Amaechi’s NGF holds retreat on FAAC, NNPC, others

The Nigeria Governors Forum under the leadership of the Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, is holding a retreat in Sokoto, Sokoto State on Saturday.

The retreat, according to information received from the NGF secretariat, showed that the meeting would conduct a forensic examination of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation and the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee.

Nigerian governors have been at loggerheads with both the  NNPC and FAAC over the sharing of money accruing to the Federation Account for sometime now.

In fact, the governors elected on the platform of the All Progressive Congress had on October 22, after their meeting under the aegis of Progressive Governors’ Forum in Abuja, threatened court action over the matter.

The Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said “We discussed issues that are pertinent to national finance, particularly the Federation Account Allocation Committee work.

“We have come to a critical junction as far as FAAC discussions have gone over the last three months.

“You aren’t unaware of what has been going on, you are also aware of what our finance commissioners have had to do in removing themselves from the meetings of FAAC and we continue to insist that we condemn the illegal and unconstitutional deductions.

“Averagely, all our states lost 40 per cent of our normal earnings in the last two to three months from the FAAC and we believe this isn’t defensible in any way.”

He said that the bench mark that the National Assembly agreed for 2013 Budget was still very realistic because according to him, there was no time from January up till now that oil had sold for anything less than $105 per barrel.

Fayemi added that even at some particular time, oil sold for $110 per barrel.

“So, there is still no basis for the kind of incomplete allocations to the states in this regard and we have decided to take appropriate constitutional measures in order to tackle this flagrant abuse of the Constitution of Nigeria and the Appropriation Act, particularly of the National Assembly,” he added.

PUNCH