Sunday Ejike, Author at Tribune Online

A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, ordered the Federal Government to pay the sum of $3.3 billion to Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, as their revenue share from the sales of crude oil. The amount formed the share of the two states from the $62 billion said to have been recovered from some oil companies by the Federal Government. In a judgment delivered, on Tuesday, Justice Taiwo Taiwo ordered that $1,114,551,610 be paid to Rivers State, while another sum of $2,258,411,586 is paid to Akwa Ibom State, being the amount separately claimed against the Federal Government as their share from the $62 billion recovered from the oil companies. The plaintiffs in the suit are the Attorney Generals of Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, while the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) was the sole defendant. Justice Taiwo held in his judgment that the Federal Government admitted the monetary claims of the two states against it by its refusal to defend the case even when served with the court processes. Justice Taiwo said that the mere notice of intention to defend the case without joining issues with the plaintiffs was a fatal error on the part of the Federal Government. By refusing to debunk, counterclaim or controvert the claims of the two states on the oil revenue issue, the Judge held that the Federal Government had admitted that all the averments of the two states are true. Justice Taiwo further held that the suit of the two states was founded on a Supreme Court judgment, which stated how proceeds from sales of crude oil can be shared, adding that the claim of the two states on the recovery of additional $62 billion was never controverted by the defendant, in spite of several correspondences hence, the law deems unchallenged claims as true. The Court rejected the assertion of the Federal Government that it cannot pay the money it did receive from crude oil sales, adding that the defendant ought to have filed bonafide defence to explain its position in respect of the $62 billion oil earnings as required by law. “By not filing defence to challenge the claims of $62 billion oil earnings of the two plaintiffs, I have no option than to hold that the Federal Government has no defence to the issue. “I hereby make an order that $1,114,551,610 be paid to Rivers state as its share from the $62 billion oil revenue and another $2,258,411,586 be also paid to Akwa Ibom as its own share from the oil proceeds”, Justice Taiwo stated. The two plaintiffs had filed the suit, following a press statement from the Office of the AGF to the effect that another $62 billion was recovered from foreign oil companies as proceeds of crude oil sales. Justice Taiwo held that although the AGF office attempted to withdraw the press statement, the issue of the huge revenue generation was not addressed and subsequently held that the Federal Government actually recovered the said $62 billion as contained in the press statement. The court then ordered the Federal Government to release the shares of the two states to them in compliance with the judgment of the Supreme Court. YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE FACT CHECK: Did UNICEF Say Blocking Children’s Access To Pornography Constitutes Human Rights’ Infringement? CLAIM 1: A Twitter user claims UNICEF said any efforts to block children from accessing pornography might infringe their human rights.Pay Rivers, Akwa Ibom $3.3bn oil revenue, Court orders FG