On Tuesday the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has described as unfortunate comments by Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State over ownership of Soku Oil Well.
Governor Wike said this when delegation of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission paid him a courtesy visit at Government House, Port Harcourt.
Wike 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.
