PWDs Seek Amendment Of Petroleum Industry Act

Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) have called on the federal government to develop a supplementary Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) that ensures their inclusion in the PIA benefit structures.

This appeal was made during a workshop on the PIA and Disability Laws, organised by the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) in Umuahia.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop was with the theme: “Ending Barriers Against Niger-Deltans with Disabilities (EBAND)”, and funded by the Ford Foundation.

The PWDs, who belong to different disability clusters in Abia, channelled their demands to the government through the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

The appeal was part of the demand charter for their inclusion in the PIA benefit structures in Abia.

They urged NUPRC to mandate the Host Community Development Trusts (HCDTs) to integrate their needs and voices into the PIA benefit structures.

They noted that the current Act recognised women, youths, and traditional rulers, but was quiet on issues concerning them.

The PWDs also urged NUPRC to ensure the employment of at least five per cent allocation for the disability community as stipulated in the National Disability Law.

NAN further reports that one of the key provisions of the Act is that oil companies must provide three per cent of their annual operating expenditure to fund the HCDTs.

Mr Wisdom Okechukwu, the chairman of National Association of Persons With Disabilities(JONAPWD), Abia, said that the cluster heads of PWDs were unanimous in their demands.

He said JONAPWD, as the umbrella body of all the PWDs organisations in the state, was simply making a general demand of inclusion in all the structures of benefits in the PIA implementation.