TheCable

Douye Diri, governor of Bayelsa, says the state has received refunds of arrears of 13 percent of oil derivation proceeds from the federal government.

Daniel Alabra, chief press secretary of the governor, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Bayelsa.

The governor, however, did not state how much had been received so far.

The 13 percent derivation fund comes from the federation revenue to oil-producing communities through the state governments as enshrined in section 162, sub-section 2 of the Nigerian constitution.

At the weekend, Wike said states in the Niger Delta regions had received refunds from Muhammadu Buhari-led government and challenged other governors to account for the windfall.

Diri reacting to Wike’s claim admitted that the state had been getting the funds and deploying same to capital projects.

“For people who are talking about the 13 per cent derivation funds due to the state, I want to state that for one reason or the other, we were underpaid,” he said.

“When we discovered that, we followed the due process from the state’s Executive Council to the state’s House of Assembly.

“Approvals were given and the funds were discounted.

“I do not play politics with this kind of thing. For anybody who wants to see how we use our money, our monthly transparency briefing on our financial income and expenditure is available.

“One kilometre of the road we build in Yenagoa is costlier than three kilometres or four kilometres of road built elsewhere.’’

In 2021, Bayelsa was part of the nine oil-producing states in Nigeria that shared N450.60 billion from the federation account through the 13 percent derivation fund.

While Delta state received the highest with a total of N141.93 billion, representing 31 percent of the total revenue from the derivation account, Bayelsa state received N87.23 billion.

In the first half of 2022, eight oil-producing states shared N377.9 billion as 13 percent derivation and Bayelsa received N76.7 billion.