A coalition of militants in the Niger Delta, yesterday, challenged Niger Delta governors to account for the N44.68tr they received as part of 13 per cent derivation allocation from 1999 to 2018.
Speaking under the aegis of the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers (RNDA), it said available financial records indicated that as from 2018 to date, the 13 per cent derivation funds the governors collected amounted to between N50tr and N55tr.
It, therefore, demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari should henceforth stop paying the 13 per cent derivation funds to the governors of the region.
The group recommended that the 13 per cent derivation should be paid directly to oil and gas producing communities in the interest of peace since the governors failed to use previous allocations to impact positively on the people and host communities.
It stated this in an electronic statement issued yesterday by RNDA Commanding Officer, ‘Maj.-Gen’ Johnmark Ezon-Ebi, after its emergency meeting in the creeks of the Niger Delta region.
It alleged that governors of the oil-producing states collected the amount apart from the internally generated revenues (IGR) and monthly allocations from the Federation Account, as well as accruals from Excess Crude, Paris Club bailout and monthly security funds, among others.
The RNDA also pointed out that President Buhari released Paris Club bailout funds to the governors running into billions of naira, but their debt profile had soared to over N1.25tr.
“We are agitating for the overall development of the region, especially the lifting of oil and gas producing communities in the creeks and we challenge governors of the region to properly account for over N55tr they have so far collected from the Federation Account on 13 per cent derivation from 1999 to 2021.
“In spite of the fact that governors of the oil producing states in the South-South belong to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has not denied them their monthly 13 per cent derivation fund,” it stated.
The group rejected South-South governors’ claim disposition to always blaming the region’s underdevelopment on failure to inaugurate a substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and accused them of neglecting development of the oil producing communities, which had caused youths restiveness and agitations.
