The Federal Government has once again
debunked Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s recent allegation that
the management of the country’s resources is shrouded in secrecy.
The Coordinating Minister for the
Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in a statement
issued on Monday in Abuja explained that contrary to the allegation by
the governor, the state actually received the sum of N257.6bn within the
first 10 months of this year from the federation account.
This, it added, was the second highest amount received by any state government within the 10 months period.
The statement said, “It is obvious that
His Excellency, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State wants to engage
in a politicised debate on the management of the economy. We prefer to
focus on facts.
“But we thank him most sincerely for at
least admitting that he received N56.2bn. We also commend him for
accepting that there was no intention by the Coordinating Minister of
the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, not to
sign the Water Resources loan from the African Development Bank.
“Please recall that these were the only two issues that he previously raised in his well-publicised comments.
“It is a fact that Rivers State received
N56.2bn from the Excess Crude Account which His Excellency identified
as the Federation Account.”
The statement argued that the governor
could not claim ignorance of the money his state received since monies
taken from the ECA were first put into the federation account before
being shared.
This, it noted, was the standard
practice adding that the total amount states received from the
federation account was far in excess of what they got from the ECA.
The statement signed by the Special
Adviser to the mimister on communication, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu said, “Of
course, the money is taken from the Excess Crude Account and put into
the Federation Account before being shared. That is the standard
procedure.
“The total amount that the states
receive from the Federation Account is far in excess of what they get
from the Excess Crude Account.”
To put the issue in perspective, the
total amount which Rivers State has received from the Federation Account
between January and October 2013 is N257.6bn which is the second
highest among the states, of which the N56.2bn from the Excess Crude
Account is a part.”
The state government had in statement
signed by the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim
Semenitari, on Saaturday insisted that Amaechi and the other governors
had only made one request for the sum of $1bn to be shared from the
Excess Crude Account.
The statement explained that there had
been no other request from the governors that funds from the Excess
Crude Account be shared among the states.
It described as mischief the suggestion
that Amaechi refused to acknowledge that Rivers State had received the
sum of N56.2bn from the Excess Crude Account between January and
September 2013.
The statement had said, Contrary to the
coordinating minister’s claim that ‘Mr. Amaechi was closely involved and
actively participated in making requests to the Presidency for the
account to be shared for the purpose of augmenting the regular
allocations from the Federation Account whenever there was a shortfall,
Governor Chibuike Amaechi and his colleague governors have only attended
one meeting where one request was made for the sharing of $1bn from the
ECA
“Beyond that one meeting, there has been
no other meeting where it was decided that money from the ECA be shared
among the three tiers of government. There is a position of the
National Executive Council’s on the matter of the Excess Crude Account.
“This position is that the savings in
the ECA belonging to all the states is not to be touched. Indeed, this
is in tandem with the position of the honourable minister that the ECA
is savings for the rainy day and not to be shared in the manner she now
seems to suggest.”
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