THE fear of a possible attack from members of the oil producing host communities yesterday kept state governors of major oil producing states from the on going public hearing on Revenue Allocation Bill in Asaba for the South South geopolitical zone.
Members of the host communities who mobilized themselves in large numbers and stormed the indoor hall of the Asaba Stadium, venue of the public hearing booed a Commissioner for Local government affairs from Rivers State, Mr. Mela Oforibika who made a feeble attempt to defend the utilization of the funds from the derivation formula. And leader of the National Assembly team, Mr. Leo Ogor condemned the attitude of some government officials, especially local government chairmen in the area who neither attended nor sent delegations.
�I am surprised that those who are supposed to be closer to the grassroots, especially the local government chairmen have refused to attend this hearing.
May be they are satisfied with the present allocation that they are getting from the Federation Account. Their attitude is not encouraging at all,� he said.
At a point he had to sneak out of the venue of the hearing after making a brief oral presentation to the committee calling for the deletion of the provision that empowers the National Assembly to set up a committee of host communities to manage funds allocated to the host communities in the new bill.
But in their presentations, almost all speakers called for the management of funds meant for host communities by members of the communities.