By Jefferson Ibiwale, Benin

The Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomole, has accused former Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, of illegally spending $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account on former President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election campaign. The governor made the allegation in Benin on Monday at a seminar organized by the state government for its permanent secretaries, directors and deputy directors.

The seminar had the theme “Enhancing IGR in Edo, issues, prospects and challenges”.

The governor said that the former minister had claimed that Jonathan approved the withdrawal of $2.1 billion for the payment of oil marketers but contended that only about $1 billion was paid to the marketers, leaving over $1 billion to be spent on the former President’s re – election bid.

“Now that she claimed she used it, between herself and the last President, they agreed to take the money to pay oil marketers. But if you talk to those oil marketers, they will tell you that within that period, they were paid $1 billion not $2.1 billion. So in truth, about $1 billion was taken for election purposes,” the governor alleged.

Oshiomole, who frowned at what he called the ex-minister’s inconsistent statements on government spending under her watch, said that Okonjo Iweala “would have been declared a pathological liar if she were a witness in court.”

The governor said also that the former minister, who has the added responsibility of being coordinating minister of the economy, needed to explain to Nigerians how the Excess Crude Account was drawn down to $4.1 billion from the peak of $10 billion “when no approval was given by the National Economic Council.”

He noted that “a forensic audit would truly determine how much was illegally spent from the federation account under her watch as Minister.”

Oshiomole stated that although the Goodluck Jonathan government usually blamed the state governments for profligate spending and not saving for the rainy day, the truth is that “many things went wrong even at the federal level” and that “the real weakness in the Nigerian federal chain has been the Federal Government.”

There had been contention between the governors, particularly Oshiomole, and the former minister over spending from and depletion of the Excess Crude Account.

Oshiomole recalled that when he first raised the alarm over the depletion of the Excess Crude Account by over $2 billion, the former finance minister had claimed that the state finance commissioners had agreed through the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, that the money be shared among the three tiers of government, but observed that she later contradicted herself by saying that President Jonathan ordered the withdrawal.

“You have heard of the last instalment of $4.1 billion that was in the Excess Crude Account as of November, 2014, and from that time till today, we have not – when I say we, federal, states and local governments have not touched that money. We have not agreed to take anything out of it, and yet it has been drawn down to about $2 billion. Which means $2.1 billion disappeared,” the governor said.

He recalled: “When I made this allegation after the National Economic Council meeting that the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister, Dr Okonjo-Iweala took $2.1 billion without approval and spent it in a manner that was never accounted for, she replied that I lied and said that it was the Commissioners and herself who agreed to distribute that money to the three tiers of government and that FAAC is the most visible expression of our true federalism.”

“Now the Commissioners of Finance met and they looked at themselves and they looked at Okonjo-Iweala and they submitted to Okonjo-Iweala that ‘madam, you lied, not Oshiomhole because in truth, we have no powers to decide withdrawals from the Excess Crude Account and that that power is vested in the State Governors at the level of the National Economic Council.” “Now the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, confronted with these hard facts now shifted the argument that ‘oh no it is not FAAC that approved it, it was the former President Goodluck Jonathan that approved it,” Oshiomole stated. The President, the governor noted, had no such approving power.

“President Jonathan as far as the law of Nigeria is concerned, or any President, his approval is limited to funds of the federal government, not funds of the federation. Funds of the federation can only be approved by Governors and representative of the President as reflected in the composition of the National Economic Council, which is made is made up by Governors and chaired by the Vice President, with the CBN Governor and Minister of Finance and others as members,” he observed.

The Edo governor also complained that in four years the state lost about N10 billion from NLNG remittance to the federation account.

“How did I arrive at the figure? I used my 4-Figure Table and I asked myself at $2.1 billion remitted by NLNG as taxes and Shell, and by the way, Shell is not the only oil operative, we have Chevron and several others. They shared the $2.1 billion based on the revenue allocation formula, Edo State got about N2.27 billion,” Oshiomole stated.”

“So I said, thank God this money came after the departure of Okonjo-Iweala and President Jonathan. If the PDP were still in charge in Abuja, this money would have been taken,” he added.