The Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala has slammed the claims by the Rivers State Governor over an alleged missing $5 billion from the Excess Crude Account.
Amaechi had declared at the Governor’s retreat in Sokoto that there was a missing $5 billion from the Excess Crude Account.
He said, “The Excess Crude Account in January was $9bn. That account belongs to federal, states and local governments. Today, it is $4bn. We don’t know who took the $5bn.”
However Iweala said his statement was shocking and false as he had shared out of the money along with other States.
She said, “Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has been quoted in recent media reports as saying that $5bn is missing from the ECA. This statement is absolutely shocking and false.
“The governor cannot credibly deny knowledge of the status of the ECA. He has been closely involved and actively participated in making requests to the Presidency for the ECA to be shared for the purpose of augmenting the regular allocations from the Federation Account whenever there is a shortfall.
“The $5bn in the ECA, which Governor Amaechi referred to in his statement, has been shared to the three tiers of government to make up for revenue shortfalls during the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee process. Part of this fund also went for SURE-P payments and the balance for subsidy payments to oil marketers.”
She added, “Rivers State received N56.2bn, the second highest share among the states, for January to September 2013 from the ECA. This amount includes N43bn for shortfalls plus N12bn released for SURE-P.
“In fact, earlier this month (November 2013) Rivers State, along with other states, benefitted from the sharing of $1bn from the ECA to augment the allocations.
“It is, therefore, curious that Governor Amaechi seems not to know the whereabouts of the N56.2bn which Rivers State has received from the ECA this year.”
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