Federal
Government’s plan to spend additional $1billion Excess Crude Account (ECA) fund
in the fight against Boko Haram is not going down well with the Niger Delta
region and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
While
stakeholders in the region described the approval given by governors— some of
whom have dissociated themselves from the decision — as discriminatory, the
main opposition party accused the Federal Government of deploying diversionary
tactic to cover attempts at “pilfering $1 billion from the ECA “to finance
partisan activities.”
In separate
statements in Port Harcourt and Abuja, they called on the National Assembly to
block the fund and demand complete breakdown of how the money would be spent.
Rivers State
Governor Nyesom Wike would not condemn release of the $1 billion to tackle Boko
Haram but insisted that environmental and security challenges in the Niger
Delta far outweighed the North East insurgency.
Wike spoke
at the Annual General Meeting of the Okpo Club of Nigeria (Association of
Ikwerre Lawyers) in Port Harcourt, where he urged the All Progressives Congress
(APC)-led Federal Government to release the derivation component of the Excess
Crude Account to oil-producing states.
The governor
also called for release of funds earmarked for tackling environmental
degradation and security in the Niger Delta. “Niger Delta environmental
problems are as serious as the Boko Haram insurgency,” he noted.
“I am not
saying that you should not fight Boko Haram, but if you can get funds from the
national Pool to tackle Boko Haram, then you should go to the same pool to get
funds to fight environmental problems in Ogoni and other Niger Delta
communities,” he said.
In the same
vein, a former president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
(MOSOP), Ledum Mitee, observed that the approval was discriminatory and ought
to be reversed, on the basis that government had not deemed it fit to expend
such huge resources on the Niger Delta from the ECA.
Mitee told
The Guardian that he was disturbed that government that had previously claimed
to have defeated the Boko Haram wanted to expend $1 billion from the Excess
Crude Account on the same conflict. According to him, it was disturbing that
the Federal Government could not fund the Ogoni cleanup and the East-West Road,
but would graciously seek $ 1 billion from the ECA to fund Boko Haram fight.
“I think
that this discriminatory allocation of resources and projects is not healthy
for all of us. Look at the Ogoni cleanup it has been starved of funds and the
United Nations Environmental Programme in their report said it was a project
that should be financed with an initial $1 billion. How much has been voted;
how much has been allocated?
“What our
Constitution guarantees is that people should not be discriminated on the basis
of where they come from, but I think this is discriminatory and should be
reversed,” said Mitee.
On his part,
a former president of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Professor Kimse Okoko,
said the approval of the fund was outrageous. He tasked the National Assembly
to ensure that the Federal Government provide details on how it plans to spend
it, to avoid repeated misappropriation of funds meant for combating Boko Haram.
“I am
begining to suspect the whole deal, and I think the national Assembly should
seriously examine the request. (They should) ask for all the details of what
they want to use it for and for how long. It appears to me there is something
fishy about the request for $ 1billion, and it should not be approved for the
Executive,” he added.
National
Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement on Sunday
also challenged the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to
substantiate his claims that the PDP was rebranding with stolen money.
Ologbondiyan
said: “Such wild allegation was only intended to divert public attention from
the heavy sleazes under the current administration, the latest being the move
to use the fight against terrorism as a conduit to siphon public funds for
partisan purposes.
“The Federal
Government has failed to address issues raised by the PDP and majority of
Nigerians, including APC members, who cannot fathom how this administration
would want to expend N365 billion on fighting insurgents it claimed had been
technically defeated.
“It is
indeed appalling that rather than being remorseful, the APC Federal Government
has renewed its wild allegations and cheap blackmail against the PDP.
“It is clear
to all that the PDP do not have access to public funds and cannot be rebranding
with stolen money. Instead, we are
rebranding on the grace of the general goodwill of Nigerians who have suffered
untold hardships in close to three years of APC government.
“While we
understand the nervousness of the APC Federal Government over our rebranding
and the renewed popularity of the PDP, which has signaled their inevitable
death knell, resorting to outlandish allegations will not help them as
Nigerians have since seen through such old-fashioned propaganda and gimmicks.
“We are
however not surprised by this diversionary and deceptive approach from the APC
government; a government whose officials have since become notorious for
dishing out falsehood to Nigerians to cover their incompetence and corrupt
tendencies.
“This is the
same minister of information, who in a press in conference in Abuja, in 2016,
promoted allegations that 55 people stole a total of N1.34 trillion; that five
former governors stole N146.8 billion; that four former ministers stole N7
billion. All these have remained unsubstantiated.
“While we
challenge this government to come clean on the issue of the $1 billion excess
crude money, we also challenge the minister of information to comment on
allegations that the APC funded its 2015 presidential campaign with stolen
public funds, particularly from Lagos and Rivers states.
“He should
also waste no time in commenting on allegations of corruption against their
former SGF, Babachir Lawal, the Mainagate and other heavy sleazes going on
unabated under the current APC-led administration.”
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