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INC President says laws entrench legislative injustice against oil communities.
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Okaba accuses Federal Government of militarising Niger Delta while leaving mining states unchecked.
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Congress demands urgent legislative harmonisation and return to true federalism.
The Ijaw National Congress (INC) has declared that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the Solid Mineral Act represent systemic injustice and deliberate oppression of the Niger Delta.
Professor Benjamin Okaba, President of the INC, in a strongly worded address in Lagos, accused the Federal Government of designing legislative frameworks that plunder oil communities while shielding other regions from similar treatment. He argued that the disparity between the PIA of 2021 and the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act of 2007 reveals a calculated bias against the Niger Delta.
According to him, the PIA reduced host communities to passive observers by allocating just three percent of annual operational expenditure, while imposing punitive collective punishment clauses for vandalism. He pointed out that the Mining Act, by contrast, offers communities clear development agreements, with no provisions for collective punishment, thereby creating unequal regimes of governance within the same country.
Okaba described the Niger Delta as a sacrifice zone subjected to decades of environmental degradation without adequate remediation. He said while the PIA permits loopholes such as ministerial approval for gas flaring, the Mining Act places clear and enforceable obligations on mining operators to rehabilitate affected environments, highlighting a double standard in environmental justice.
He further accused the government of maintaining a climate of military occupation in the Niger Delta through the Joint Task Force, while other resource-rich regions remain free of similar militarisation despite widespread illegal mining. He maintained that the federal system tolerates artisanal mining in other parts of the country, granting locals direct participation in their resources, an opportunity denied to Niger Delta communities.
The INC leader condemned the 30 percent allocation of NNPC Limited’s profits for oil exploration in frontier basins located mainly in the North, contrasting it with the meagre three percent concession to host communities in the Niger Delta.
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He labelled the arrangement as state-sponsored resource colonialism, warning that the region would no longer accept being treated as a conquered territory.
Professor Okaba demanded urgent harmonisation of the laws to align with equitable standards, an end to the military occupation of the Niger Delta, and a return to true federalism that recognises derivation-based resource control.
He said the people of the Niger Delta reject any further attempt to sacrifice their environment and livelihood under the guise of national unity.
