The Senate on Tuesday rejected a prayer seeking investigation into the management of Excess Crude Account from 2004 till date.
It, however, called for the abolition of the Account, even as it resolved that amount above the crude oil benchmark be paid into the Federation Account, in compliance with the 1999 Constitution and appropriated into the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and other sectors.
Equally, the upper legislative chamber called on the Executive arm of government to act in conformity with the constitution in its revenue receipt and expenditure.
The resolutions followed a motion moved by Rose Oko (PDP, Cross River State) and co-sponsored by 41 others.
The Excess Crude Account (ECA) was established in 2004 to provide savings for Nigeria to stabilize the economy when there are shortfalls due to volatile crude oil prices.
Although four out of five prayers were approved, senators rejected the main prayer which dwelt on mandating an ad-hoc committee to investigate the revenue that accrued from the amount above the oil benchmark from 2004 till date, identifying any further infractions committed and report back within two months.
In her lead debate titled: “The Excess Crude Account: an illegality and a drain pipe,” Oko expressed concern that the ECA is alien to the 1999 Constitution of any known law in the country.
Specifically, she said the ECA is not in tandem with Sections 80 (1-4) and 162 (1-3) of the constitution, which prescribes revenue receipts and expenditure.
Citing a report by the National Resource Governance Institute, the senator raised the alarm that Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account is one of the most poorly managed around the world.
According to her, the continued impunity of the ECA and its discretionary operation has created room for ‘imprudence, recklessness and arbitrariness’.
“The Senate notes that for instance, it was reported that the ECA increased from $5.16 billion in 2005 to over $20billion in 2008, and decreased to less than $4billion by 2010 with no known tracking of its operations.
“Further Notes that at various times and from several quarters in 2013, it was purported that $5billion was missing from the ECA, and that $2billion was withdrawn without authorization.
“Observes that by May 2017, Government announced a resumption of payment into the ECA of $87million ostensibly since May, 2015 arbitrarily.
“Further observes that however, between May, 2015 and August, 2017 about US $122.2million had accrued and ought to have been paid to the ECA,” the lawmaker noted.
In his contribution, Atai Aidoko (APC, Kogi State) said ECA is the biggest slush fund wondering how more than one-tenth of accrued revenues to the country is spent without appropriation.
Others like Senators Adamu Aliero (APC, Kebbi State) and Mao Ohuabunwa (PDP, Abia State) argued strongly in support of the motion against the position of a few lawmakers warning against compete abrogation of the Excess Crude Account.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
