Amaechi to meet President on missing $49.8b, others

Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi plans to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan over allegations of non- remittance of some funds by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the federation account.

Amaechi, who is the chairman of the Nigerian Governors' Forum (NGF), said the Forum, after its meeting in Abuja yesterday underscored the need for the meeting.

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in a letter to President Jonathan, said the NNPC had failed to remit $49.8 billion to the Federation Account.

The sum, he said, represented the proceeds from crude oil sales between January 2012 and July 2013. But the NNPC has denied the CBN governor's allegation saying it was borne out of Sanusi's misunderstanding of the workings of the oil and gas industry.

The communiqué by the NGF after the meeting said: "There is a weighty allegation contained in a recent letter to Mr. President by the CBN Governor on the state of the economy.

"Therefore, members mandated the forum's chairman to request for a meeting with Mr. President in order to deliberate on issues of critical national importance.

"The meeting with the President has become necessary because the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting for November, planned for Dec. 9 and 10, was shelved for undisclosed reasons."

It also pointed out that the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, scheduled for Dec. 12, where such issues could have been discussed, was postponed indefinitely.

The NEC meeting, the forum said, had not been convened in the last four months.

But it condoled with the government and people of South Africa over the death of its former president, Dr Nelson Mandela, noting that Mandela left a legacy of quality and selfless leadership which was worthy of emulation.

The NGF also remembered the late Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Yakowa, who died a year ago.

The NGF said the forum would identify with the Yakowa family during the memorial event being organised by the family.

Among the governors who attended the meeting which started on Wednesday night at the Rivers State Governor's Lodge, Asokoro are those of Zamfara, Kwara, Lagos, Borno, Adamawa, Rivers, Ekiti, Imo, Osun

Deputy governors at the meeting included those from Jigawa and Oyo states.