diplomatically.

Ms Daniel called for more collaboration among communities, civil society organisations, and the media in storytelling for development.

(NAN)