•••Soludo’s Follow Up Initiatives Earned Anambra Oil Producing Status
By Kamsi Anayo, Awka
The Anambra State Government has restated the state’s oil producing status, saying it received its mineral derivation revenue from the Federation Account in the month of July 2022 with the first net receipt of N268,232,939.16.
The state’s Commissioner for Finance, Ifeatu Onejeme, confirmed this in a statement on Thursday.
He said the feat was finally achieved sequel to Prof Soludo’s “massive follow up and collaborative initiatives with relevant Federal Government Agencies to achieve the eventual implementation of the decision.”
Apparently reacting to social media reports that the state received well over N300bn from the Federal Government in that respect, the Commissioner insisted that what the state received was N268,232,939.16, only.
The Commissioner’s statement read in part, “The attention of Anambra State Government has been drawn by well-meaning Anambra people and fellow Nigerians to several false and misleading stories circulating on some social and online media platforms about the 13% Oil Mineral Derivation Revenue received by Anambra State.
“This Press Release is deemed necessary in the public interest, in the spirit of full disclosure and in line with our principle of transparency, to address the deliberate misinformation and provide Ndi Anambra and the general public with the correct state of affairs.
“The proviso to S.162(2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides that the principle of derivation shall be constantly reflected in any approved formula determined by the National Assembly for revenue allocation from the Federation account and such derivation shall not be less than thirteen per cent of the revenue accruing to the Federation directly from any natural resources.
“Following a decade of hard work by industry experts from Anambra State in collaboration with past administrations, Anambra State was officially recognised as a petroleum-bearing and Oil-producing State on July 27, 2021 by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission at its 139th Plenary Session held on that date.
“The current administration of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo took up the mantle from there with massive follow up and collaborative initiatives with relevant Federal Government Agencies to achieve the eventual implementation of the decision.
”Anambra state officially started receiving mineral derivation revenue from the Federation Account in the month of July 2022 with the first net receipt of N268,232,939.16 (Two Hundred and Sixty-Eight Million, Two Hundred and Thirty-Two Thousand Nine Hundred and Thirty-Nine Naira and Sixteen Kobo only).
” Ndi Anambra and the general public are therefore enjoined to disregard any other information about the amount of mineral derivation revenue received by Anambra State circulating in the social media, online media or any other media whatsoever and consider such information as fake news.”
