’86 Oil Wells: Revenue Commission Must Pay Rivers’

In the wake of the controversy between Akwa Ibom State and Rivers over which of the states own the 86 disputed oil wells, the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi says the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, would have no reason not to commence payment to the state, in line with the judgement of the Supreme Court on the oil wells.

Governor Amaechi, who was speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt on his arrival from Abuja, was reacting to the decision of RMAFC to lodge revenue accruals from the oil wells between Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, into an escrow account.

He affirmed that now that a copy of the Supreme Court Judgement had been made available to the relevant government agencies, payment due to Rivers State would commence at least from June.

“What happened is that last month, we asked them to put it in an escrow account, and they refused, saying that they had not gotten a copy of the judgement, and then the Federal Government finally got a copy of the judgement and served it on them,”Governor Amaechi said. “They have no reason, therefore, this month to still pay Akwa Ibom. They have to put it in an escrow account. Before the end of the month, they should round off by the grace of God, and we will get our money,” Governor Amaechi noted, adding “I protested when they took our oil wells, nobody listened, so I went to court to seek for justice and we got the judgement. We are waiting for them, I hope that by June, we will be able to receive this month’s money, and that of June, and then, deductions will start from there,” he said. The governor expressed the hope that the committee set up by RMAFC to look into the judgement of the Supreme Court would start paying to the state what is accruable to it.

In his words: “they are still working, and they said for this month, instead of paying it to Akwa Ibom as they did last month, they will now pay it into an escrow account, so that when they finish with the calculations, whoever has what will collect his own money.”

RMAFC had, last Tuesday said revenue accruals from the exploration of crude oil from the 172 disputed oil wells between Akwa Ibom and Rivers states are to be saved in a special account, pending the resolution of the issues by the Inter-Agency Technical Committee on the implementation of the Supreme Court Judgement.

The revenue commission said that the decision to create the escrow account was part of steps taken to ensure equity, fairness and justice in the implementation of the judgment by the Apex Court.

—Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt