The Niger Delta Development Commission has reprimanded oil and gas companies for refusing to remit three per cent of their annual earnings to it.
The commission alleged that most of the oil and gas companies deliberately refused to pay the statutory sum to it while others slashed the amount accruing to the NDDC by 15 per cent.
The chairman of the commission, Mr. Sam Edem, explained in Uyo on Monday that though the NDDC had sued such companies, it later settled out of court.
Edem said that the commission intended to find an easy way out of the quagmire.
According to him, the NDDC gets about N24bn per annum, saying this is not enough to execute projects in the nine oil-producing states in the Niger Delta.
He said, �What we get since we started is N24bn per annum and we have a lot of things to do. I am not discouraged by the magnitude of the problem. The NDDC is ready to tackle them but it will take a gradual process.
�A lot of the oil companies have, for some time now, refused to pay the statutory three per cent of their earnings to the commission while the gas companies have not even paid a dime,� he said.
Edem said that the commission had established over 1,500 hectares of rice farm in the Niger Delta region, adding that Akwa Ibom State would soon benefit from the 40 solar-controlled water project embarked upon by the commission.
The NDDC chairman explained that the state had experienced minimal militant attacks because the commission had tried to carry the militants along in the area of infrastructural development and youth employment.
He called on journalists to always support the commission through effective reportage of its activities, noting that the NDDC was determined to provide a lasting solution to the problem of underdevelopment in the Niger Delta region.