Wednesday, July 30, 2008

How Abia loses revenue to Rivers, by Orji
From Gordi Udeajah, Umuahia

ABIA State Governor Theodore Orji has declared that Rivers State reaps from oil wells that belonged to his state.

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The development, Orji said, was enabled by the artificial boundaries created by previous verification committee. He, therefore, called on the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to address the matter.

The governor spoke on Monday when members of the RMAFC Gas Monitoring Committee (GMC) visited him in Umuahia.

Orji lamented that while other states of the Niger Delta control their oil wells and reap the full benefits of the 13 per cent derivation, Abia had been denied its share such that 'our derivation till date is being shared 50-50 with Rivers State."

Describing the GMC as made up of experts that can verify his claims and resolve the issue, Orji told the panel led by Emmanuel Nsa that "the resolution of the dispute will pave way for the effective verification of Abia State gas reserve because those 22 oil wells produce associated gas."

According to him, between December 2007 and March 2008, Abia submitted two memoranda to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and the Chairman of RMAFC on the anomalies of the 2006 verification exercise and the delay in its implementation. He said that he was also aware that the President directed the RMAFC to resolve the issue, hence he awaited the agency's implementation of the presidential order.

Orji said: "I wish to state here without equivocation that the boundary dispute involving Abia State oil wells is purely artificial. It exists only in the offices at Abuja. We know what belongs to us and that it has never been in dispute.

"One action of the authorities which has greatly hindered our development is the classification of the oil wells in the entire Old Imo State as 'undecided' while those that were decided were ceded to Rivers State. We have been fighting this injustice for a long time and I am glad they are beginning to listen to us."

At the onset, the location of an oil wells in any part of the country, he said, was not associated with any boundary dispute nor unhealthy politicking because oil was in the exclusive list in the Nigerian Constitution and does not attract any derivation payment to the host region or state.

Earlier, Nsa said that his team was in the state to verify the production levels, type of gas produced, quantities of associated and non-associated gas as well as its contribution to the Federation Account.

He added that this afford the GMC the opportunity to ensure justice, equity and fairness to all beneficiary states in respect of the 13 per cent derivation of the gas produced by them as directed by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court in 2002 in the suit involving Attorney-General of Abia State and 35 Ors on Resource Control, directed that revenues from gas be separated from that of crude oil in the Federation Account.