Bayelsa State government has said deductions amounting to N11.678 billion by the Federal Government from its monthly revenue allocation over disputed oil wells with sister states are illegal.
The Technical Adviser to the Governor on Finance, Revenue and Accounts, Mr Timipre Seipulou, stated this yesterday in a chat with reporters after the state’s transparency briefing for the months of March and April 2021, in Yenagoa.
He said although a lower court had ruled over the matter, the Federal Government should have allowed all the legal processes to be exhausted before making such deductions.
Seipulou, who noted that the state government had protested over the issue to no avail said N939.865 million was being deducted monthly from the Bayelsa government’s allocation, which payment is spread over a period of one year.
He said: “The N11 billion deducted is the fund we were earning from statutory and derivation allocations. But now we have legal issues with our sister states where some oil wells are being contested.
“While the issue is still in court, the Federal Government said that the Bayelsa State government needed to pay the money back to the Federation Account. The Federal Government should not have deducted such funds until the legal processes were exhausted.”
Seipulou also made some clarifications on the payment of members of staff and teachers in Ogbia Local GovernmentArea, stating that the state government for the past three months has been collaborating with the council to pay workers’ salary, including ensuring that promotions were effected up to date.
Presenting the income and expenditure report for the month of March, Seipulou said the total gross inflow was N10.4 billion, consisting of statutory allocation of N2.118 billion, derivation N5.922 billion and Value Added Tax N1.5 billion.
Other receipts were foreign exchange equalisation N221.4 million and ecological fund N57.77 million among other items.
The governor’s aide also announced N1.998 billion as total deduction from FAAC made up of foreign loans to federal government recovery N35.91 million, refund on N11 billion from Bayelsa allocation N939.865 million among other components, leaving the state with a net inflow of N8.5 billion.
He said the internally generated revenue from February was N1.19 billion in addition to other receipts of N20 billion totalling N21.19 billion
