Senate orders abolishment of excess crude account
The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday ordered the abolition of the operation of the Excess Crude Account, ECA.
The Upper Chamber of the National Assembly also requested the Executive to act in conformity with section 80 (1-4) and 162(1-3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in its revenues receipt and expenditure.
The development was sequel to a Motion moved by Senator Rose Okoh and 42 other Senators, who described the Excess Crude Account as illegal and a drain pipe on the economy.
Senator Rose Okoh (PDP Cross Rivers North) noted that the ECA is alien to the 1999 Constitution (as amended) or any other known law of the land; and that it is not in tandem with sections 80 (1-4) and 162 (1_3) of the 1999
Constitution, which prescribed revenue receipt and expenditure.
The Motion also raised worries that the continued impunity of the ECA and it’s discretionary operations in contravention of the Constitution is creating room for impudence, recklessness and arbitrariness.
But Senator Mao Ohuabunwa (PDP, Abia North), in his contribution to the Motion, noted that the model of democracy which Nigeria operates is hinged on rule of law. He lamented that the ECA is being operated arbitrarily without enabling laws.
Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi (APC, Kaduna North) on his part, called on the Senate to find a way of regulating the ECA rather than totally scrapping the account.
Senator Atai Idoko from Kogi State, who also lent his voice to the ECA debate described what is going on with the ECA as illegality, adding that the monies paid into the ECA are being spent without appropriation.
The Senate had last week stepped down the Motion raising questions as to the motives of the lawmaker.
The Daily Times recalls that during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the 36 state governors went to court, asking the Federal Government to release the funds in the Excess Crude Account to them while the court order was later complied with by the federal government.
