AKSG Press Release on Uyo Mayhem: Governor Akpabio Addresses Akwa Ibom State

By Aniekan Umanah
Hon. Commissioner, Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Information & Social Re-Orientation

AKSG PRESS RELEASE (Posted: March 24, 2011)

A STATE BROADCAST BY THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF AKWA IBOM STATE, HIS EXCELLENCY CHIEF GODSWILL OBOT AKPABIO MADE ON THE 23RD DAY OF MARCH, 2011

My dear people of Akwa Ibom State, I speak today in defense of democracy, peace and the lives and properties of the good people of our state. Yesterday, some miscreants, from outside our state, who were identified as members and/or supporters of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) visited premeditated untold mayhem on the cities of Ikot Ekpene and Uyo.

We are still appraising the human and material toll of the unprovoked attack on our dear state and our people. Suffice it however to inform you that many Government assets were destroyed including buildings, over 500 brand new tricycles and over 200 brand new cars which were parked at the Idongesit Nkanga Secretariat at the time of the incident. With a profound sense of shock I extend our profound sympathies to the families and friends of the two persons who died at Uyo, and the two who died at Ikot Ekpene at the hands of those hoodlums.

It is instructive that the hoodlums and their sponsors in the ACN singled out the properties of the PDP and its supporters for destruction. In particular, Fortune School, one of the frontline secondary schools in the state, owned by a PDP Senator � Alloysius Etok � as well as the President Goodluck Jonathan State Campaign office, both located in Uyo, were completely burnt down.

No responsible Government can condone such lawlessness and wanton destruction of lives and properties. We commend the security agencies who have so far made 37 arrests and swiftly acted to bring the situation under control. We have directed that the arrested persons be charged to court immediately, while the search for their accomplices continues. We are fully resolved to bring to justice all those who participated in the perpetration of the heinous crime against our dear state and our people. The law as we know is no respecter of persons, and all those who collaborated, sponsored or were complicit in these attacks would be docked for trial no matter how highly placed they are or no matter who they think they are in the society.

We particularly commend the members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for their maturity and restraint in the face of this provocation. Two wrongs, they say, do not make a right and we believe that the toll would have been higher if the PDP and other political parties were to react in similar manner by taking the laws into their hands in a bid to avenge whatever injuries they felt.

We enjoin all political parties to note that you cannot maim and kill the very people you aspire to rule or the very people you aspire to represent. When you sponsor thugs to break the law then you are forgetting that the ultimate aim of any political ambition is to protect the law. By this action the perpetrators and their sponsors have compromised their eligibility to hold any office of public trust. Every aspiration should be pursued within the context of the rule of law. The respect for the lives and properties of our citizenry should take precedence over all personal ambition. Let members of all political parties therefore conduct themselves in a manner which would allow for peaceful conduct of campaigns and peaceful conduct of the elections. They should also toe the path of peace and honor and respect the fundamental human rights of all citizens even if those citizens are not in their political parties.

We assure the good people of our dear state that this situation has been brought under control, and all law-abiding citizens of our state can rest assured that all necessary measures have been put in place to prevent a reoccurrence of this senseless attack on our lives, properties, democracy and peace as a whole. We have placed the relevant security agencies on high alert and charged them to confront any future act of violence with maximum force.

Let me seize this opportunity to also comment on the contentious issue of the Supreme Court judgment, which ceded 86 of our oil wells to Rivers State. At the advent of this administration we wrote to President Umaru Yar�Adua to protest the injustice of the so-called political solution which had no basis in law and purportedly transferred some of our oil wells to Rivers State. The President referred the petition to a committee of government agencies consisting of the National Boundary Commission, Office of the Surveyor General of the federation, the Department of Petroleum Resources and the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission for necessary action. On the bases of law and technical consideration, these agencies determined that those oil wells should be returned to the original owners, being Akwa Ibom State. Of course Rivers State went to court to challenge the return of the oil wells to Akwa Ibom State.

There have been media reports, which have been deeply troubling to Akwa Ibom people and speculate that under the terms of the recent judgment which ceded 86 of our oil wells to Rivers State, we are supposed to pay Rivers State a whopping N350 billion (revenue and interests inclusive). This, to me, is outrageous, regrettable and totally false. It should be stressed that during the period under consideration (April 2009 to date), we did not earn up to N350 billion from the over 980 oil wells currently attributed to Akwa Ibom State. The media report is misleading. The media report is unfortunate. That Akwa Ibom should refund N350 billion on account of only 86 oil wells is extremely misleading and laughable.

According to the judgment, we are owing Rivers revenue we collected between April 2009 and February 2011, a period of 22 months- of course the revenue is said to be only from the 86 oil wells; whereas Rivers State Government is owing us revenue they collected arbitrarily from January, 2005 to March, 2009 a period of 40 months.

For the avoidance of doubt, even if this judgment were to subsist, it is Rivers State Government which would be obligated to make refunds to Akwa Ibom State after the reconciliation of accounts. This is because when the political solution referred to by the eminent judges of the Supreme Court was brokered in 2006 by the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, revenue from the 172 oil wells earlier arbitrarily taken from Akwa Ibom State by Rivers State were to be shared on a fifty-fifty basis between both states as from 2005. However, Rivers State kept the 172 oil wells and collected all the revenue therefrom and all the revenue that accrued from the 172 oil wells from January, 2005 to March, 2009.

We have carefully studied the judgment and we are convinced that the judgment was given in error, and we have accordingly filed for a review of that judgment. I, therefore, urge all citizens of Akwa Ibom State to remain calm and not be taken in by sensational media reports which have tended to confuse issues.

I must emphasize that Akwa Ibom people continually pray for God�s grace upon the government and the good people of Rivers State and the issue of oil wells shall never be allowed to affect our brotherliness.

I thank you for your kind support and invite your prayers for a peaceful election come April, 2011. God bless Akwa Ibom people and the State.