Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has described as
unfortunate comments by the Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri over ownership
of Soku Oil Well.
Governor Wike said this when he received a delegation of the
Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission on a courtesy visit at
Government House, Port Harcourt.
He stated that Soku Oil Well belongs to Rivers State and
urged the Commission to continue to ensure the payment of the accruing revenue
to the State.
The Governor who commended the Commission for taking the bold step to correct fraudulent practices adopted by some states to gain financial advantage advocated a new revenue sharing formula that will make the states get more money for development.
“There cannot be a Federal Government without the states.
So, we advocate a new revenue formula that should take more revenue out of the
Federal Government and given to the States.
“This is because the burden is more on the states than the
Federal Government. So, the states should have more revenue to cater to the
people,” he said.
“It is unfortunate that the Bayelsa State Governor told you
when you visited him that you should not pay us revenue from Soku Oil Well.
“The matter was at the Supreme Court when the National
Boundary Commission admitted that they made an error in their 11th edition
publication by situating Soku Oil Well in Bayelsa State.
“They were, therefore,
directed to correct the error in their 12th edition publication. When they also
failed to effect the correction, we had to go back to the Federal High Court.
The court, in its wisdom, directed that all revenue accruing from Soku Oil Well
be paid to Rivers State.
“That is the position. For Bayelsa State Governor to come up
to say that you should not pay us our money is unfortunate.
“If they have filed a matter at the Supreme Court, it is not
an injunction to stop the implementation of the subsisting judgement”, he
stated.
Leader of the delegation, Mohammed Usman said they were on
an advocacy and sensitisation tour to Rivers State, adding that the RMAFC 2018
verification exercise was characterised by fraud because some data supplied by
some states were very spurious.
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