The Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, Ahmed Idris has reacted to Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose’s objection to the withdrawal of $1 billion from the ECA.
The AGF said ‘Fayose should have made his objection known to the Governors’ Forum and not to the press,’stressing that the state governors as part owners of the ECA were perfectly in order to request that part of the money be used to secure the country.
Idris made the reaction on Saturday while briefing finance correspondents during the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja,and stated that “as part owners, there will be no objections and we will go with the directive.”
Speaking on the reason the FAAC meeting had to hold on Saturday, the Accountant General said “normally FAAC is held between 20th and 25th of every month but because of Christmas and end of year activities we decided to hold it mid-month (December) as against the usual dates so that money would be available for workers to celebrate festivities.
“Institutions found themselves inundated with reconciling figures at short notices and some FAAC officials were at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) till 9pm and the documents needed got to stakeholders this morning thus prompting today’s meeting so that Nigerians can have better Christmas and New Year celebrations,” he said.
The Daily Times reports that three tiers of government shared the total sum of N609.959 billion for November allocation while that of December will be shared in January in line with the tradition.
Commenting on the revenue distributed amongst the three tiers, the Chairman of Commissioners Forum, Alhaji Mahmoud Yunusa, said “November’s figures are higher now but they can be better off. The states are happy that workers will be paid before Christmas.”
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