N2.3t debt: Nigerian Governors puncture NNPC denial

• The ten progressive governors listen, as Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima reads the communique at the end of their meeting

File Photo: The Progressive Governors

EROMOSELE EBHOMELE

Nigeria’s Progressive Governors Forum, PGF, has come down hard on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for denying claims that it is owing the Federation Account a total sum of N2.3 trillion.

The group described the NNPC’s denial as fraudulent and posed many questions they want the corporation to answer.

The Federal Government-owned oil agency had slammed Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State for alleging that the corporation was yet to remit the amount into the Federation Account maintained by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

In a statement credited to the NNPC and signed by its Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ms. Tumini E. Green, the corporation said it had remitted all the monies accruing to the Federation Account to the latter through the CBN.

Instead, it said it was the federal Government that was owing it as it had single-handedly maintained subsidy on petroleum products with any budgetary provisions for it.

The corporation had also said it was disheartening for people like Oshiomhole, who should have information concerning its operations and how the monies were disbursed to make public utterances that were not true.

Though it said it was not joining issues with anybody, the NNPC added that it would always come out to state the facts where necessary.

But governors under the PGF have described the claims by the NNPC as fraudulent and contradictory.

File Photo: The Progressive Governors
File Photo: The Progressive Governors

The statement signed by the governors and made available to P.M. NEWS on Monday evening said the NNPC has continued to maintain shady deals, including the issue of remittance into the Federation Account, that Nigerians must begin to question.

The governors who signed the statement included Oshiomhole, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, Babatunde Fashola of Lagos, Rochas Okorocha of Imo, Tanko Almakura of Nasarawa, Kashim Shettima of Borno, Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun, Rauf Aregbesola of Osun, Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo, Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe and Abubakar Yari of Zamfara.

“Our attention was drawn to NNPC’s denial of debt of N2.3 trillion being owed to the Federation Account. The statement, which is credited to Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ms. Tumini E. Green, is to say the least escapist, dishonest, contradictory and in many respect fraudulent,” the governors said.

They said the NNPC had contradicted itself in the statement.

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While the NNPC, in its statement, claimed it does not owe the Federation Account, “taking into account outstanding subsidies and other associated costs of operations and losses”, the NNPC spokesperson claimed that payments have been made consistently into “its Central Bank of Nigeria account” and at the same time Ms. Green emphatically stated that, “not all revenues collected by NNPC are paid directly into the accounts of Federal Allocation with the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

She said “some are paid into the accounts of the relevant government agencies, like the Federal Inland Revenue Services and the Department of Petroleum Resources, with the CBN. But eventually, all these payments are credited to the accounts of Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC.”

Further puncturing the NNPC claim, the governors asked: “the question is: how much was the revenue collected by NNPC? How much of it was paid to the Federation Account? How much was paid to accounts of other relevant government agencies? How much are credited to FAAC? How much was committed to the payment of so-called outstanding subsidies? What other associated costs of operations and losses incurred and how much?

“Above all, what is the constitutional and legal provisions governing the management of oil revenue?

“Section 162(1) of the 1999 Constitution is unambiguously clear and it has directed that “the Federation shall maintain a special account to be called ‘the Federation Account’ into which shall be paid all revenues collected by the government of the Federation, except the proceeds from the personal income tax of the personnel of the armed forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force, the Ministry or department of government charged with responsibility for Foreign Affairs and the residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”
(Read the full statement here:Statement on FAAC
The governors reminded the NNPC that no section of the constitution has any exception granted for any collectible revenue outside proceeds from the personal income tax of the personnel of the armed forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force, the Ministry or department of government charged with responsibility for Foreign Affairs and the residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

It said if there was any other law that empowered the NNPC or any other government body to do otherwise, that law is contradictory, null and void.

“We therefore wish to challenge the NNPC to go beyond hypothetical and generalised statements and categorically respond as follows: how much has been realised in oil revenue on monthly basis since January 2013?

“How much has been paid into any other account of any government agency? How much has been paid to settle so-called outstanding subsidy payments? What are the other associated cost of operations and losses incurred?

“Problems of accountability and arbitrary management of oil revenue by the NNPC is at the centre of the current FAAC dispute,” the governors said.

They called on President Goodluck Jonathan to urgently intervene to protect the image of the Federal Government and safeguard the provisions of the 1999 constitution.

They also called on the President to call NNPC and the Ministry of Finance to order.

“We also would like to invite the leadership of the National Assembly to urgently take steps to protect the sanctity of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution,” the governors said.

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