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Tag: Gov. Douye Diri

  • Obey Supreme Court order, Bayelsa Govt urges RMAFC

    Obey Supreme Court order, Bayelsa Govt urges RMAFC

    The Bayelsa Government has urged the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to obey the Supreme Court order over the disputed Soku oil and gas fields, which ownership is in contention between Bayelsa and Rivers States.

    Gov. Douye Diri made the call on Thursday when he received a fact-finding team from the federal agency in Government House, Yenagoa.

    Newsmen reports that the governor, who was represented by his Deputy, Mr Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, said the apex court had given an order for proper demarcation of the boundary between the two states as decisive step to resolve the impasse.

    He lamented that while the National Boundaries Commission is yet to implement the order, the RMAFC decided to be paying accruals from the disputed Soku oil wells to Rivers State following a later judgement by a lower court on the same issue.

    The governor said, for the sake of equity and justice, the accruals should be saved in an escrow account pending the final resolution of the matter.

    He also recalled that the Bayelsa State Government had since secured a judgement against the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) which is yet to be implemented by the Commission.

    Diri, who charged the RMAFC to strictly apply the right indices for revenue allocation and distribution, said the Commission needed to be more circumspect in taking decisions in respect of revenue disputes between states in the country.

    According to him, the present revenue distribution formula does not meet the development needs of Nigeria as a Republic with 36 federating units, and called on the Commission to display integrity and competence in ensuring that the right thing is done.

    His words: “For us in Bayelsa, the indices being applied and used for revenue distribution are not correct, but skewed against us. Your duty as revenue allocation commission is quite a big responsibility to ensure the application of the right indices.

    “An issue I want to speak about briefly here is the RMAFC’s hasty decisions on revenue disputes between states.
    “We have an issue with the Rivers State Government over the disputed Soku oil wells. While the matter is yet to be resolved, we expect the accruals to be paid into an escrow account.

    “There is subsisting Supreme Court judgement on the matter. The Supreme Court said go and demarcate the boundary.

    “While that has not been done, the Rivers State Government is relying on a lower court judgement on same issue to get all the revenues from the assets.

    “In another instance, the Bayelsa State Government got a favourable judgement against the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), for which we expected the RMAFC to also give us our money but it had not complied,” he said.

    Speaking earlier, the Leader of the RMAFC delegation, Mr Andrew Agbaga, said the 12-member team was part of the Indices and Distribution Committee of the Commission, which is currently visiting all the states in the country.

    Agbaga, who is the Federal Commissioner representing Delta State at the Commission, disclosed that their assignment in the state was to verify whether what is approved and distributed by RMAFC is what actually gets to the states and local government areas.

    He said another justification for the visit was to see if the indices being used for revenue disbursement were in conformity with approved principles.

  • Odioma Crisis: Bayelsa Govt. reads riot act to Council of Chiefs, sets up 6-man committee

    Odioma Crisis: Bayelsa Govt. reads riot act to Council of Chiefs, sets up 6-man committee

    The Bayelsa Government has given members of the Odioma Council of Chiefs in Brass Local Government Area (LGA), the option to either withdraw their membership of political parties or resign outright from the traditional leadership council.

    This is even as the state government constitutes a six-man peace and reconciliation committee to look into the immediate and remote causes of the communal unrest and insecurity threatening the peace of Odioma community.

    Gov. Douye Diri, of Bayelsa gave the order on Tuesday at an enlarged meeting with the chairman and members of the Odioma Council of Chiefs and other critical stakeholders of Odioma in Government House, Yenagoa.

    Newsmen reports that the governor, represented by his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, said his administration would not tolerate the breakdown of law and order in Odioma or any other community in the state.

    He advised them to live together in peace and avoid actions capable of causing a recurrence of the 2005 experience in which Federal military troops invaded and destroyed Odioma.

    He stressed the need for Odioma Chiefs to remain apolitical and more proactive in addressing critical communal issues.

    He therefore warned that henceforth, members of the Odioma Council of Chiefs who belong to any political party should either resign from the council or withdraw their political party membership to enable them to lead the people without divided interests.

    His said: “Under our watch, we cannot allow history to repeat itself at Odioma, because we all witnessed what happened there in 2005. We want to avoid a recurrence of that.

    “For now the Police would remain there until we have resolved all the major issues. Secondly, the council of chiefs must be more proactive and live up to your responsibilities.

    “As chiefs, you should drop your party membership card the moment you are elected a chief, because they are irreconcilable.

    “So I want you the chiefs to know this: Once you are a member of the council, quit the political parties.
    “As you are leaving here, PDP members go and resign your PDP membership; likewise APC members go and resign your APC membership. If you are not ready to do that, then resign from the council,” he said.

    The six-man Odioma Peace and Reconciliation Committee has the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Biriyai Dambo (SAN), as Chairman, while the Special Adviser to the governor on Security Matters, CP Akpoebi Agberebi (Rtd) is to serve as Secretary.

    Other members of the Committee are the Member representing Brass Constituency 2 at the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Hon. Timi Omubo-Agala; the Technical Adviser on Conflict Resolution, Chief Boma Spero-Jack; the Commissioner of Police, CP Ben Nebolisa Okolo, and the state director of DSS.

    The Committee has one month to complete its assignment.

  • Floods: Stop disturbing FG, deploy ecological funds to help victims, Kpodoh advises Gov. Diri

    Floods: Stop disturbing FG, deploy ecological funds to help victims, Kpodoh advises Gov. Diri

    A former Security Adviser to Bayelsa Government, Chief Perekeme Kpodoh, has called on Gov. Douye Diri to deploy ecological funds that accrued to the state to help flood victims.

    Kpodoh, in a statement in Yenagoa on Thursday, said it was time for Diri to use the billions of naira he had so far collected as ecological funds to mitigate the damage done by the floods, to sufficiently ameliorate the sufferings of the people.

    He described as unacceptable the repeated calls by Diri for Federal Government’s help, saying the governor should first show capacity with the resources in his disposal.

    “People should hold Gov. Douye Diri responsible and compel him to account for all the money he had received so far as ecological funds. Such money is meant for a time like this. It is not sufficient to be crying wolf and seeking external assistance. What have you done with the resources available to you?

    “Diri’s intervention was belated and insufficient. There were warnings that Bayelsa and some other states would be flooded. However, the governor went about his business without making provisions to mitigate the floods.

    “Nothing was done. All the drains were not cleared. People were not sensitised and prepared to face the disaster. No higher grounds were built. We saw how the Kaduna State Government prepared its citizens before the floods.

    “We also saw how the Rivers State Gov. Nyesom Wike immediately set up a taskforce and released N1bn for only four local government areas affected by the floods.

    “The Bayelsa State Governor waited until the floods overtook the entire state and killed helpless people before he released paltry N450m for relief materials” , Kpodoh alleged.

    Kpodoh said that the governor embarrassed Bayelsa following a viral video of people he sent to distribute relief materials and who dished one cup each of rice, beans and garri to the suffering and traumatised flood victims.

    “We saw that video and we were embarrassed. It was unimaginable that an oil-rich state such as Bayelsa would deepen the pains of its traumatised citizens in the time of disaster”, he said.

    Kpodoh said Diri’s capacity in governance had been tested by the flood disaster but expressed regrets that the governor had “failed woefully by playing to the gallery and presenting himself to the world as a helpless weeping child“.

    He said the governor, through his poor leadership style bungled a great opportunity presented by the floods to redeem his image.

    He advised the governor to bury any thought of seeking re-election.

    Newsmen reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed relevant agencies of the Federal Government to respond to the flood incidents which, according to Diri, had displaced about one million residents.

    Newsmen reports that the Presidential Amnesty Programme and the National Emergency Response Agency have donated relief materials to victims of the flood disaster in Bayelsa.

  • Bayelsa govt denies reported rift between Gov. Diri, ex-Gov. Dickson

    Bayelsa govt denies reported rift between Gov. Diri, ex-Gov. Dickson

    The Bayelsa government, on Thursday denied media reports which said that the relationship between Gov. Douye Diri and his predecessor, Sen Seriake Dickson, had become frosty.

    The Bayelsa Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Ayibaina Duba, stated this in a statement issued in Yenagoa while reacting to the news reports published in some online platforms.

    The government also dismissed claims that Gov. Diri is causing division in the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Duba described the reports as unscrupulous, adding that the insinuation that the governor is ungrateful to those who worked for his victory at the 2019 governorship election is “based on some unverified and bogus assumptions,”

    Newsmen reports that Dickson had, in a statement on Tuesday, dissociated himself from the allegation and pledged his support to Diri.

    The Commissioner said that there was no evidence to sustain the claim of disagreement between Diri and Dickson, stressing that it smacked of ‘beer parlour gossip’.

    Duba said the governor is appreciative of Dickson’s support and has rather been a preacher of peace and unity across the state.

    He explained that Diri has also initiated practical efforts at strengthening and keeping the PDP united and enjoyed a cordial relationship with Dickson.

    He said if anything, it was the author of the misleading and bad-intentioned piece “that seeks to divide the party along the lines of the former APC members and old PDP members.

    Duba said the author also wanted to divide the party along the lines of Diri’s loyalists and Dickson’s loyalists “due to his lack of tact and shallow understanding of party politics and governance.”

    He said, “On the contrary, these two sons of our state have continued to enjoy a harmonious relationship based on mutual respect and in the best interest of our state.

    “The Governor has continued to demonstrate good faith and is appreciative to the fingers of God that were used in making him governor and is eternally grateful to God for his elevation.

    “In the last two years, the Governor has committed to unifying the party by insisting that every party man has equal right.

    “He has also invested a lot of time and energy at bringing back members who defected to other parties and assuaged the concerns of stakeholders, fortifying the party in the process.

    “The governor has also continued to preach peace and unity among our people and succeeded at engineering convivial relationships between the contending political groups and communities in the state.

    “Therefore, how can any discerning person come to the conclusion that the unifying efforts of the governor will divide the party?”

    The Commissioner, therefore, advised the author and his likes not to be unnecessarily over-excited about the ongoing usual political frenzy associated with party nomination.

    He said that Diri would not only continue to work for peace, unity and well-being of Bayelsa but also ensure that party politics is done in the best democratic tradition without the imposition of candidates.