By Abbanobi-Eku Onyeka
The Senate has affirmed Kogi State as an oil producing state, receiving 13% derivation as stipulated for by section 162(2) of the 1999 Constitution.
The was sequel to a motion sponsored to that effect by Senator Jibrin Isah , popularly known as Echocho (APC Kogi-East).
Senator Isah’s motion came 24 hours after heated debate between him and Senator Tony Nwoye on the status of Kogi as an oil producing state receiving 13% derivation .
While Tony Nwoye in his presentation at Senate plenary on Wednesday, on a bill seeking for inclusion of Anambra State in the operational radius of the Niger Delta Development Commission ( NDDC) , argued that Kogi State is not receiving 13% derivation like Anambra State, Echocho countered him that Kogi State has been a receiver of the 13% derivation since October 2022.
Apparently disturbed by Senator Nwoye’s submission, Echocho at the beginning of plenary on Thursday on the strength of Order 42 of the Senate Standing rules , raised a motion for affirmation of Kogi as an oil producing State, benefitting from the 13% derivation. The singular prayer of Echocho’s motion reads: “I urge the Senate to take the clarification that Kogi State is an oil producing state which has been receiving the constitutional 13% derivation since October 2022; and
accord it the necessary recognition as an oil-producing state.”
Senator Echocho prior to adoption of the prayer by the Senate prayed that after the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities in Oloibiri, other discoveries were made in other parts of the country, including the present Abia, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ondo, and Imo States. Informed that oil was later discovered in commercial quantities in Odeke, Echeno, Ihile, Anocha/Uchuchu, Omabo, Ikah, Iregwu and Ujeh all in Ibaji community of the present-day Ibaji Local Government Area of Kogi State.
