The statement reads: “Clearly, the Commission understands and shares in the sentiments and particularly the patience of the host communities on this issue, especially as the PIA had suspended the Global Memorandum of Understanding and the Memorandum of Understanding , replacing both provisions with a new Host Community Development Trust Fund.
“Each settlor, where applicable through the operator, shall make an annual contribution to the applicable host communities development trust fund of an amount equal to 3% of its actual annual operating expenditure of the preceding financial year in the upstream petroleum operations affecting the host communities for which the applicable host communities development trust fund was established”.
“The Commission notes that remittance of the statutory contribution which should have served as succour to the host communities has sadly become a source of pain to the lawful beneficiaries. This has now given impetus to actions that might affect smooth upstream operations within affected host communities; a situation that could have been addressed through routine social inclusion.