The House of Representatives has resumed from the 2015 Governorship and State Assembly elections recess yesterday and may likely consider the report of the Committee on 2015 Budget and the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
Leaders of both the Senate and the House of Representatives have vowed to pass the Bill which has wallowed in legislative wilderness for seven years, but that still remains doubtful with just mere weeks to the end of this legislature in May.
The Bill in consideration may come up again, the leaders say, nearly two years after it was referred to the committee by the leadership of the House. Mohammed Bawa, Chairman of the adhoc Committee on PIB had on March 12 this year laid the report before the House.
It is therefore expected that the lawmakers will commence debate on the 707-page report of the Adhoc committee for the “Act to provide for the establishment of a legal, fiscal and regulatory framework for the petroleum industry in Nigeria and for other related matters” before the expiration of the seventh Assembly in June this year.
Meanwhile, the House has summoned the management team of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and National Oil Spill Detection Response Agency (NOSDRA) over an allegation that Universal Energy Resources Limited is diverting crude oil deposit at Stubo Creek Marginal Field.
The ad hoc committee headed by Hon. Friday Itulah which is in charge of the investigation has also invited other stakeholders such as the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), representative of Akwa-Ibom government, the Chief of Mbo and the Youth Development Association of Mbo, all in the Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa-Ibom State.
Source : Sweetcrudereports