by crossriverwatch admin
Gov. Liyel Imoke of Cross River has restated his call for the removal of solid mineral resources from the exclusive legislative list in the Constitution to encourage states and private sector participation.
Imoke made the call during an interactive session with newsmen in Calabar on Friday.
He said the State Government had lost more than N30 billion revenue since the loss of 76 oil wells to Akwa Ibom.
“Mineral resources in Cross River do not belong to the state. It is on the Federal Government’s exclusive list.
“This is something that can bring rapid growth and development if we remove it from the exclusive list and encourage private investors to come in’’, Imoke said.
According to him, so long as it is on the exclusive list and we continue to rely on oil, not much can be achieved.
“Even in the quarries in Akamkpa, all investors pass through Abuja while we suffer all the environmental degradation.
“Since the loss of oil revenue, President Goodluck Jonathan has tried to mitigate that loss, the state went to the revenue commission and lost about N30 billion.
“But we got N6 billion back through the intervention of the President and we are still trying to get some additional support.
“If you check our Gross Domestic Product, there is a huge gap between what we are currently collecting as taxes and what we are supposed to collect as taxes.
“For us in Cross River which is not an oil revenue state, we must pay some attention to efficiency in collection of taxes to keep government projects and programs going,’’ he said.
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