‘Political sly move?’ Buhari to reimburse Ondo, four states N148b few days to election

Freelanews September 29, 2020

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday wrote to the House of Representatives to seek approval for the Federal Government to reimburse five states for constructing roads on its behalf.

At the opening of the plenary session, Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House Representatives read the president’s request to the house.

In the letter, President Buhari sought “approval of the reimbursement of N148.14 billion through the issuance of promissory notes to Bayelsa, Cross River, Ondo, Osun and Rivers State governments for federal road projects executed by the states.”

The President noted that the Federal Executive Council (FEC), at a meeting on June 3, 2020, approved the reimbursement.

The breakdown of the amount to be disbursed to the beneficiary states shows that Cross River will receive N18.3 billion, Ondo is to get N7.8 billion, Osun N2.6 billion, Bayelsa N38.4 billion and Rivers N78.9 billion respectively.

The approval of the budget was criticised by opposition lawmakers who asked that the approval be delayed until after the Ondo election.

The decision of the Presidency to include Ondo State, where the governorship election is due to hold on October 10, among the benefiting states follows a similar trend of disbursement of funds by the Federal Government to States where elections were due to take place.

Ondo State where Rotimi Akeredolu, an All Progressives Congress (APC) is seeking re-election will receive N7.8 billion.

The Senate had last year approved N10 billion for Kogi State, three days to its governorship election.

The approval of the budget was criticised by opposition lawmakers who asked that the approval be delayed until after the election.