The Governor who was represented by his Deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo at a sensitisation programme on the review of the existing revenue allocation formula organized by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in Yenagoa, the state capital on Thursday, August 19, said the current formula gives 52.68 per cent to the federal government, the 36 states share 26.72 per cent, while 20.6 per cent goes to the 774 LGAs.

He said “We believe that some of the indicators, you are using to share revenues currently do not promote equity and fairness in this country and therefore not acceptable to us.  For instance, we do not agree that you should continue to use local government areas as a basis for sharing revenues. It is faulty because the creation of local governments was not done scientifically. It was purely political and a case of who was holding the knife and the yam at the time of creating them. And so, those who had the knife cut more to themselves. It is unfair that for a judgment that we are still contesting in court, RMAFC is in a hurry to allocate revenues coming from the Soku oil wells to Rivers.  We ordinarily had expected that that money would have been kept in an escrow account pending when the case is finally determined. We know that Rivers state has a lot of resources and connections, but our take is that the right thing should be done. I say so because of this oil dispute we are talking about, RMAFC itself had taken a decision on it several years ago. So, we expect the commission to stand by that decision.”

The tribunal sitting in Abuja, today August 17, nullified Diri’s election and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to conduct a bye-election in 90 days. The tribunal ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)wrongly excluded the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP) governorship candidate from the November 16, 2019 election.

Speaking after the ruling, Governor Diri said he trusts that the court through his appeal will affirm his election.

He said “We trust in the judiciary and we are appealing the judgment. With God on our side, we will get justice.  This is a court of the first instance and I have instructed our lawyers to file an appeal. We have a right to appeal even up to the Supreme Court”