The Rivers State government may be expecting as much as N50 billion as windfall from the Soku oil field which it has just won back from Bayelsa State.
The government hopes that the proceeds from the field, including the accrued refunds over the years, would bolster its revenue projections for 2020.
Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday ruled that the disputed Soku Oil Wells/Fields located in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area belong to Rivers rather than Bayelsa State. The judge said the court reached this conclusion after examining all the documents from relevant government agencies and facts before the court.
“Yesterday, we won back the Soku field, which was illegally ceded to Bayelsa State by the Federal Government and the proceeds from this field, including the accrued refunds over the years, will additionally bolster our revenue projections for 2020,” Wike said while presenting the state’s 2020 budget on Tuesday.
The state government projected an income of N530bn in the 2020 budget, an increase of N50bn from N480bn in 2019.
Sources said Rivers State may be expecting a refund of N50bn given that the amount in the escrow account from 1999 to 2004 was N7bn and from 2005 to 2014 was N17bn, totalling N24bn. They now expect it to have yielded another N26bn, making a total of about N50bn.
“From July 2004, the Revenue Commission officially attributed the Oluasiri (Soku) Oil well to Bayelsa State and the amount of N7,292,218,892 was subsequently released from the ESCROW account to Bayelsa State on 19th March 2007 during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo,” according to a 2014 statement from Bayelsa State.
In the meantime, camps of the two bitterest rivals in the state, Wike and Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, have continued to claim credit for each leader for the victory over Soku oil wells.
BusinessDay gathered that as governor of Rivers State between 1999 and 2007, Peter Odili initiated the Soku oil wells court case over change of boundary; Amaechi, who came after him, continued but in a new direction (over moving N17bn in escrow account to Bayelsa), and Wike ended the case by asking the Federal High Court for declarative order over the boundary and the money.
Amaechi’s supporters, however, say Wike was supportive of those who took the oil wells and the money at a time Amaechi was fighting against them, saying it is Amaechi who has been vindicated. But Wike’s supporters have rolled out the drums singing the governor’s praises for bringing back their oil wells.
The application for a refund of N17.4bn was made during the administration of President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, on the reconciliation on Nimbe South oil field in Bayelsa State and was found by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to be true.
The Amaechi government had fumed at that time that by diverting the funds in the escrow account, Rivers State may not get the money back because, according to the then governor, the escrow account held the funds for the eventual winner but that had been wiped off. His fear was that winning the case as the state has just won could be mere academic exercise because there would be no money in the account for Rivers State to take, except future accruals.
“Why would the accruals from the disputed wells which have been kept in escrow all these years to await the final resolution of the matter be suddenly paid to Bayelsa State? Why rely on an Administrative Map whose authors have acknowledged its inaccuracy and promised to remedy? Is it not unjust, even highly immoral, to allow a party to a disputed oil well to be drawing proceeds from the oil well when the matter is the subject of a dispute at the Supreme Court?” Amaechi’s press secretary then had asked.
It appears the next battle would shift to how to recover the funds to Rivers State. Sources say it may come in form of monthly deductions from Bayelsa allocations (13 percent) for many years.
IGNATIUS CHUKWU, Port Harcourt
