By Ahmed Idris
Governors of the 36 states of the federation on Thursday accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of refusing to remit to the Federation Account the Joint Venture Cash Call for five years.
Addressing State House correspondents at the end of a close-door meeting with President Muhammad Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Mr. Abdulaziz Yari, said governors were not happy about the development.
Yari, who is also the governor of Zamfara state, said it was the issue of non-remittance of the funds by the NNPC that necessitated the meeting between the governors and the President.
“The meeting is on the decision of NEC that the seven-man committee was established to engage the NNPC and discuss a way forward so that we can resolve the issue that is outstanding most especially on the remittances to the Federation Account.
“Yesterday (Wednesday) the seven-man committee sat with the NNPC group, and we have come to brief the President. One of the things is about how they are paying the Joint Venture batch four and we have seen that what is being remitted to the Federation Account to the entire people of Nigeria is lower and what is being paid for the Cash Call Joint Venture is higher than what is going to the Federation Account.
“So, we are concerned about that and NEC is concerned about that. So they told the committee under my leadership to engage with the NNPC to discuss a way forward,” he said.
On the response of the President, Yari said: “The entire federation is being shortchanged by those activities. The NNPC since 2010, there were no payments of Joint Venture Cash Call when the oil was $110 per barrel up to when the President took over in 2015.
“So why the Federation Account is always low is because they are paying dual, paying the existing and at the same time paying the arrears. So we sat down with them to fine-tune how best we are going to get our partners to understand where we are more especially now that the oil has started picking and the price is becoming moderately good and then we are slightly out of recession and we want to sustain that tempo.”
The governors that attended the meeting were Mr. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom state, Mr. Dave Umahi of Ebonyi state, Mr. Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau state, Mr. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi state, Mr. Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina state and Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai of Kaduna state.
