PDP governors challenge FG over duplicity on fuel subsidy, delay on electoral bill – Nexus News
Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rose from a meeting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, yesterday, challenging the Federal Government to immediately reveal all persons involved in the recent importation of contaminated fuel.
They also charged President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law, noting that waiting for 30 days is another evidence of unwillingness by the President to give the country an amended electoral framework.
The meeting which was graced with the presence of 11 out of the 13 governors, frowned at what it portrayed as “duplicity, inconsistency and insincerity of the APC-led Federal Government on the fuel subsidy regime, which has been badly and corruptly administered.”
The governors are: Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu; Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri (Adamawa); Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom); Bala Mohammed (Bauchi State); Douye Diri (Bayelsa); Samuel Ortom (Benue); Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta); Godwin Obaseki (Edo); Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu); Oluseyi Makinde (Oyo) and Nyesom Wike (Rivers).
They requested for thorough investigation into fuel consumption figures released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), declaring: “The figures of consumption ascribed to Nigerians appear fictitious and bloated.”
They bewailed “the opaque nature of NNPC operations” and solicited for accountability and reconciliation of remittances into the federation account.
They welcomed the court decision on Police Trust Fund deductions from the federation account, and implored the Federal Government to end similar unconstitutional deductions from the account.
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In a press release read to journalists, briefly after the meeting, by Ikpeazu, the meeting also implored the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission to expedite action on the new revenue allocation formula, thereby increasing allocation to states and local councils.
The meeting, which was led by the Abia State governor, in his capacity as vice chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, “deplored the way Central Bank of Nigeria is being run as an alternate government, indeed, a government within a government.”
It said: “It is time to streamline its functions and processes to be constitutionally compliant.”
