Civil war: Uzodimma calls for establishment of special fund for South-East zone

Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State has called for the establishment of a special fund to compensate the people of South-East for the devastation they suffered during the civil war.

Uzodimma made the appeal on Thursday in Owerri while declaring open a zonal public hearing on the review of the revenue allocation sharing formula organised by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).

The governor said, if created, the special fund would provide succour to those who lost their properties and family members during the civil war.

He said: “I think the debacles of the civil war led the South-East into a deep poverty level where houses were burnt down, people were killed.”

Uzodimma pointed out that it was only recently that a special law was enacted as the North-East Development Commission, arising from the disaster of Boko Haram incidents, while the 30-month civil war that ended in 1970 left the South-East in a state of penury.

The governor, while describing the current revenue allocation formula which was last reviewed in 1992 as obsolete, noted with dismay that the South-East had suffered “great injustice” on how revenues accruing from the zone were shared.

“Today, as it stands, the Federal Government takes home 52.68 percent, state governments 26.72 percent, while the 774 local government areas take home 20.60 per cent,” Uzodimma lamented.

He added that Imo currently has seven oil-producing companies, but 43 oil wells were “wrongfully” allocated to Rivers State.

“25 percent of gas production in Bonny is piped from Imo, but revenue accruing from it does not go to the state while pollution is threatening the lives and assets of the residents of the area,” the governor further bemoaned.

He urged RMAFC to look into the matter with a view to resolving it; just as he called on the Federal Government to establish petrochemical industries, fertilizer plants and other value chains in the oil and gas sector.

The governor insisted that it should not just be about multi-billion-dollar pipeline projects that siphon oil and gas from the state which results in youth restiveness, quantum violence and subsequent deaths.

He said: “I think that God did not make a mistake endowing Imo with natural resources.”

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