The Federal Government on Monday denied an
allegation made by the Rivers State Governor, Mr.
Rotimi Amaechi, that $5bn was missing from the
Excess Crude Account. It stated that the governor could not deny
knowledge of the management of the fund,
adding that Amaechi’s claim was false. But the governor, through his Chief Press
Secretary, Mr. David Iyofor, said he would react to
the Federal Government’s position on the missing
$5bn after studying the FG’s statement of rebuttal. At a retreat of the Nigerian Governors Forum in
Sokoto on Saturday, Amaechi had said there was $
9bn in the ECA in January this year, but regretted
that the amount had been depleted to $4bn
without the knowledge of the governors. He had said, “The Excess Crude Account in January
was $9bn. That account belongs to federal, states
and local governments. Today, it is $4bn. We
don’t know who took the $5bn.” But in defending how the account was managed,
the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
in a statement issued in Abuja, described the
claims by the governor as “absolutely shocking
and false.” Specifically, the statement said the governor could
not credibly deny knowledge of the status of the
ECA as Rivers State received N56.2bn in the first
nine months of this year from the account. It said, “Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State
has been quoted in recent media reports as saying
that $5bn is missing from the ECA. This statement
is absolutely shocking and false. “The governor cannot credibly deny knowledge of
the status of the ECA. He has been closely involved
and actively participated in making requests to the
Presidency for the ECA to be shared for the
purpose of augmenting the regular allocations
from the Federation Account whenever there is a shortfall. “The $5bn in the ECA, which Governor Amaechi
referred to in his statement, has been shared to
the three tiers of government to make up for
revenue shortfalls during the Federation Accounts
Allocation Committee process. Part of this fund
also went for SURE-P payments and the balance for subsidy payments to oil marketers.” Giving a breakdown of the N56.2bn allocated to
River State from the ECA, the ministry said N43bn
was given to the state to augment revenue
shortfall from the Federation Account, while
N12bn was released for SURE-P. It said, “Rivers State received N56.2bn, the second
highest share among the states, for January to
September 2013 from the ECA. This amount
includes N43bn for shortfalls plus N12bn released
for SURE-P. “In fact, earlier this month (November 2013)
Rivers State, along with other states, benefitted
from the sharing of $1bn from the ECA to
augment the allocations. “It is, therefore, curious that Governor Amaechi
seems not to know the whereabouts of the
N56.2bn which Rivers State has received from the
ECA this year.” On the allegation that the finance minister refused
to approve the state’s request to obtain a loan
from the African Development Bank for water
project, the ministry said Amaechi’s claim was
wrong. The statement further said the minister handled
issues concerning the states on the basis of
professionalism and equity. But Ameachi said the state would respond to the
N56.2bn that the Federal Government said it gave
to the state from the ECA after carefully studying
the response of the FG. Amaechi’s media aide, Iyofor, who said this in a
statement on Monday, also insisted that his
principal (Amaechi) remained the chairman of the
Nigerian Governors Forum. He said that the Presidency lied when it said that
Amaechi was not the chairman of the forum. He said the Special Adviser to the President on
Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, who was
credited with the statement, portrayed the
Presidency as undemocratic. He said, “It is a known fact that in the election for
the chairman of NGF held on May 24, 2013,
Governor Amaechi got the mandate of the
majority of his colleagues to continue to serve as
their chairman when 19 governors voted for him
as against 16 that voted for Governor Jang. “But for the Presidency (according to Gulak), 16 is
greater 19. We, like most Nigerians, are further
saddened that the likes of Gulak in the Presidency
are so ignorant and lack the capacity to
comprehend the quantum of damage that
comments like that do to the President and the Presidency.”
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