•Bayelsa vows to resist water resources bill
•Decommission facilities in N’Delta, ERA tells Shell
Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, says there is an urgent need to review the existing revenue allocation formula in favour of states and councils in the country.
When the National Executive Council (NEC) of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) led by the president, Mr. Kolade Alabi, visited him in Asaba yesterday, Okowa explained that the review would stabilise the financial status of states and meet the yearnings of the people.
According to the governor, the council administration is growing and needs financial stability to impact on people’s lives.
![[FILES] Okowa. Photo/facebook/IAOkowa/](https://www.afriupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Okowa-1062x598-1.jpg "Okowa okays approved housing loans for Delta workers 2")
MEANWHILE, Bayelsa State Government has described the proposed National Water Resources Bill 2020 as another draconian land use decree in disguise, vowing to join other progressive forces to resist it.
This was one of the decisions reached at the State Executive Council (SEC) meeting presided over by the Deputy Governor, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, in the Government House, Yenagoa.
A statement by the deputy governor’s media aide, Mr. Doubara Atasi, noted that the National Water Resources Bill 2020, which had passed second reading on the floor of the Senate, attracted nation-wide condemnation due to its controversial provisions aimed at seizing the country’s waterways.
In a joint press briefing led by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Ayibaina Duba; the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of the State, Mr. Biriyai Dambo (SAN), said the council opposed the bill because it negated the rights of Bayelsans, Niger Deltans and several other people in the country to enjoy their God-given resources.
TO avoid further pollution of Ogoniland, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has charged Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to return to devastated communities in the Niger Delta region and decommission their facilities.
The Acting Executive Director of ERA, Chima Williams, stated this yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during a virtual Court of Appeal sitting on a matter filed against Shell by four Nigerian farmers in The Netherlands.
Shell, according to Williams, claimed that it had left most of the Niger Delta communities like Ogoni without decommissioning their facilities, “which remains a huge threat to the environment.”
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