Hope Uzodimma, governor of Imo state, has called for the
establishment of a special fund to compensate the south-east over the
devastation of the zone during the civil war.
Uzodimma spoke in Owerri, Imo state capital, on Wednesday
while declaring open a zonal public hearing on the review of the revenue
allocation sharing formula.
The event was 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.
“I think the debacles
of the civil war led the south-east into a deep poverty level; houses were
burnt down, people were killed,” Uzodinma said.
“Only recently, a special law was enacted as the North-East
Development Commission, arising from the disaster of Boko Haram incidents. But
the 30-month civil war that ended in 1970 left the south-east in a state of
penury.”
Uzodinma said the current revenue allocation formula which
was last reviewed in 1992 is “obsolete”.
The governor said the south-east has suffered “great
injustice” on how revenues accruing from the zone are shared.
“Today, as it stands, the federal government takes home
52.68 per cent, state governments, 26.72 per cent, while the 774 local
government areas take home 20.60 per cent,” he said.
He said Imo currently has seven oil-producing companies but
43 oil wells were “wrongfully” allocated to Rivers.
Uzodinma said 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”.
He urged RMAFC to look into the matter with a view to
resolving it.
He called on the federal government to establish
petrochemical industries, fertiliser plants and other value chains in the oil
and gas sector.
“It should not just be about multi-billion-dollar pipeline
projects that siphon oil and gas from the state which results to youth
restiveness, quantum violence and subsequent deaths,” the governor said.
“I think that God did not make mistake endowing Imo with
natural resources.”
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