Katsina State among top gainers from N388.3bn refund

The Federal Government has released N388.304 billion out of N522.74 billion to 35 states as refunds of over-deductions on London-Paris Club loans.

Topping the list of states with the hugest reimbursements are states controlled by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), contrary to their claims that they were being financially oppressed by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The biggest earners include Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Katsina, Kaduna, Lagos, Imo, Jigawa, Borno, Niger, Bauchi and Benue states.

But the reimbursement profile has shown that some governors fed their states with wrong figures of the sums given to them.

The refund has however landed Governor Ayodele Fayose in fresh trouble with the Federal Government after it was found that he collected N8.877 billion but could only pay one month out of the eight-month salary arrears he owed workers in the state.

Fayose was also said to have paid a curious 13th month salary as bonus while the arrears of seven-month salaries owed the workers were left unpaid.

According to The Nation, 35 of the 36 states benefitted from the refunds of N388.304 billion.

Although most of the governors have begged the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, not to make the list of reimbursements public, The Nation was able to source the breakdown of the reimbursements exclusively.

The document indicated that all the 35 states were credited with their shares of the N388.304 billion as at December 27, 2016.

Our correspondent obtained the names of the bank, the account and the account numbers where each state’s share was remitted.

Only Kano State and the FCT have so far not benefitted from the reimbursements.

According to the list, Kwara State got two types of refund totaling more than N9.188 billion.

Kwara’s shares include N5,415,167,236.97 refund to the state government and N3,773,082,953.54 for its 16 local government areas.

Findings also confirmed that Ondo was only paid 50 per cent of its refunds (N6,513,392,932.28) because of leadership change in the state, which will soon lead to the inauguration of Chief Rotimi Akeredolu as the new governor.

A breakdown of the list of top beneficiaries of the refunds is as follows:

Akwa Ibom, N14,500,000,000.00;

Bayelsa, N14,500,000,000.00;

Delta, N14,500,000,000.00;

Kastina, N14,500,000,000.00;

Lagos, N14,500,000,000.00;

Rivers, N14,500,000,000.00;

Kaduna, N14,362,416,363.24;

Borno, N13,654,138,849.49;

Bauchi, N12,792,664,403.93;

Benue, N12,749,689,453.61;

Sokoto, N11,980,499,096.97;

Osun, N11,744,237,793.56;

Anambra, N11,386,281,466.35;

Edo, N11,329,495,462.04;

Cross River, N11,300,139,741.28;

Kogi, N11,211,573,328.19

Kebbi, N11,118,149,054.10.

Read More: Here