The joint Committee of the House of Representatives investigating the implementation of corporate social responsibility by multinational oil companies and other corporate bodies in the South-South Region of the country have threatened to issue warrant of arrests on the heads of firms which have failed to honour its summons.
Chairman of the tripartite committees Hon Professor Obiageli Lilian Orogbu frowned at the failure of some major oil companies to attend the investigative hearing warning that she and her co-chairmen as well as the entire members of the committees would not hesitate to deal with any organization that failed to respect the assignment of investigative panel.
“The House has asked us to carry out this exercise based on quantum of petitions from host communities against most of you and we will not take kindly with any organizations that decide to undermine this assignment”, Orogbu said.
Earlier in her opening remarks, she emphasized that the investigative hearing was borne out of genuine intention of the parliament to see that corporate bodies operating in Nigeria keep to the best practices of corporate and environmental behaviours within their host communities acknowledging that “reports at the disposal of the parliament showed that a lot of you are lagging behind in this regard”.
“We want to see a change and also ensure that what you do as corporate social responsibility to your hosts are commensurate with the level of businesses you do. Some of you observe corporate social responsibility in other countries you operate but you fail to do same here because nobody cares.
“We want a new Nigeria and we need you to work together with the government to rebuild this country. I know that some of you are doing quite well but there are many of you that are not responsible enough “, the chairman noted.
The event which was jointly organised committees on Corporate Social Responsibility, NigerDelta Development Commission and that of Host Communities, saw in attendance, Dubri Oil company, Lee Engineering, Equinor Oil, Famfa oil, Sahara Group , Network E&P Ltd, Monipulo Ltd, GereenVille LNG, Chirus Energy, Seplat Energy, Roviigs Ltd, Chevron.
