Rivers State Governor, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, Wednesday accused the Amayanabo of Abonnema, King Disrael Gbobo Bob-Manuel, of betraying his people on the position he took on the disputed Soku oil wells.
Bob-Manuel, while receiving Bayelsa State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, in his palace, had expressed satisfaction with the way President Goodluck Jonathan was handling the Soku oil wells' dispute between Rivers and Bayelsa States.
But Amaechi, while featuring on a programme on a Port Harcourt-based radio, TODAY 95.1FM, said he was disappointed with Bob-Manuel's comments. According to him, the response by the monarch conflicted with his government's efforts and Kalabari people's desire to ensure that resources of the state were not handed over to other states.
He said: "There is an attempt by the federal government to undermine the development of Rivers State. I did enumerate the fact that everybody is talking about Soku oil wells but, there's also Etche where they took 41 oil wells from Rivers State and passed onto Abia. They want to impoverish Rivers State and I can't be governor and you expect me to keep quiet. So not just Soku alone, it is also the fact that they have taken the oil wells in Etche.
"I hear my colleague, the Governor of Bayelsa State, came to Abonnema the other day and the Amanyanabo of Abonnema received him and said he was satisfied with the way the president was handling the oil wells (dispute). For me, that is a betrayal of his people and he is suppose to be a king in Kalabari Kingdom and he said he was satisfied that the federal government had taken the oil wells and that Bayelsa was receiving the money. And a king in Abonnema is saying he is satisfied. It is not about me, it is about the Kalabari people. It is about the Rivers people.
"Instead of the king to tell him (Bayelsa Governor) 'look, our people are not happy that the oil wells have been taken, return them'.....and I have told the president if you return the oil wells, I will support you, but he can't. I even told them that if you think it would empower me as a governor, keep the money in an escrow account because the money was first and foremost in an escrow account, because they became president, they went to the escrow account and took the money. Keep the money in escrow account, after my tenure let them give the money to the next government but what I want to see done is the fact that our resources are returned to us."
He recalled that he held several meetings with the president on resolving the Soku oil wells' dispute and blamed the failure of the negotiations on Jonathan's unwillingness to act on the matter.
Amaechi expressed his commitment to protect and defend the interests of the people in Soku as well as those in other parts of the state.
"The question you should ask is that, is it correct that the oil coming from Soku should be appropriated by the federal government and given to Bayelsa? I have been saying this for the past two years, why haven't they denied that? There is nothing that I have said they have responded to. Instead of responding to it, they will be abusing me. Is it a lie that they took Soku oil wells to Bayelsa? Is it a lie that they also took the 41 oil wells from Rivers to Abia State?
"There is nothing I am telling you in public I have not told the president in private. The only reason why I am in public now is because he has refused to do anything. I would like to quote the response he (President Jonathan) gave to the Kalabari people when he met with them and I was there. The president said 'oh, you people call it Soku, we call it Oluasiri'. When he said 'we call it..', what does he mean? It means that he has taken sides. You know, the president is not supposed to take sides. He didn't say 'Rivers people call it Soku, Bayelsa people call it Oluasiri'. If he said that, then we would say okay, he is at the centre too, we can discuss this. He said 'you people call it Soku, 'we' call it Oluasiri'. Already, that shows the judgement has already been given," the governor said.
"Now, in their submission in court and the letter they wrote Rivers State Government, they did acknowledge that it was a mistake that in the course of the drawing of that map, they drew Soku into Bayelsa and then we complained against it because it was sent to us to review and make our submissions. Our response was 'no, no, you have made a mistake.
"You have just taken our community into Bayelsa. They replied that they have already released this map and that it is unfortunate that they have and it was a mistake that they would correct in the subsequent edition. And they have not been able to make that correction and when they say they want to invite us to a meeting, I say 'what are you inviting us to a meeting for? You have already acknowledged that there was a mistake, go and correct the mistake. If Bayelsa has any complaints, then put the complaints on the table after you have corrected it," he said.
The governor denied claims that he had personal misunderstanding with the president, explaining that any misunderstanding he had with the president was over the interests of Rivers State.
No comments:
Post a Comment