By Deborah Nnamdi
The Accountant General of the Federation has announced plans to withhold the payment of October Federal Accounts and Allocation Committee (FAAC) revenue to Rivers State, following a court order by some aggrieved lawmakers of the state.
The development is the fallout of an ongoing legal tussle between Governor Siminilayi Fubara’s ongoing face-off with 24 members of the State House of Assembly, led by Rt Hon Martins Amaehule and 24 others.
It would be recalled that Governor Fubara had presented the 2024 Appropriation Bill to four lawmakers loyal to his faction, for approval and passage.
Consequently, Amaehule and his colleagues who are loyal to a former governor and FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, went to court to challenge the move and subsequently got a judgement, which directed the governor to present the bill to the largest house, led by Amaehule.
When the governor refused, the lawmakers approached the court and got a judgement barring the Federal Government, Accountant General of the Federation and FAAC from releasing allocation to the state government,
The Spokesperson of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Bawa Mokwa, has now confirmed that the state allocation for October has been withheld.
It would be recalled that the FG on Wednesday announced the disbursement of N1.1411 trillion as the October 2024 Federation Accounts Allocation Revenue to Federal, State, and local government councils.
However, a report emerged that FAAC revenue in October was not disbursed to Rivers State following a court order stopping the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian government from carrying out such action.
Reacting to the development, Mokwa said the OAGF as a government agency will respect the court order.
Meanwhile, he stated that the October monthly FAAC revenue has not been disbursed to respective states as of the time of filing this report.
“What I got is that the October 2024 FAAC has not been distributed yet. However, the Federal Government will obey the court order on the matter of Rivers State allocation. We are going to follow due diligence as long as there is no contrary order. In case there is a contrary, the status will remain,” he said.
He added, “The process of disbursement of the October 2024 monthly allocation is going.”.
