By Our Reporter
After criticism and pressure from the public, the Akwa Ibom State Government has finally released figures of the 13 per cent oil derivation arrears paid to the state by the federal government.
The state Finance Commissioner, Linus Nkan, while addressing reporters in Uyo on Monday, confirmed the receipt of N186 billion as arrears between 2021 and the third quarter of 2022.
This was the second time in less than a week Mr Nkan was responding to the public demand for specifics on the oil money.
The state government, through Mr Nkan, initially referred those who asked questions about the arrears to the state budget and the 2021 Accountant General report.
Mr Nkan, for over a week, turned down requests for comments on the matter.
Before now, different figures were being circulated on the internet as the amount paid to the state for the 13 per cent derivation arrears.
Governors in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region has been under pressure to disclose the amount paid to their states as derivation arrears, after Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State disclosed on 18 November that his state’s share of the money is what his administration had been using to implement several multi-billion projects in the state.
Mr Wike’s “it would be unfair not to tell the public” remark made it appears as if other governors in the region had concealed the information about the receipt of the money President Muhammadu Buhari administration paid to them.
The Rivers governor later on, during a banquet organised in Port Harcourt by the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State for the G5 governors, challenged other governors in the Niger Delta region to point to what they have been doing with the money received from the federal government, according to a report by Channels TV.
The challenge put the governors in the spotlight and triggered a demand for accountability.
