Gov. Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa says the state
has no interest in taking over parts of Rivers surrounding the disputed
Soku oilfields as erroneously perceived.
Rivers and Bayelsa
governments had been in dispute over Soku oilfields located at the boundary of
both states with Rivers government filing a suit at the Federal High Court
Abuja Division.
It would be recalled
that Bayelsa was created out of Rivers on Oct. 1, 1996 by Late Gen. Sani
Abacha.
Justice Inyang Ekwo
had declared that the disputed Soku oil wells/fields belonged to Rivers and was
ceded to Bayelsa due to an error in the 11th edition of the Administrative Map
of Nigeria by the National Boundary Commission (NBC).
He, on December
17, ordered the NBC to rectify the error in the 12th Edition of the
Administrative Map of Nigeria and the erroneous inter-state boundary between
the two states as contained in the 11th Edition of the map be corrected.
Dickson spoke while
reacting to the Federal High Court judgment ceding the Soku oil wells to Rivers
in a radio broadcast on Saturday night monitored c in Yenagoa.
Dickson noted that the
dispute over the Soku oilfields had lingered for several decades across
different administrations and had been managed in such a way that both states
currently shared the oil derivation proceeds equally.
Dickson said
there was ongoing efforts to amicably resolve the dispute but regretted
that Rivers government pulled out of the boundary delineation exercise and returned
to court.
“The dispute around
the oil wells is not essentially about boundary, the Soku area is a Kalabari
community in Rivers and the Oluasiri area is in Nembe, Bayelsa.
“The Supreme court had
ruled that the claims to the oilfield by Rivers government has no merit and
ordered the National Boundaries Commission to delineate the boundary and both
states started the process but Rivers pulled out.
“We were not joined in
the suit and they got a judgment and I have authorised the Attorney- General to
challenge the judgment which runs contrary to a ruling of the Supreme court.
“The disputed oilfield
is in Ijaw land and as a pan Ijaw leader, I am more interested in the
unity of our people and we should not allow the dispute to divide us,
unfortunately I have no partner on this in my Rivers counterpart.
“I want the Kalabari
people in Rivers to know that we are not after their land, Soku is in Rivers,
but the produce from oil wells in Oluasiri area should be credited to Bayelsa,
we have had skirmishes in the past and resolved it,” Dickson said.
On the allegations
made by Gov. Nyisom Wike that Dickson was sowing the seed of discord in Rivers,
Dickson described the claims as childish, saying that he does not require
permission from Wike to visit Ijaws in Rivers.
Wike had frowned at
and criticizsed a visit to the Amanyanabor of Kalabari by Dickson without
recourse to him as host governor and threatened to sanction the monarch.
“Gov Wike should leave
us alone to grapple with our development challenges, we did not inherit an
airport, seaport and infrastructure as he did, I do not require a permit to
visit Ijaw people in Rivers,” dickson said
On the sack of some
3,000 -opitical appointees, Dickson said his administration was winding up and
had entered a transition phase and hence was cautious of meeting its financial
obligations and hence the decision.
However, Dickson said
he had approved the settlement of the outstanding November salary for the 3,000
appointees which gulped N750 million.
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