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New Page 19
Olu of Warri dares Ibori
•Account for N240bn allocations
•13% derivation too
SEGUN JAMES, Warri
IN a rare
outburst, the Olu of Warri, Delta State, Ogiame Atuwatse II yesterday challenged
Gov. James Ibori to render account of how he has been spending an estimated N240
billion total statutory allocations to the state in the past five years of the
administration.
The monarch also asked the governor to
account for the 13 per cent derivation funds accruing to the state from the
Federation Account.
The Olu said the Gov. collects over N4
billion monthly as the state’s statutory revenue share from the same Federation
Account.
Going by the royal father’s assertion, the
leading oil producing state would be pocketing about N48 billion as statutory
allocation alone, and in five years of the administration, the amount would be
about N240 billion.
The monarch threw the challenge in his
palace while receiving the new British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Richard
Gozney, yesterday.
The royal father lamented that the state
government had nothing to show for all the money it collects, even though Delta
is the highest oil producing state.
The Olu said the situation was
particularly painful given the fact that the bulk of the revenue accruable to
the state comes from oil produced from the three Warri local government areas
and Burutu.
He said it was in the light of this that
he requested Britain through its companies operating in the state, most
especially Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to reclaim land which had
been lost to erosion and the activities of oil production.
He told the High Commissioner that the
people of the oil producing and bearing areas are not interested in collecting
money which only gets in a few individuals, but are interested in developmental
projects which ultimately benefit the generality of people.
Based on this, the royal father condemned
Shell’s decision to take its logistics base to the Snake Island, Lagos, when it
could be located anywhere in the Niger Delta, the area, he noted, that actually
produces the oil which is the main hub of the country’s economy.
Responding, Mr. Gozney said his home
government was aware of the level of poverty in the Niger Delta, even though it
is the main revenue earning area for the country.
He said as part of the British
Government’s initiative, its Department for International Development (DFID) is
to concentrate on poverty alleviation programmes in Nigeria.
"This area (Niger Delta) has a lot of
money underground, but it also has a lot of poverty. The British government is
making its contribution to reducing poverty in the region," he said.
In order to achieve the aim, the High
Commissioner, who was accompanied by Mr. William Kingsmill, Head, DFID, said
that his government is now working closely with the Delta and Rivers state
governments to achieve the objective.
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