NNPC didn’t remit Joint Venture Cash Call to Federation in five years -Governors

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum has accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of not remitting to the Federation Account the Joint Venture Cash Call for about five years.
Briefing State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Chairman of the forum and governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, explained that the country was shortchanged by NNPC for five years, when the oil price was high.
He lamented that this untoward development took place when the Cash Call Joint Venture was high, as the oil price was about $110 per barrel.
Stating the reason for the group’s decision for taking their complain to Buhari, Yari said that the meeting followed a decision by the National Economic Council that a 7-member Committee be established, “to engage the NNPC and discuss a way forward so that we can resolve the issue that is outstanding, most especially on the remittances to the Federation Account.
According to him, the 7-Man Committee sat with the NNPC group and we have come to brief the President. One of the things is about how they are paying the Joint Venture batch four and we have seen that what is being remitted to the Federation Account to the entire people of Nigeria is lower and what is being paid for the Cash Call Joint Venture is higher than what is going to the Federation Account.
“NEC is concerned about that. So, they told the committee under my leadership to engage with the NNPC to discuss a way forward.”
He added, “The entire federation is being shortchanged by those activities. In the NNPC, since 2010, there were no payments of Joint Venture Cash Call, when the oil was $110 per barrel up to when the President took over in 2015.
“Why the Federation Account is always low is because they are paying dual, paying the existing and at the same time paying the arrears.
“So we sat down with them to fine-tune how best we are going to get our partners to understand where we are now, more especially when oil has started picking and the price is becoming moderately good, and then we are slightly out of recession and we want to sustain that tempo.”
‎Other governors who accompanied Yari were those of Akwa Ibom, Udom Emmanuel; Pleateau, Simon Lalong;  Katsina, Aminu Masari; Ebonyi, Dave Umahi; Kebbi, Atiku Bagudu; and Kaduna, Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai.