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| Gov Dickson |
Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has accused the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, of misleading his Rivers people by refusing to tell them the truth about the ownership of the Soku oil fields.
Dickson said contrary to the impression being created by Amaechi, the Rivers State Government had received about N120 billion revenue illegally from the field in the past few years to the detriment of Bayelsa State.
The governor said this in Yenagoa, while inaugurating a 14-member State Boundary Committee headed by his deputy, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah (rtd), at the Government House, Yenagoa.
He said: “Since my counterpart in Rivers State has made it a communal affair, I believe that he will help us at this point to tell the people of Rivers State, and particularly the people of Kalabari kingdom, whom he claimed he is fighting for the basis of our recent claims that the government of Rivers State in the past couple of years has wrongly received about N120 billion that shouldn’t have been paid to state.
He added that “I hope he will also tell the government and the people of Rivers State and particularly the Kalabari people about the refund that was contentiously agreed and effected in favour of Rivers State to the tune of about N15 or N16 billion thereabout, which he got about a month ago.”
Continuing, he said: “I want to therefore use this opportunity to call on our law abiding people, the Nembe clan and Kalabari kingdom, both of whom are Ijaw people not to allow the unity of the ijaw nation to be affected by the antics of people who want to play politics with anything and everything. I want to assure you all that we have existing structures to resolve our differences.”
Dickson said the boundary issues were sensitive matters and urged the Rivers State Government to allow the appropriate federal agency responsible for proper delineation to determine the boundary between the Kalabari people of Soku and Oluasiri in Nembe.
He stated that it was wrong for the Rivers State Government to be making unnecessary claims despite ongoing meeting and resolution over the years involving derivation from states with complaints.
He stated that the N15 billion paid to Bayelsa State recently was a justified payment from its oil revenue and called on the people of Kalabari and Nembe not allow themselves be drawn against each other over the matter that is receiving attention at the federal level.
Dickson noted that the two clans are both of ijaw extraction and should not be seen engaging in communal clashes.
While charging the state Boundary Committee to sensitise the communities involved not to take laws into their hands, Dickson urged them to follow the laid down rules in resolving the disputes.
Source: This Day
********More and More talk about this Oil Dispute*** we are watching closely....
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