Rivers State Government on Thursday insisted that the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has questions to answer regarding the controversial Excess Crude Account (ECA).
Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers had during the retreat of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum in Sokoto, alleged that $5 billion was missing from the Excess Crude Account (ECA).
The Finance Minister promptly reacted, saying no money was missing as the said amount had been shared among the three tiers of government, stating the amount Rivers State Government collected.
But, Governor Amaechi, through his Commissioner for Information, Ibim Semenitari, insisted the Minister has explanation to make because the ECA is supposed to be savings for the raining day, wondering why the money was shared without the knowledge of the governors.
The state government noted that the ECA account was not supposed to be touched unless certain processes have been followed since it not a Federation Account where funds are statutorily shared to the three tiers of government monthly.
Sementari stated, “The spat from the Minister’s office since the governors’ complaint has been suggestive of chasing a red herring. Instead of answering the questions raised by Governor Amaechi, and clarifying the issues, the Honourable Minister is simply muddying the waters
“For the records and for the avoidance of doubt, the Rivers State Government has not at any time contested that it has received funds from the federation account. In its response to the claim by the Honourable Minister that it received N56.2 from the Excess Crude Account, the Rivers State Government simply explained the well-known fact that the monies received were from the federation account and part of its statutory allocation.
“All state governments receive their statutory allocation from the federation account and the Rivers State Government is no different. Part of our statement on the matter is repeated here for emphasis. “There is a position of the National Economic Council’s (NEC) 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 all to be set-aside for the rainy day and not to be “shared” in the manner she now seems to suggest.
“The Rivers State Government finds it curious and very disturbing that our rainy day savings has been “shared” in complete breach of the known procedure for doing such and in what might be considered an under the table and clandestine manner.”
“It is evident that funds from the Excess Crude Account are not one of the statutory sources of revenue for the federation account, as was also explicitly outlined in the response of the Rivers State Government.
“That account is not expected to be touched except when the appropriate processes have been followed as was explained in our previous statement. It is therefore it is therefore misleading and a threat to our practice of fiscal federalism, for the Minister to suggest that the ECA is now one of the means through which the FAAC is funded and to expect the governors to know about this aberration when the Ministry of Finance hasn’t made this information public.
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, was therefore requested to declare to the public; how much oil Nigeria produce? How much it is being sold for? How much is the differential between oil prices? How much was earned from crude oil last year? And, what percentage of budget 2013 does our crude oil sales revenue fund? What percentage of budget 2013 does our crude oil sales revenue fund”?
