Abia Moves To Stop Excess Crude Fund Deductions

With the reconstitution of the Federal Executive Council, Abia State is set to file a petition to the federal government seeking a stoppage to deductions from Excess Crude fund accruing to the state.

 Governor Theodore Orji who disclosed this in Umuahia said he had already tabled the matter before Acting President Goodluck Jonathan who advised him to put up a petition when a new federal cabinet was reconstituted.

 According to Orji, despite agreements earlier reached that no deductions should be made on Excess Crude fund accruing to states, he was surprised to note that the federal government has continued to effect such deductions on funds accruing to Abia. 

He said that in January this year, Abia got N2.2 Billion from the Excess Crude Account but only 50 percent was remitted to the state as the federal government deducted N1.1 Billion to service debts owed by the state. He also said that in the second sharing of the Excess Crude fund, Abia got only N600 Million.

 He said that as result of the deductions, he and his Enugu state counterpart, Sullivan Chime, went to the Acting President to complain and he advised them to wait for the reconstitution of the federal cabinet so that they could file their petition for the matter to be addressed. 

On Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Orji said that the Board of Internal Revenue announced that it generated the N205 Million last month but has so far remitted only N167 Million. “We believe tomorrow will be better,” he said. 

The governor who was addressing Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) faithful in Umuahia said he was explaining the financial position of the state to them to enable them to better appreciate the performance of his government.

 “Abia will rank Number One as a performing States. You have to assess yourself based on the resources at your disposal. Only Excess Crude fund could be used for projects,” he said.

 The governor said his administration has built 68 health centres and equipped them. “We concentrated on health to ensure the well-being of our people. If you are sick, you can not undertake any meaningful activity,” he said.

  “Government was paying N80 Million monthly to those who were sweeping the streets but we discovered that most of them were not working. So, I had to stop it. I know it affected many people,” Orji said.