13 Per Cent Derivation: Edo Government Says It Received Only N2.1 Billion

Edo State Government has said it only received N2.1 billion from the N28 billion arrears due to the state from the country’s 13 percent derivation formula.

In a press conference on Wednesday, the state Commissioner for Finance, Joseph Eboigbe said there was a repayment plan of the arrears to be paid in five years of four quarters in a year.

He said: “It was the Commissioners of Finance in Nigeria under the aegis of FAAC especially those from the oil producing states that spotted the fact that there was an anomaly in respect of the federal government spending money from crude oil and gas sales and not taking out derivation.

"So the work was done and a total of about one trillion naira was established as due to the oil-producing states, it went through the whole process and the FEC approved it and a methodology for repayment as approved by RMFAC and they now agreed on what will be due to each state.

“Edo State’s share of that figure was N28b.  What was also approved was the way and manner this money will get to the states.

"The net amount that will come to each state over five years; each year, you will have quarterly remittance which means four releases each year over five years.

“By the time they started the releases in October, Edo State got N700m per quarter, and this is verifiable in our bank account.

"What we have got is three quarterly releases so far that is what has come into the state coffers and it is verifiable, it is in the bank, office of the accountant general has the records so our share was N28b net, it is to be distributed five years and that will be 20 quarterly distributions three has come so far.”

"Edo state has received N2.1 billion and you will agree with me that we have people who have religiously used these resources, we are not a rich state but we are rich in human capital development, we are rich in people who are able to manage our resources in such a way that we are able to get the major benefits.”

Reacting to why it took Governor Wike to make the issue public before Nigerians knew about it, Osagie said “the reason why he said this is because elections are coming in February otherwise, it is in public knowledge, the NBS is there, Ministry of Finance is there, journalists have the statistics, they were not new information so the man just said so to cause tension.”