Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, on Thursday disclosed that she had informed President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and state governors on the monthly meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee that ended in a stalemate on Wednesday.

Adeosun said this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of a meeting of the National Economic Council presided over by Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

All state governors, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and some relevant ministers are members of the council chaired by the Vice President.

Adeosun said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was operating as a business, hence the government needed to act once its expectations from the firm were not met.

The minister explained that with oil price at $76 per barrel in the spot market and Bonny Light at about $78, the government wanted to be saving aggressively into the Excess Crude Account, because the window of relatively high oil price might not last.

She said state governors wanted action taken and they were fully in support of the positions of the Ministry of Finance and the commissioners for finance not to approve the accounts until the government got further explanations on some of the costs being implemented.

On what the issue with the NNPC was, Adeosun explained, “Based on oil price and oil quantity, you can calculate what you are expecting to see in the Federation Account and if the figure is less, then the right question that any stakeholder must ask is why.

 Adeosun put the balances in the ECA at $1.916bn; Stabilisation Fund, N18.892bn; and Natural Resources Fund, N133.715bn.

She explained that additional credit of $80.6m accrued into the ECA in May.

The minister said the council appointed a committee of Kaduna, Kogi, Ebonyi and Lagos state governors to review the administration and operation of the Stabilisation Fund Account.

The NNPC on Thursday justified its N147bn June remittance to the Federation Account, saying it was in line with the terms of agreement it had with state governors on the matter.

The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, stated that the agreement the corporation had with the governors was that it would make a monthly remittance of N112bn to and account for sharing by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee to the three tiers of government.

This, he said, was subject to sufficient funds from the sale of domestic crude oil allocation for the corresponding month after meeting cash call obligations on joint ventures, deductions of Premium Motor Spirit cost under-recovery and pipeline maintenance costs.

Ughamadu argued that the NNPC was able to surpass the terms of agreement with the governors in June by N35bn, having taken a cue from their posture by taking from the sum meant for settling cash call obligations.

The corporation regretted the governors’ additional request of N40bn, saying it was unfortunate, given the fact that the NNPC was set to exit the cash call arrangement.

The NNPC insisted that it upheld the agreements reached with the governors with respect to its most recent remittance to the government.

Although it did not disclose the amount deducted for under-recovery on PMS and pipeline maintenance, it denied claims that it deducted N89bn that was meant for FAAC.

A finance commissioner had alleged that the corporation deducted N89bn that was meant for FAAC.

When confronted with the claims of the commissioner, Ughamadu said, “Not correct. We provided more than the average remittance we agreed with the governors for June. The agreement the NNPC has with the governors is that FAAC be given N112bn monthly.

The Commissioner for Finance, Ekiti State, Chief Toyin Ojo, said that as of Wednesday when the FAAC meeting was convened, the NNPC had yet to remit any amount into the Federation Account.

He said that members of the committee were told that it would take up to Friday before the remittances could be made into the Federation Account.

His counterpart in Osun State, Mr Bola Olabamiji, said he and his colleagues were still waiting in Abuja following the crisis at the FAAC meeting and would be in the Federal Capital Territory till the time the issue would be resolved.

The Bayelsa State Government said the inconclusive nature of the FAAC meeting would result in a slight delay in the payment of salaries for civil servants for June.

The Commissioner for Finance, Mr Maxwell Embeleyi, said in a statement on Thursday that the meeting could not hold because of the inability of the NNPC to present accurate figures of revenue collected for the month to the committee.

The commissioner explained that the Bayelsa State Government was obliged to alert the workers and the good people of the state that the delay in the FAAC meeting could result in a slight delay in the payment of salaries.