The Federal Government has released the state by state breakdown of the first tranche of the London Paris Club Refunds paid to state till date which amounted to over N516.38 billion.
From the breakdown given by the Director of Information, Federal Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Nai’Inna Salisu Dambatta, last week in Abuja, Delta State ranked second among five states that got the highest amount of refund from the Federal Government.
The states are Rivers N34.92bn, Delta N27.6bn, Akwa Ibom N25.98bn, Bayelsa N24.89bn and Kano N21.7bn.
Analysis of the payment schedule showed that these five states got a total sum of N135.09bn representing 26.1 per cent of the entire amount refunded by the Federal Government to all the states.
This was followed by Lagos N16.74bn, Katsina N16.4bn, Kaduna N15.44bn, Borno N14.68bn, Jigawa N14.2bn, Imo N14.01bn, Niger N14.42bn, Bauchi N13.75bn, Sokoto N12.88bn and Osun N12.62bn.
Others are Cross River N12.15bn, Anambra N12.24bn, Edo N12.18bn, Kebbi N11.95bn, Kogi N11.05bn,Abia N11.43bn, Ogun N11.47bn, Plateau N11.28bn.
In same development, Yobe state got N10.82bn, Zamfara N10.88bn, Ebonyi N9.01bn, Ekiti N9.54bn, Enugu N10.7bn, Gombe N8.95bn, Nasarawa N9.1bn, Oyo N13.31bn while Kwara got N10.24bn.
The rest are Adamawa N10.25bn, Benue N13.7bn, Ondo N14.01bn, Taraba N9.32bn and Federal Capital Territory N1.36bn.
According to Salisu Dambatta’s statement, the payments were made to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) upon the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari on November 21, 2016 in partial settlement of long-sanding claims by state governments relating to over-deductions from their Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocation for external debt service arising between 1995 and 2002.
“The funds were released to state government as part of the wider efforts to stimulate the economy and were specifically designed to support states in meeting salary and other obligations, thereby alleviating the challenges faced by workers.
“The releases were conditional upon a minimum of 50 per cent being applied to the payment of workers’ salaries and pensions. The Federal Ministry of Finance is reviewing the impact of these releases on the level of arrears owed by state governments, the statement reads in part.
Meanwhile, these details have been cleverly contained by government officials in Delta state, due to incessant clamouring and protests by aggrieved workers and pensioners over huge debts in arrears of salaries, pensions and other emoluments.
When contacted on phone Wednesday to speak on the release, the Commissioner of Information in the state, Patrick Ukah denied that there was no such money given to the state, stressing that not even a kobo was released to the state by the federal government.
Hear him, “let me just tell you there was no money released from Paris Club. What we were hearing is that is that they said that is what we have been paid. I am repeating to you that no one kobo of such was given to Delta State”.
The Commissioner disclosed that the only money the state has received from Paris Club is the N14.7 billion which he said he explained how the state expanded the money through advert. “the only money received is the N14.7 billion which I explained in a full page advert on how state spent that money. Do you remember? If you don’t I will find a copy and send to you again. If you listen to Wike yesterday, Wike of Rivers State said no such money was paid to any of us. So where that statement was emanating from is fraudulent imagination. It is not true, you understand. So, please there is nothing like that and I will react to it officially. I am repeating to you that it was only that N14.7 billion which I did a full page advert to explain how that money was expended. You remember that period but you wait tomorrow morning I will give you details but just to let you know that that thing is not correct, there is nothing like that, thank you very much”.
Our correspondent has waited for 24 hours since the Commissioner made the promise of furnishing us with the details of the refunds but never got back to us at the time of this report.
Meanwhile,Hardreporters had exclusively reports that the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Delta State governor, Mr Charles Ehied Aniagwu, said that the FG cannot direct the state government on what to do with their portion of the London-Paris Club refund accruing to the state.
According to him, “Is it the federal government that will tell us what to do with our money? The money belongs to us”, the CPS stated.
He reiterated that when the second tranche of the money comes, the state would look into matters of priority and not the payment of salaries, pensions as ordered by Mr President.
“When the money comes, we will look into our priority. There are instances where you first attend to matters of urgent need”, Okowa’s aide explained.
