By News Desk
Elder statesman and leader of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Edwin Clark, Wednesday, blasted governors in the Niger Delta region for looting the people’s wealth, saying they are richer than the states.
Also, the former federal commissioner of information specifically accused the immediate past Delta state Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of misappropriating over N1 trillion of the 13 per cent oil derivation fund for the state.
He’s also of the view that there wouldn’t have been any need for the level of poverty and agitation in the Niger Delta region if the 13% fund had been well utilised by the governors.
In November 2022, the immediate past governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike, had declared the federal government paid a backlog of oil derivation funds to the oil-producing states in the country.
Shortly after Wike’s revelation, Garba Shehu, a presidential spokesman in the immediate past administration, made public details of the funds as released to the nine oil-producing states, with Delta state receiving the highest allocation totalling N296.63 billion.
The 13 per cent derivation fund comes from the federation account to oil-producing communities through state governments as contained in line with section 162 (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
The Niger Delta leader made the allegations while speaking on “The Morning Show,” a breakfast programme of the Arise TV.
Genesis
Recalling the genesis of the 13% derivation fund, Clark said: “The 13 percent derivation was something that was raised at the Constituent Assembly, chaired by the former Justice of the Supreme Court.
People like Late General Shehu Yar’Adua and others felt that there was a need to compensate the people that produce the oil and we were around lobbying and the 13 percent was granted under section 16(22) of the constitution which provided for at least 13 percent of the federation account to be given to the oil producing communities for their development.
“If that money was properly spent our boys won’t be agitating. There will be no more militancy in the creeks. We have been facing the federal government and not the governors who have been stealing the money. At the 2014 National Confab, we asked for an increase to 25 percent, and to 50 percent after five years. They told us that they would give us 18 percent but that we should go home and see what our governors were doing with the 13 percent.
“That is why we decided to ask the governors what they are doing with the money. I remember that in 2015, New Niger Avengers gave a warning to the federal government that they would attack oil pipelines if the derivation money is not used in developing their area. I intervened and appealed to them that I would talk to the governors.
“Recently the former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike revealed in one of his press conferences that a certain amount of money was paid to them by President Buhari under the 13 percent derivation and that Delta State got over N250 billion.
“That annoyed Okowa and he criticized Wike for interfering in their matter. So, I wrote a letter to Okowa to account for the money that he has been collecting. He answered and said that they spent N5 billion in paying pensioners in Delta State. How does that come under 13 percent? Are they oil-producing pensioners? He is spending the money on building a university in his own village.
“I engaged a lawyer who went to obtain a certified true copy of all the amounts that they paid since 2007. I got a letter from the Accountant General’s office. He stated that every oil-producing state was paid. The one paid to Delta State amounted to N1 trillion, while about N766 billion was received under Okowa.
“We cannot be criticizing the federal government every time for taking our money when those at home who receive the money refuse to account for the receipts. Their monthly allocations are higher than every other state, in addition to the 13 percent derivation.”
On DESOPADEC
The PANDEF leader also said the law establishing the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) states that 50 per cent of the 13 per cent should be given to the DESOPADEC, the funds he claimed, the former governor held.
DESOPADEC is an interventionist agency established to manage a 13 per cent oil derivation fund to drive infrastructural development of the oil-producing communities in the state.
“Instead of paying 50 per cent (of the N1.760 trillion) to the DESOPADEC as provided by the law, which is automatic, he (Okowa) now held the 13 per cent fund- the entire money, dishing out instalmentally and approving every contract the DESOPADEC had awarded,” he said.
His letter to Okowa, EFCC
The South-south leader said he also wrote a second letter to Okowa and put the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in copy.
The letter, he said, alleged the governor floated a private commercial bank, Premium Bank, which he allegedly used to lodge all the derivation funds.
“I also mentioned in the letter that he (Okowa) has 13 companies. I told him he put the 13 per cent (derivation funds) into these 13 companies and let him deny it.
“So, Okowa has embezzled our money. It’s not even accounted for in his annual budget,” Clark stated, noting that embezzlement of public funds had made some governors wealthier than their states.
When told that Okowa had denied ownership of the Premium Bank, Clark said the former governor lied, insisting he knew the bank’s history.
On Atiku-Okowa ticket
On Okowa’s choice as the running mate to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, during the 2023 polls, the elder statesman accused the former governor of betraying the Southern Nigerians and people from Middle Belt by so doing.
He said Okowa also accused him of using the state’s fund to prosecute the campaign even when it was agreed by the Southern and Middle Belt leaders that the North should not produce president in 2023.
“But he (Okowa) violated it. He was very happy going about (as Atiku’s running mate),” he said.
Okowa replies Clark
When contacted, Wednesday, the former Commissioner for Information in the Okowa administration, Charles Aniagwu, said Clark got it wrong and described the allegations as baseless.
He said: “There is no iota of truth in what the elder statesman said. As one who belongs to a different political persuasion, one should expect nothing less. We can understand where he is coming from.”
“Everything he (Clark) mentioned in that interview is not the true position of things. When you have 13 per cent derivation coming into an oil-producing state that is part of the revenue they use in running the state.
“It is not 13 per cent for oil-producing communities. These are facts and we need to get it right here. It is for the state, otherwise, we would have elevated it to the level of oil-producing families,” Aniagwu said.
Culled From Blueprint Newspaper
