Governors to confront Jonathan over $49.8bn oil revenue

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Nigerian governors are poised to confront President Goodluck Jonathan on the alleged refusal of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to remit $49.8bn to the Federation Account.

The governors based their decision on the revelation  made by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria,  Mallam  Lamido Sanusi, in a letter issued by him, that the NNPC had failed to remit the money, which was said to be the proceeds from crude oil sales between January 2012 and July 2013.

The said amount was said to have represented 76 per cent of the value of crude oil lifting during the period, in which the NNPC was said to have remitted  $15.5bn, representing a paltry 24 per cent of the total value of $65.3bn.

This was one of the decisions arrived at by the governors during their meeting in Abuja on Wednesday night.

The meeting, which was held under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and was presided over by its Chairman, who is also the Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, ended in the early hours of Thursday.

The governors also expressed worry over the refusal of the Federal Government to call for the meeting of the National Economic Council in the last four months.

They also regretted that the council’s meeting, which ought to hold on Thursday (yesterday), was postponed indefinitely.

The communique reads in part, “We, members of the NGF, at our meeting today, at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, Abuja deliberated on a number of issues and resolved as follows;

“Given the weighty allegation contained in a recent letter to Mr. President by the Governor  of the Central Bank of Nigeria on the issue of the economy, members mandated the chairman to request for a meeting with His Excellency, the President in order to deliberate on issues of critical national importance.

“The NEC meeting scheduled for tomorrow(yesterday), December 12, 2013 where this issue would have been addressed has been postponed indefinitely. It is instructive to note that the NEC has not been convened in four months.”

The governors said the meeting with the President had become particularly necessary due to the fact that the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee meeting of November 9 and 10 was also shelved without any reason.

The governors also commended the life of the former President of South Africa, late Nelson Mandela, who, they said, left a legacy of quality and selfless leadership worthy of emulation.