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Northern governors won't drop case against oil law, says Aliero
From Mohammed Abubakar, Abuja
NORTHERN governors are not ready to accept pleas by some Nigerians to drop their suit against the onshore/offshore oil law. Instead, the governors have vowed to stick to a judicial interpretation of the statute by the Supreme Court.
The Kebbi State Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Adamu Aliero, who spoke on the suit now at the Supreme Court, declared that the oil law would make northern states poorer if implemented.
Aliero told journalists in Abuja that "most northern states would be crippled to the extent that they might not be in a position to pay salaries because every state in the North will loose over N150 million monthly under the new law."
Justifying the recourse of the governors to seek the Supreme Court's interpretation of the law, Aliero said leaders believed the onshore/offshore dichotomy abrogation law would not favour their states.
He cleared lawmakers from the region of any wrongdoing in the passage of the law. His words: "We are in a constitutional democracy whereby we have to obey the laws of the land and the supreme law of the land is the constitution. The Supreme Court has given a judgment and we expect that the judgment be obeyed by all including the Federal Government and we feel very strongly that the law passed by the National Assembly was against the constitution and against the Supreme Court judgment. We felt we needed to go back to the apex court to get this matter sorted out once and for all.
"It is not good that we continue to breach the constitution and the laws of the country and since we feel we are practising democracy which has the rule of law as its major feature, the best way is that, if you are aggrieved, you should go to the court, let the court settle the dispute. That is exactly what the Federal Government did when it went to the Supreme Court to get judgment on the onshore/offshore dichotomy," Aliero said.
The governor expressed surprise that the same government sent a bill to the National Assembly contravening the very judgment that was given in its favour, adding: "We found this very contradictory and we felt that something was amiss and we needed an interpretation by the Supreme Court. We felt it is our right constitutionally and legally to seek the Supreme Court's interpretation and there is nothing wrong with that. We feel it will even strengthen democracy and make it more durable in this country. It is not good just grumbling here and there, when there is an avenue to seek redress if you feel aggrieved."
"In this case, the northern governors are not happy with that law and we feel we should challenge it in the apex court and let it (the court) make a definite pronouncement on it, if we fail, well and good, if we succeed, of course, we expect compliance from the appropriate quarters."
Reminded that there were lawmakers from the North in the National Assembly when the law was passed, the governor said they were not legislators of northern Nigeria, but the lawmakers of the whole country. "They are not northern lawmakers, they are members of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and they make laws for the entire country and we feel that the law they made is not in the best interest of our states, and we feel they are contradicting the constitution of Nigeria and also the Supreme Court judgment on onshore/offshore suit filed by the Federal Government and we feel the best way to get redress is to go back to the court since the whole problem started from the court."
Aliero, who also spoke on the allegation of corruption against some governors, described it as a campaign of calumny against them. "We take this very seriously, we have discussed this at the Governors' Forum, we are very much concerned, we feel it is a campaign of calumny embarked upon by whoever is making that kind of statement. We condemned it in very strong terms.
"If there is any particular governor they suspect, they should mention the name, the amount he has taken if he has a bank account abroad, they should mention that account, if he cannot explain it, let them take a legal action against such a person even after leaving office, so that he could be prosecuted. But I believe very strongly that the majority of governors are honest, sincere and hardworking, so I find the statement as very unfair to the governors, many of whom are sincere, honest and hardworking."`
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