By CHIOMA OBINNA
As part of the programmes mapped out  to properly equip the federal commissioners with the necessary capacity  and better competence to deliver the mandates set out for the commission by the constitution, the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission   is  organising  a retreat for the newly reconstituted body of commissioners.

The retreat  will be holding  in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital  February 14th despite disagreement over the venue of the event. Petitions are said to have been  sent to the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission for change of venue in line with the constitutional powers that the body enjoys.

Among those that raised objections and subsequently questioned the appropriateness or otherwise of the venue of the retreat was the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), a pro-transparency, pro-democracy and development focused non-governmental body.

The Rights group said it is wrong for the Akwa Ibom State government to pick the bills of the quarterly retreat for the Revenue Mobilization commissioners just as it called on  President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the hierarchy of the National Assembly to stop the Revenue Commission from  flouting the time-tested and time honoured precept that principle of equity and social justice frowns at the practice whereby a party in subsisting legal and administrative disputes is seen sponsoring or picking the bills of the core  functions of  the Federal institution that is constitutionally created to act as unbiased umpire and arbiter especially on the sensitive matters of oil wells’ ownership and revenue sharing formula among the component parts of the Federation.