AMAECHI: A FEW REASONS WHY I DUMPED GEJ AND PDP 1) Our demand that the federal government return oil wells belonging to Rivers State to us has gone unheeded and been treated with levity under this administration. Rather, our oil wells have been ceded to Bayelsa, Abia and Akwa Ibom states. Even after we got a judgment that the oil wells were wrongly ceded to Akwa Ibom state and should be returned to us, only dry wells that were no longer producing oil were returned. In the specific case of the Soku oil wells, despite a decision reached that the monies should remain in an escrow account till all matters concerning it are resolved, the federal government continues to pay neighbouring Bayelsa state the revenues meant for Rivers State in a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is indeed noteworthy that we have made several representations formally and informally on this matter. Our chiefs and elders have attended several meetings and protested this injustice to no avail. As your governor entrusted to keep guard over your common wealth, we could not keep quiet and allow this grave injustice. For this reason, we have been vilified, threatened and blackmailed but we insist on discharging our responsibility to you, no matter the odds. 2) A second instance is the total absence of federal presence in Rivers State. The national good governance tour provided a good opportunity for the Federal Government to showcase its presence in Rivers State. The tour, if nothing else, was evident that there was not much to show for in a state that is the cash cow of the federation. The East west road remains abandoned, work has been deliberately slow on the Port Harcourt International Airport, the third busiest airport in the country, while all airports started along with it have long been completed and commissioned. The Bonny-Bomu road that leads to the only functional liquefied natural gas project remains uncompleted. In the midst of all these, our administration went ahead to fix federal roads to the tune of N103 billion. Several representations and letters after, not one kobo has been repaid. 3) The federal government is actively discouraging investments in Rivers State. The Minister of petroleum has refused to allow the commencement of train seven of the NLNG that would have provided tens of thousands of jobs insisting that investors should go and invest in the Brass NLNG project rather than in the train seven project. 4) When boards and other appointments are considered at the federal level, Rivers State is treated with levity. Out of xxx councils of universities, no Rivers person was found worthy of becoming a university council chairman.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 01:07:50 +0000
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