Zamfara State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Abdulaziz Yari, on Thursday reported the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ( NNPC ) to President Muhammadu Buhari for failure of the corporation to remit to the Federation Account the Joint Venture Cash Call for five years.
Yari, briefed State House correspondents after closed-door meeting with President Buhari, involving six other governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He stressed that the country was shortchanged by NNPC for five years when the oil price was about $110 per barrel and as high as the Cash Call Joint Venture.
On the purpose of the visit, Yari who was flanked by Governors Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State and Simon Lalong of Plateau State said: โThe meeting is on the decision of NEC (National Economic Council) that the 7-man Committee was established to engage the NNPC and discuss a way forward so that we can be able to resolve the issue that is outstanding most especially on the remittances to the Federation Account.
โYesterday (Wednesday) the 7-Man Committee sat with the NNPC group and today (yesterday) we have come to brief the President. One of the things is about how they are paying the Joint Venture batch four and we have seen that what is being remitted to the Federation Account to the entire people of Nigeria is lower and what is being paid for the Cash Call Joint Venture is higher than what is going to the Federation Account.
โSo, we are concerned about that and NEC is concerned about that. So they told the committee under my leadership to engage with the NNPC to discuss a way forward.โ he added
On what was the response of the President, he said, โThe entire federation is being shortchanged by those activities. The NNPC since 2010, there were no payments of Joint Venture Cash Call when the oil was $110 per barrel up to when the President took over in 2015.
โSo why the Federation Account is always low is because they are paying dual, paying the existing and at the same time paying the arrears.
โSo we sat down with them to fine-tune how best we are going to get our partners to understand where we are more especially now the oil has started picking and the price is becoming moderately good and then we are slightly out of recession and we want to sustain that tempo.โ
Others that attended the meeting with the President included governors Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State (PDP), Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State (PDP), Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State (APC) and Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State (APC).
