Governors Wike, Diri In Renew High-stakes Battle Over Soku Oil Well Ownership

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike and his Bayelsa state counterparts, Douye Diri, have intensified the renewed hostility between the two states over ownership of Soku Oil Well.

BIGPEN reports that whilst the Rivers State Government is insisting that there is a subsisting Federal High Court judgement which ordered the payment of all revenue accruing from Soku Oil Well to Rivers, Bayelsa state Government is banking on a Supreme Court judgement and its appeal to stay action on the enforcement of the lower court judgement to halt all revenue accruing from the Soku Oil Well.

Soku oil wells in Oluasiri, is between a disputed boundary to Bayelsa and Rivers States.

Wike has been in a running battle with his Bayelsa state counterpart – first with former Governor of the state, Seriake Dickson over the judgement of a Federal High Court, Abuja, which ceded the oil wells to Rivers State.

Bayelsa State had overtime maintained confident of its historical claim of ownership over the lands on which the Oilfields/Oil wells in issue are situate and had always expressed its willingness to fully participate in any joint delimitation and demarcation exercise in respect of the disputed boundary, according to the former governor of the state, Dickson.

According to the Bayelsa state Government, the lower court judgment which Governor Wike have been brandishing as validation of a Supreme Court judgement, was contrary to the apex court verdict, which they insisted had directed the National Boundary Commission (NBC) to determine the land ownership.

The Bayelsa state government had insisted that the NBC constituted a Joint Technical Committee on the Bayelsa/Rivers Interstate Boundary to resolve the issue, but Rivers State Government withdrew from it and rather went behind the back of the parties to institute an action against the National Boundary Commission (NBC) to justify its “false” claims on the Soku oilfields, which he said are located within Nembe Loval Government Area.

Recalls that Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri who inherited the legal battle had recently told a delegation of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission during their visit to his state to stop accrued oil revenue payment to Rivers.

But against the recent claims by the Governor of Bayelsa state, Governor Wike while addressing a delegation of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) who paid him a courtesy visit at Government House, Port Harcourt, insisted 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.

Wike, in his reaction released by the State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim , described as unfortunate comments by the Bayelsa State Governor, Diri over ownership of Soku Oil Well, saying; “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 should 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.

The governor, however, advocated a new revenue sharing formula that will make the States get more money for development.

The Governor pointed out that the States bear more development burden and would require more money to cater to the needs of the people.

“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 for the people,” he said.

The Governor commended the Commission for taking the bold step to correct fraudulent practices adopted by some States in order to gain financial advantage.

He assured that the State would continue to interface with the Commission to make their work easy. Governor Wike reiterated his determination to deploy all resources received for the development of the State.

Leader of the delegation, Alhaji Mohammed Kabiru Usman said they were on an advocacy and sensitisation tour to the State. He said their 2018 verification exercise was characterised by fraud because some data supplied by some states were very spurious.

According to him, such over inflated figures were to make those states get money that they do not deserve and deny others. Alhaji Usman said the visit would afford them the time to sensitise the relevant financial officers in the State on the importance of providing correct data to the commission.