The Cross River State Government in South-South Nigeria has denied recieving any $500 million monthly from the Federal Government as stabilisation fund for the lost of 76 oil wells to Akwa Ibom State and the ceding of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.
Governor Ben Ayade in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Christian Ita, said the claim by the Chairman of Revenue Allocation Mobilization and Fiscal Commission, RAMFAC, Muhammad Bello Shehu, can best be described as “misspoke” on national television.
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The Governor said since he became the Governor of Cross River State in 2015, no such fund has been paid by the Federal Government through its ministries, departments and agencies into the state coffers.
Ayade in a statement also called on the RAMFAC Chairman to correct his “faux pas”, which he said has caused the State Government considerable embarrassment across the globe.
The statement added that instead, Cross River State has been receiving ₦500 million since 2008 and that the Federal Government has been deducting between ₦1.6 billion and ₦2 billion from the monthly allocation to the state.
“Is it not ridiculous that while the RAMFAC Chairman was gleefully mentioning $500 million as a monthly stabilisation fund to the state, which is not true, he failed to mention that the same Federal Government deducts between N1.6 to N2 billion from Cross River State monthly allocations, thus making nonsense of the said ₦500 million monthly stabilisation fund?”, the statement added.
Nigeria had ceded Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon in 2006 following the judgement of the International Court of Justice, ICJ in 2002 at The Hague and the Green Tree Agreement of 2006 signed during the President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
The fallout of the ceding had led to over 13,000 indigenes of Bakassi becoming refugees in their country following their being sacked by the Cameroonian Ganderms from their ancestral homes which is now part of the Republic of Cameroon.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
