Court orders FG to pay Bayelsa $951m accruable oil revenue

A federal high court in Abuja has ordered the federal government to pay $951 million to the Bayelsa state.

The amount is the arrears of revenue from the 13 percent derivative due to the state.

Inyang Ekwo, the judge, held that the attorney-general of the federation (AGF), who is the sole defendant in the case, failed to enter his defence in the suit.

Ekwo ruled that the development made the court declare the case filed by Ken Njemanze, the plaintiff, “unchanged.”

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/175/2012 filed on February 12, the plaintiff urged the court to compel the AGF to pay five percent of $50 billion recovered as additional revenue that accrued to the government.

The Bayelsa state attorney general, in an affidavit upon which the plaintiff claims were based, had urged the court to make “an order directing the defendant (AGF) to pay the sum of 951, 190 dollars, 840.00, being the 13 per cent derivative sum due as arrears of revenue and payable to Bayelsa as assessed, completed and calculated by the body set up by the AGF pursuant to paragraph b (iii) (b) of the terms of the settlement made by the (consent) judgement of the Court by the Supreme Court in suit No: SC 964/2016 Attorney General of Rivers State and Others Vs attorney general of the Federation on October 17, 2018.

According to the Bayelsa government, the money had accrued from 2003 to 2017.

The attorney-general also urged the court to order 10 percent post-judgment interest at the court rate on the said sum until final liquidation.

The judge noted that “where the person to whom such demand notice is issued takes no steps, he is deemed to have admitted the claims thereby giving the other person the option of enforcing the claims by the available procedures for enforcement of undisputed claims. That is what has happened in this case.”

He said the AGF had therefore admitted the claims of the Bayelsa government in the process the former filed in reaction to the suit, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

“I find no material upon which I can grant leave of this court for the defendant to enter a defence or transfer this matter to the general cause list,” Ekwo declared.

“In that case, I also find that the case of the plaintiff remains not only challenged but admitted and therefore must succeed on the merit.

“Judgement is hereby entered on the claims of the plaintiff in this case. This is the order of this court.”

In a supreme court verdict delivered in October 2018, the government was ordered to embark on an upward adjustment of the shares of revenues accruing to it whenever the price of crude oil exceeds $20 per barrel.

Section 16(1) of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract Act requires the federal government to adjust the shares of the revenue accruable to the federation whenever the price of crude oil exceeds $20 per barrel.