Governors of the 36 states have said the resumption of the sharing of revenue by the Federal, States and Local Governments by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meetings will only resume when the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation remits what is due to government coffers.
The governors reached the conclusion at their meeting on Wednesday night in Abuja.
They said the NNPC cannot continue to spend money meant for the Federation Account without the approval of the President and the National Economic Council.
The NNPC had remitted N147 billion into the federation account in May but the governors faulted that amount, saying it did not reflect the current economic realities and prices of oil in the international market.
They also queried the amount the NNPC said it paid for petroleum subsidies.
The governors, who met in Abuja, said their final decision on the issues would be presented at Thursday’s NEC meeting presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
But the issue was not even on the agenda of the NEC meeting, which said the $1 billion security fund to fight Boko Haram in the North East and other acts of criminality across the country was yet to be disbursed.
The allocations of May and June are yet to be distributed among the three tiers of government, following rejection to NNPC’s remittances.
The Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, said the governors still disagreed with the figures presented by the NNPC.
Yari said: “There is a disagreement between the figures presented. I have been on the saddle for seven years and I have been attending NEC for the past four months and if I see discrepancies, I should be able to tell.
“NNPC said it paid N88 billion for subsidy and in the month of June, it said it paid N31 billion, but it claimed N57 billion is for payment of subsidy in 2017.
“That is not acceptable and we won’t give the approval.
“You can’t just dip your hand into the public purse and take money, you have to seek approval from NEC or Mr. President.
“NNPC said they have N15 billion for miscellaneous, N9 billion for pipeline maintenance, N3 billion for crude loss, all those things were not approved by anyone.
“NNPC is owned by the federal, states and local governments.
“The states and local governments get 48 per cent, while the Federal Government gets 52 per cent.
“We have to agree whatever we get, the Federal Government is getting 52 per cent.
“We are saying this money should be brought to the public for sharing.”
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