By Kelvin Obambon
Journalists in Cross River State have charged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to extend its infrastructural development programmes like schools, medical laboratories and scholarship programmes to people of Cross River State just like the company had been doing in other states.
The media practitioners who came under the umbrella of Cross River State Journalists, also appealed for sponsorship of human capacity development training for journalists to sharpen their skills in energy reporting and other critical areas of human endeavour.
They argued that 80 percent of Nigeria’s oil is tapped from the Niger Delta region, lamenting that unfortunately the NNPCL had failed to extend the Corporate Social Responsibility carried out in other parts of the country that are not even oil-producing states to Cross River and other Niger Delta states.
Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Cross River State Council, Comrade Archibong Bassey made the appeal in Calabar during a brainstorming session on the hike in pump price of petrol and its attendant hardship on the citizens.
Read Also: Jigawa Fuel Tanker Explosion: Former VP Atiku calls for rail transport alternative
Bassey appealed for robust collaboration between the NNPCL and the media in the Niger Delta region in the area of information dissemination.
The media practitioners urged the NNPCL to adopt a proactive approach to information sharing, lamenting the lackadaisical attitude in dispensing information, which they claimed had led to speculations, suspicion and criticisms of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Mr Solomon Oseagha, a social activist and friend of the oil industry, he was in the state to draw a line between fact and fiction regarding the perception by people about the NNPCL and what the company stands for. He said it was wrong for anyone to conclude that the NNPCL is responsible for the hike in the price of petroleum product in the country.
Oseagha charged the Nigerian Mainstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to rise to their responsibility of ensuring that marketers dispensing low-quality petrol with faulty metres are sanctioned.
He commended the leadership of NNPCL under Mele Kyari for always upholding transparency and prudence in its operation, even as he maintained that the company does not regulate activities in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.