Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, on Wednesday said that the revenue sharing formula used for states in the South-East geopolitical zone of the country is incredibly unjust.
He disclosed this at the zonal public hearing on the review of the revenue allocation sharing formula organized by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in Owerri, the Imo state capital.
According to him, “Today, as it stands, the federal government takes home 52.68 percent, state governments, 26.72 percent, while the South-East government areas take home 20.60 percent,”
Speaking further, the governor asked the Federal Government to establish a special fund to compensate for the devastation suffered in the South-East region during the civil war.
He noted that the same way a special fund was set up for the disaster of Boko Haram incidents in the North, the same should be set up for the South-East to assist 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,
“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 disclosed that the state currently has seven oil-producing companies; however, 43 oil wells were ‘wrongfully’ allocated to Rivers state.
He added that 25 percent of gas production in Bonny is piped from Imo, but revenue accruing from it does not go to the state.
He noted that the pollution created by these gas lines is threatening the lives and assets of the residents of the area.
“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,
“I think that God did not make mistake endowing Imo with natural resources,” he said
