Group to voice concerns of clans

 LOCALS in the north-west of Moran, in Hela, have formed a group to act as their mouthpiece.

The Yahoma Landowners’ Association is made up of 13 clans from the Ulia local level government council in the Komo-Margarima district.

President Joseph Andayako said  the association was formed this year to become the mouthpiece for about 4000 people in the region, one of the North West Moran Petroleum Development Licence 6 area (PDL 6).

Andayako said since oil production started in Sept 2005 from PDL 6, people saw little or no benefit from their resources.

“My people are suffering so much for this reason. We formed this association to become a voice of the people and bring in goods and services to the doorstep of the people,” he said.

“The association will control and manage affairs of the people when dealing with the developer and government in terms of benefit-sharing, service delivery, royalty and equity payouts.

“Now that the developer is continuing to extract oil out of our land, we must be properly compensated in terms of royalties, equity, services and other developments.”