Rivers vs Bayelsa: Oil well ownership or polics?

There appears to be no end to the imbroglio between Rivers and Bayelsa states over the disputed Soku oil wells. Despite the directive given by president Goodluck Jonathan that the two warring governors should exercise restraints in their media engagement over the disputed oil wells.   President Jonathan, through his spokesman Ruben Abati, directed the […]

There appears to be no end to the imbroglio between Rivers and Bayelsa states over the disputed Soku oil wells. Despite the directive given by president Goodluck Jonathan that the two warring governors should exercise restraints in their media engagement over the disputed oil wells.

 

President Jonathan, through his spokesman Ruben Abati, directed the feuding governors to stop the media war between them. The presidential spokesman said in the statement that in view of the peace process initiated by President Jonathan, both states should desist from comments capable of disrupting amicable resolution to the matter. ‘’President  Jonathan therefore requests the governors of both states to facilitate and help to create the right atmosphere for the successful conclusion of the peace process by ordering an immediate stoppage of all acrimonious public comments against each other over the dispute,’’ the statement said.

But less than four hours after that statement was issued, Amaechi released the salvo. In a well attended press conference in Port Harcourt Monday, the governor said he suspected that the recent allocation of oil wells belonging to Rivers state to other states has links to reports that he intended to contest as president in 2015. The governor who denied having interest in contesting the 2015 presidential election, urged those who he said he may be using the oil wells to get at him to note that he is not interested in running for the position. The governor said the oil wells given to Bayelsa belong to all the people of the state and should not be used as political weapon against him.

Amaechi said as part of the gimmicks by those he described as his political enemies to emasculate the state, another 46 oil wells belonging to the state have been ceded to Abia State. “ I am talking to you now, they have taken 46 0il wells belonging to Rivers State to Abia. Bayelsa government wrote for another 71 oil wells and you know where they are asking for boundary is Abonnema town. So, I want to ask: ‘what is my sin?’ Everybody knows the boundary between Degema and Brass. They said they made a mistake, then we told them to go back and correct the mistake.’’ Amaechi lamented.

In Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson claimed that Amaechi is economical with the truth, that he should be bold enough to tell the people of Rivers the true position about the disputed oil wells. Dickson denied that N17billion was paid to his state by the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Allocation Committee (RMFAC), but accused Amaechi of collecting N120billion belonging to Bayelsa State from the same disputed oil wells.

He reminded the Kalabari’s that despite the disputed oil war, they are still Ijaw people and as such should not go to war with their kiths and kin, adding that both Brass and Kalabari   belong to one indivisible Ijaw ethnic group and should see themselves as brothers and sisters.

The chiefs and community leaders of Kalabari kingdom had last week taken to the streets of Port Harcourt in protest against  what they called a calculated attempt by the Bayelsa State government to cede ten of their oil wells.  The protesters had in a 13-page protest letter presented to Rivers State Deputy Governor said  ‘’the plank of the petition is essentially to protest against the malicious , myopic and selfish interest of certain well placed officials to willfully balkanize and excise virtually all oil and gas bearing communities of Kalabari kingdom which include but  not limited to Kula, Soku, Elem Sangama, Idama and Abissa and all their fishing settlements which from time immemorial have been in Kalabari communities in Rivers State with which they share common linguistic, cultural and ancestral consanguinity’’.

The Kalabari leaders are in a unanimous    that they will not give an inch of their god given natural resource and ancestral heritage to another state.

The imbroglio has continued to elicit comments and reactions from concern stakeholders. The Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN) in the state has earlier charged the state governor on the need to be proactive and expedite action on the best approach to use to stop any part of the state from being taken by any state under any guise.

The party said Rivers State government should take a cue and ensure that “this all important ceding of part of its territory to sister Bayelsa is handled with dispatch’’, adding that the dispute has been on for years without the state government raising alarm. It argued that the case of this nature call for both legal and political approaches and blamed the Governor Amaechi-led government for not exploring all the necessary avenues before rushing to the supreme.

The party, however, called on the state governor to prevail on President Jonathan to use his good office to ensure that the cordial brotherly relationship that had existed between the sister states does not nosedive.

for Ankio Briggs and Ken Asuete both Niger Delta human right crusaders, the disputed oil wells should be handled with caution as not to bring bad blood between the two states. The duo believed that both Rivers and Bayelsa States had enjoyed a long standing relationship, but cautioned that the issue at stake should not be trivialized.