20th May, 2015
Eromosele Ebhomele
The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, on Wednesday dared the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to make public the details of the Excess Crude Account, ECA.
This came on the heels of the face-off between the minister and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum on how $20 billion that allegedly accrued to the ECA was disbursed.
The forum had said in a statement it issued after its meeting recently that the said sum was paid into the ECA between June 2013 and April 2015.
But in her reaction, the Minister of Finance noted that the details of ECA are published every month along with the allocations to the three tiers of the government.
The minister also threatened that her ministry, in the interest of transparency and accountability, would publish details of the ECA for the last four years.
Chairman of CACOL, Debo Adeniran, while noting that the ECA is an illegal account, averred that Nigerians are eagerly waiting for the statement of the account.
In reaction to the claim and counter-claim, Adeniran said: “in the first instance, the Excess Crude Account is illegal. It is the recklessness of some politicians that necessitated the establishment of the account.
“The Minister of Finance should know that Nigerians could not wait any more to have the full details of the Excess Crude Account, not just for the last four years, but since the inception of this profligate government she oversees its economic team.
“It is a known fact that huge amount of money has been frittered away from the federal coffers by this present administration without anyone being queried or made to face the wrath of the law.
“It is also known this administration’s penchant for lying is so ridiculous that whatever said by any member of the government should be taken with a pinch of salt.
“Hence, we are calling on Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala to make good her promise by making public the details of the ECA as soon as possible.”
He also said Nigerians are “demanding the details of how their governors also used their monthly allocations.
“Nigerians want to know how much is accrued to each state from the Federation and Excess Crude Accounts and how each state expended its own share of the largesse because findings have shown that many of the states do not have much to show for the revenues.”