Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

Bayelsa State Government has appealed a judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which ceded the disputed oil wells between Rivers and the state to the former.

Solicitor General of Bayelsa State, Preye Agada, who led the state’s legal team to file the appeal on behalf of the attorney general, said the state is seeking a stay of execution of the judgment delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo on December 26, 2019 pending the resolution of the matter.

Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, quoted Ageda as having said, in a statement yesterday, that the lower court delivered judgment against the state without joining it as a party in the suit.

Iworiso-Markson said the motion on notice in the suit no FHC/ABJ/CS/984/2019, noted that Bayelsa State was not served the processes in the suit before the lower court delivered the said judgment.

He said the state government had also sought an order of the court to appeal the judgment as an interested party in the suit between attorney general of Rivers State and National Boundaries Commission (NBC).

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The solicitor general said the state has written all relevant federal agencies to stay action on the enforcement of the judgment.

The agencies include the Attorney General and Minister of of Justice, the Minister of Finance, the Accountant General of the Federation, the chairman, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation, and Fiscal Commission, and the NBC.

He said the contested oil wells which Rivers State described as Soku oil wells are in Oluasiri in Bayelsa State, adding that Bayelsa had been receiving the 13 percent derivation and other statutory allocations accruing from the oil wells for a long time.

According to him, Bayelsa State government had been waiting for Rivers State and the NBC to cooperate with the Supreme Court directive to properly delineate the disputed areas in the affected areas once and for all.

The solicitor general said it was rather regrettable that Rivers State government which pulled out of the boundary delineation exercise in 2013 would surreptitiously file the action after years of inactivity.

The statement appealed to people of the affected communities who are all Ijaw to await proper delineation of the boundaries between the people which he said did not have any effect on the historical ties and relationship between them.