Paris Club refunds: FG keeps mum over fresh payments

Controversies surrounding payments of the first tranche of refunds made to states by the Federal Government have become more intriguing with secret payments being made by the Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to some states.

The Federal Ministry of Finance had Friday last week released details of the payment of N516,384,636,883.81 to all the states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The details were at variance with what the states said they got.

The payments were made to the 36 states and the FCT following the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari on November 21 2016, according to a statement by Salisu Danbatta, director of information in the Ministry of Finance.

Dambatta said the payments were in partial settlement of longstanding claims by state governments relating to over-deductions from their Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocation for external debt service between 1995 and 2002.

There was, however, a twist during the week when it was revealed that months after President Buhari approved the payment of the refunds and CBN had credited accounts of the states, there have been fresh payments to some states. One of them, Bayelsa State, got additinal pay in March.

The state deputy governor, Rear Admiral John Jonah (rtd), admitted that the state received additional N6.61bn in March.

“When the first 25 per cent was paid, Bayelsa State could have received N21.168 billion, but when the money came, they only released N14.5 billion to us”, he disclosed, adding that the balance came in March.

Several other states have come out to dispute the figure released by the Federal Government.

However, despite the deepening controversies, Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, refused to answer any question relating to the Paris Club debt refunds at a press briefing on Thursday.

She turned down all efforts made to get her to explain the huge differences between her figures and those of the governors.

Also, Dambatta, when contacted on telephone, said “the ministry does not have any reaction to the matter.”

The deductions are in respect of the Paris Club, London Club and Multilateral debts of the Federal Government and states.

While Nigeria reached a final agreement for debt relief with the Paris Club in October 2005, some states had already been overcharged.

However, Governor Nyesom Wike who recently spoke on behalf of his state, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Delta states, disputed the figures, which the ministry said was paid to them.

The details showed that Rivers got N34,925,785,322.06 while Akwa Ibom and Delta got N25,981,255,165.12 and N27,606,963,362.46 respectively.

According to Wike, “Rivers State, Akwa Ibom and Delta States were given 11.5 per cent of the money; other states were given 25 per cent of the money. For record purposes let the world hear.

“As I speak to you, no N34 billion has been paid to Rivers State. I challenge the Federal Government to show Nigerians the account they paid the N34 billion,” he spoke during the first session of the 8th synod thanksgiving service of the Anglican Province of Niger Delta.

He lamented that the Federal Government had actually released only N14 billion as Paris Fund refund to Rivers State but was forced to release another N3 billion following protests thus making it a total of  N17 billion paid.

He said, “I read on the pages of newspapers that Rivers State received the highest amount of the refund of the Paris Club to the tune of N34 billion. I want to say categorically that is not correct.

“The President approved that every state and local government should receive 50 percent. They came to say that they cannot pay 50 per cent, but they can pay 25 per cent.

“Now, the 25 percent of the 50 percent, they paid Rivers State government and local government areas, N14 billion. They short-paid Rivers State, they short paid Akwa Ibom and they short-paid Delta State, which are PDP states.

“We are the only three states that were short-changed. They paid all other states completely. So, we started fighting. We raised the alarm and they said we still have N3 billion.

“For the remaining of the 25 percent, they called a meeting. They now said, ‘we cannot pay you that 25 per cent fully. We will pay you part of the 25 per cent now, pay part in September, pay part in December’. If they pay part now, part in September and pay part in December; then it will mean that they have paid Rivers State government N34 billion.

“If they say that, we are entitled to N34 billion, okay. Being entitled and paying the money are two different things”.