A new revelation surfaced,
it was disclosed by Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, on Monday, where he
cited new details from the federal economic council meeting.
According to Oshiomhole, the balance of the oil money, put at about N3.8trillion, was withheld and spent by the NNPC without approval or National Assembly appropriation.
According to Oshiomhole, the balance of the oil money, put at about N3.8trillion, was withheld and spent by the NNPC without approval or National Assembly appropriation.
The governor also told journalists,
after the meeting that from November 2014, about $2.1billion was withdrawn from
the excess crude account without the approval of the National Economic Council
(NEC).
President Muhammadu Buhari
had on Friday, dissolved the board of the NNPC, to pave way for full
investigation of the corporation, and the body led by Oshiomhole said Monday’s
meeting was the first time the NNPC and the office of the Accountant General of
the Federation, briefed the NEC, as directed by the president.
“This has never happened
before and for us this is profound. We are talking about transparency, we are
talking about change. And what we saw from those numbers I believe that
Nigerians are entitled to know, is that whereas the NNPC claimed to have earned
N8.1 trillion, what NNPC paid into the federation account from 2012 to May 2015
was N4.3trillion.
“What it means is that NNPC
withheld and spent N3.8 trillion.
“The major revelation here
is that for the entire federation — that is the federal government, the states
and all the 774 local governments — the amount the NNPC paid into the
federation account for distribution to this three tiers of government came to
N4.3 trillion and NNPC alone took and spent N3.8 trillion.
“Which means the cost of
running NNPC is much more than the cost of running the Federal Government. That
tells you how much is missing, what is mismanaged, what is stolen, they are
huge figures.”
“If NNPC needs to spend
money, it is obliged to prepare its budget like every other business
enterprise. That budget will be scrutinized by the executive and forwarded to
the National Assembly and the National Assembly will accordingly appropriate
it.
“If the federal government
cannot spend without appropriation, why should any agency spend without
appropriation?”
The Edo state governor also
noted that president Buhari promised that henceforth, all monies must go to the
federation account.
“What you need you budget
for, Nigeria cannot continue with you earn the money and spend it. Where is
transparency? Where is the role of the National Assembly? So if you were doing
that you won’t have a situation where the NNPC alone will spend N3.8 trillion
and remit to the federal, states and local governments N4.3 trillion which
means NNPC is taking about 47 per cent and that explains all the leakages you
are talking about.”
“We are not reinventing the
wheel, that is the way it used to be and that is the way the constitution says
it should,” he said.
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