The Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, has ordered the Federal Government to pay $951 million to the Bayelsa State Government.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that the amount is the 13 percent derivative sum due as arrears of revenue and payable to the Bayelsa government.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, who delivered the judgment, held that the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), the sole defendant in the case, failed to enter his defense in the suit.
Justice Ekwo ruled that the development made the court declare the plaintiff’s case ‘unchanged.’
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The plaintiff, in the suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/175/2012 and filed on Feb. 12, urged the court to compel the AGF to pay five percent of $50 billion recovered as additional revenue that accrued to the Nigerian government.
The judge noted that where a person issues s letter of demand on another person upon outstanding facts, the person for whom the demand notice was issued must take steps to react to same.
He said the defendant (AGF) had admitted the claims of the Bayelsa government in the process the former filed in reaction to the suit.
‘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.
‘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,’ the judge declared.
Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, and Rivers governments had sued the AGF at the Supreme Court, demanding an upward adjustment of the shares of revenues accruing to the Nigerian government whenever the price of crude oil exceeds $20 per barrel.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
