Buhari, governors meet in Aso Rock

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday met with some state governors under the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) with the chairman of the forum, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara state, saying that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to remit Joint Venture Cash (JVC) cash call into the federation account for five years.

Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, he said this failure to remit the money took place at a time the price of crude oil was as high as $110 per barrel.

He said:  “The 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.

“Yesterday (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 4 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.

“So, 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.”

Present at the meeting with the president were the  Chairman of the forum and Zamfara state governor, Abdulaziz Yari; Aminu Masari (Katsina), Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi) and Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna) as well and the Director General of the NGF, Ashihana Okauru.

He added: “The 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.

“So, why the Federation Account is always low is because they are paying dual, paying the existing and at the same time paying the arrears.

“So, 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.”