Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State may afterall be right over his public exposée that Governors of the 9 oil rich States of Nigeria had received humongous funds from the Federal authorities as refunds dating back to 1999.
The Presidency this Friday confirmed the payment of a total N625.43 billion as 13% oil derivation, subsidy and SURE-P refunds from the Federation Account in the last 2 years (2021-2022) to 9 oil producing States of the country.
The States that received the refunds are; Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers with Akwa Ibom, Delta and Rivers toping the beneficiary list in that order.
President Mohammadu Buhari's Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu in a statement on Friday explained that, data obtained from the Federation Account Department, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, show that a total of N477.2 billion was released to the 9 States as refund of the 13 percent derivation fund on withdrawal from Excess Crude Account (ECA) without deducting derivation from 2004 to 2019, leaving an outstanding balance of N287.04 billion.
It added that the States also got N64.8 billion as refund of the 13% derivation fund on deductions made by NNPC without payment of derivation to Oil Producing States from 1999.
The Presidency however confirmed that the benefitting States still have an outstanding balance of N860.59billion windfall from the refunds, which was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the figures, under the 13% derivation fund on withdrawal from the ECA without deducting derivation from 2004 to 2019; Abia State received N4.8billion with outstanding sum of N2.8billion, Akwa-Ibom received N128 billion with outstanding sum of N77 billion, Bayelsa with N92.2bn, leaving an outstanding of N55billion.
Cross River State got a refund of N1.3billion with a balance N792 million, Delta State received N110billion, leaving a balance of N66.2billion, while Edo State received N11.3billion with a balance of N6.8billion, Imo State got N5.5 billion with an outstanding sum of N3.3billion, and Ondo State, N19.4 billion with an outstanding sum of N11.7bn, just as Rivers State was paid N103.6billion, with an outstanding balance of N62.3billion.
The information reveals that the States were paid in eight instalments between October 2, 2021 and January 11, 2022, while the ninth to twelfth instalments are still outstanding.
On the 13% derivation fund on deductions made by NNPC without payment of derivation, the 9 oil producing States were paid in three instalments this year, with the remaining 17 instalments outstanding.
Under this category, Abia State received N1.1billion; Akwa-Ibom, N15 billion; Bayelsa, N11.6 billion; Cross River, N432 million; Delta State, N14.8billion; Edo State, N2.2 billion; Imo State, N2.9billion; Ondo State, N3.7billion; and Rivers State, N12.8billion.
Also, the benefitting States shared N9.2billion in three instalments in April, August and November 2022 as refunds on the 13% derivation exchange rate differential on withdrawal from the ECA.
From the breakdown, the three largest benefitting States on this particular trench of refund are; Akwa Ibom (N1.6billion), Delta State (N1.4billion) and Rivers State (N1.32billion).
Similarly, all the 9 states received N4.7billion each, totalling N42.34 billion as refunds on withdrawals for subsidy and SURE-P from 2009 to 2015. The refund, which is for all the States and Local Government Councils, was paid on 10th November, 2022.
The Federation Account also paid N3.52billion each as refund to Local Government Councils on withdrawals for subsidy and SURE-P from 2009 to 2015 on the same date in November.
The Presidency hinted that President Buhari considers it a matter of honour and decency that debts owed to states or anyone for that matter be repaid, and in time without regards to their partisan political affiliations.
