Akwa Ibom leaders, under the aegis of Ibom Leaders Vanguard, have condemned what they called “massive oil revenue theft” by the federal government against states in the Niger Delta.
Leader of the group, Sen. Anietie Okon, flanked by Sen. Emmanuel Ibokessien, Prof. Emmanuel Onwioduokit, while addressing the press on Thursday, lamented that the accurate revenue accruing to the Niger Delta were not duly remitted to them.
Okon said from 2016, Akwa Ibom alone was being owned the value of 350,000 barrels per day from different oil production fields in the state.
According to him, “There is a massive oil revenue theft in the Niger Delta, and the so-called reform is unacceptable and does not meet the simple logic of reforms, and as I speak today, Akwa Ibom state is being owed 350,000 per day in 2016 from some of its oil production fields.’’
Okon however called on the World Bank and the United Nations to advise the federal government on the revenue generating abilities of the region, regretting that the improper remittances have deprived the state of the needed funds for development.
“We resolve as elders and leaders of the generations of peace loving people to demand the World Bank, the United Nations and other established economic capacity agencies to advise the APC led government on the effect of destroying the revenue generating abilities of the Niger Delta and its threat to world oil production.
“Again, we must place on record the enormous volume of oil stolen from our region thereby depriving the state of the needed revenue to finance development, It is time for every Nigerian that values decency and progress to speak up,” he said.
Okon also called for true federalism, where each state would be responsible for its own growth and development with the available resources, saying that the problem of shortchanging of some states wouldn’t have come up if Nigeria was practising true Federalism.
“All we are saying which is also the battle cry of our presidential candidate – Atiku Abubakar is that we must return to the realm of true federalism where states would be responsible for their own growth and development from their own resources,” he said.
He further called for a proper rendition of the account by the Department of Petroleum Resources.
His words, “We want the oil production and the Department of Petroleum Resources to publish the actual production from each fields especially Atana and other fields and we are asking that the accounting from the gas sales be made known”
He also alleged that the deployment of certain security personnel to the state to head SARS was done at the instance of Senator Godswill Akpabio to prosecute his Warsaw-saw-war agenda.
The group therefore called on the federal government and relevant authorities to take urgent steps to avoid the return of the evil days in the state.
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