The Bayelsa State government says the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is still paying accruals from the contested Soku oil wells to Rivers State contrary to Supreme court order.
The state government implored the commission to comply with the order of the Supreme Court over the disputed Soku oil and gas fields which ownership is a subject of litigation between Bayelsa and Rivers States.
Governor Douye Diri,who spoke during a visit to him by a fact-finding team from the federal agency in Government House, Yenagoa, on Thursday,said that the apex court had given an order for proper demarcation of the boundary between the two states as a decisive step to resolve the impasse.
He was represented by his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo.
Diri suggested that for the sake of equity and justice, the accruals should be saved in an escrow account pending the final resolution of the matter.
He also recalled that the Bayelsa State government had since secured a judgement against the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), which was yet to be implemented by the commission.
Calling on the RMAFC to strictly apply the right indices for revenue allocation and distribution, the governor stated that the commission needed to be more circumspect in taking decisions in respect of revenue disputes between states in the country.
He maintained that the present revenue distribution formula did not meet the development needs of Nigeria as a Republic with 36 federating units, and charged the commission to demonstrate integrity and competence in ensuring that the right thing was done.
He said: “For us in Bayelsa, the indices being applied and used for revenue distribution are not correct but skewed against us. Your duty as revenue allocation commission is quite a big responsibility to ensure the application of the right indices.An issue I want to speak about briefly here is the RMAFC’s hasty decisions on revenue disputes between states. We have an issue with the Rivers State Government over the disputed Soku oil wells. While the matter is yet to be resolved, we expect the accruals to be paid into an escrow account.
“There is a subsisting Supreme Court judgement on the matter. The Supreme Court said go and demarcate the boundary. While that has not been done, the Rivers State Government is relying on a lower court judgement on same issue to get all the revenues from the assets.
“In another instance, the Bayelsa State Government got a favourable judgement against the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), for which we expected the RMAFC to also give us our money but it had not complied.”
