Oshiomhole Slams Jonathan, Okonjo-Iweala For Denying Edo N10B

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state has attacked former president Goodluck Jonathan and his Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for denying his state about N10billion in four years.

The governor made this statement while addressing journalists after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and former governor of Rivers state, Rotimi Amaechi in Aso rock.

According to Oshiomhole, the alleged sum was an estimate of what could have been allocated to his state if the past administration had been faithful in forwarding taxes paid by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG) and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria into the Consolidated Federation Account the same way the present administration did, The Punch reports.

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He however expressed happiness that President Buhari has made it clear that he would put an end to impunity and ensure transparency and order.

He said: “All the noise that have been generated over what happened last week, there was nothing extraordinary. What was extraordinary is that the NLNG has over the years been remitting funds to the Federal Government but the government illegally refused to transfer these funds to the consolidated revenue fund which belongs to the three tiers of government.

“All that President Buhari was, in line with his commitments to ensuring that all funds and monies accruing to the Federation Account are so remitted, that he has directed the CBN to transfer the funds to the consolidated funds.

“Our commissioners along with federal officials met last week to share those funds in line with the revenue allocation formula. If this money had come under the last President, it would have gone the same way as in previous years.

“The NLNG is not starting fresh to remit. It has been doing that every year plus taxes paid by, I think Shell, amounting to about $500 million added to the amount of $1.6 billion from NLNG that total to the amount of $2.1 billion. That was the money that was shared.

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“Imagine what Edo State got from this renewed transparency and total compliance to the spirit and letter of the constitution in section 80. If what we got last week, courtesy of this renewed commitment to transparency, if we had gotten this in the past four years consecutively, we would have made about N10 billion.

“So, by the same token, Edo State government had lost N10 billion under President Goodluck Jonathan and under Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. And this is the point we have been making when analysts just talk about states, states, they do not really probe the specifics and because the federal voice is always louder and people make assumptions that certain people are not likely to do certain things, the truth is that so much was not paid to the federation account and that explains the huge gap.”

Recall that the National Economic Council had accused Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of spending $2.1bn from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) without authorisation.

But according to the ex-minister, the $2 billion she was alleged to have withdrawn from the ECA without authorisation was used to pay for fuel subsidy under instructions from former president Goodluck Jonathan.

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