Amaechi Collected N257.6bn From $20bn, Says Okonjo-Iweala

Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala yesterday insisted that out of the purported missing $20 billion, Rivers State received N257.6 billion from the Fed­eration Account between January and October 2013, the second highest among the states, of which N56.2 billion from the Excess Crude Account was a part.

The Minister made this revelation in reply to the al­legations that $20 billion was missing in the Federation Ac­count.

According to her, not only was the amount not missing, Rivers State received N257.6 billion from the Federation Account between January and October 2013, the second highest among the states, of which N56.2 billion from the Excess Crude Account was a part.

“It has come to our atten­tion that governors under the aegis of the Nigeria Gover­nors Forum (NGF) have re­quested that the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance should account for an estimated $20 billion oil revenue from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) from June 2013 to April 2015. There is no basis for the de­mand and the stated amount,” she said.

She described the state­ment by the governors as to­tally strange because FAAC meets every month and the ECA is discussed at every session with all the state Com­missioners of Finance present.

“Nothing is hidden. At these meetings the Minister of State who is the Chair of FAAC announces the balance in the ECA, which is then discussed. So governors who want any information about the ECA should ask for details from their Commissioners who should have the records of what was discussed and agreed upon. Details of the ECA are also published every month along with the alloca­tions to the three tiers of gov­ernment.

“The reference to June 2013 in the statement is prob­ably because the National Economic Council last met in May 2013. But this is im­material because the FAAC meetings during which the ECA and similar issues are discussed have generally held regularly every month.

“It is interesting that Gov­ernor Rotimi Amaechi of Riv­ers State who was reported to have read the communique on behalf of the governors made a similar unsubstantiated al­legation in November 2013 that $5 billion was missing from the ECA. We subse­quently showed with facts that not only was the amount not missing, Rivers State received N257.6 billion from the Fed­eration Account between January and October 2013, the second highest among the states, of which N56.2 billion from the Excess Crude Ac­count was a part.

“In the interest of transpar­ency and accountability, and to throw more light on this issue, the Federal Ministry of Finance will publish details of the ECA for the last four years within the next few days,” she explained.