FAAC disowns Okonjo-Iweala, denies approving $2bn withdrawal

Commissioners of Finance and Accountants General of the 36 states of the federation, yesterday, distanced themselves from claims by the former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that they were part of the decision to withdraw and spend $2 billion from Nigeria’s excess crude oil revenue account last December.

Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, and his Kaduna State counterpart, Nasir El Rufai, had, after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja on Tuesday last week, accused Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala of unilaterally approving the withdrawal of about $2.1 billion from the $4.1 billion left in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) last November “without authorization”.

But in a swift reaction, the former minister had vehemently rejected the accusation, describing allegations linking her to the allegations as “false, malicious and totally without foundation”.

Okonjo-Iweala’s reaction, conveyed through a statement by her Media Adviser, Paul Nwabuikwu, said all expenditures from the ECA “were discussed at meetings of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) attended by finance commissioners from the 36 states”.

“It is curious that in their desperation to use the esteemed National Economic Council for political and personal vendetta, the persons behind these allegations acted as if the constitutionally recognized FAAC, a potent expression of Nigeria’s fiscal federalism, does not exist,” she said.

But in a stern reaction on Tuesday in Abuja, members of the FAAC, under the aegis of the Forum of Commissioners of Finance, disowned the former minister, describing her claim as “misleading and far from the fact”.

“It has come to our notice the statement credited to the former Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Honourable Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) approved the withdrawal from Excess Crude (Foreign) Account the sum of two billion U.S. dollar ($2,000,000,000.00),” the commissioners said.

“This statement is far from the fact and is misleading,” the statement said.

The FAAC meeting for November 2014 ended in confusion when the then Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda, could not explain how the balance in the ECA had dropped from $4.1 billion at the end of October to $3.1 billion.

Prior to the October FAAC meeting, Okonjo-Iweala had told reporters that the balance of the ECA stood at $4.11 billion, while the country’s external reserves rose from $36.6 billion in June to $39.48 billion as at October 16