Environmentalists have demanded a special funding for host communities from the 13percent derivation fund for the development of oil producing communities.
The environmentalists made this call at a town hall meeting organised by Connect Development (CODE) in Port Harcourt.
The Akwa Ibom State lead coordinator, Ubong Ekpe, said oil producing communities should not be denied of their rights.
Ekpe said the implementation of the 13 percent derivation which has brought in trillions of Naira has not had any positive impact on the host communities.
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He said the town hall meeting was to dialogue with major stakeholders, including host communities, with a view to ensuring that host communities benefit from natural resources from their Land.
Ekpe noted host communities, particularly in Akwa Ibom State, are yet to feel the impact of their resources.
Also speaking, the Cross River State Coordinator, Connecting Development (CODE), Effang Etim, said the meeting will share ideas between the organisation and community leaders , civil societies and government officials to create an action plan.
He said investigation revealed that most host communities in the region are not benefitting from resources being exploited from their areas.
“We had a survey across the State on host communities in which we made some findings that we’ll share to government personnel to enable them see what people in the communities are going through”, he said.
