$1bn Not For Fight Against Boko Haram Alone – Osinbajo
The Federal Government on Tuesday disclosed that the $1 billion Excess Crude Account fund that was recently approved by governors for fighting insurgency is not exclusively for the fight against Boko Haram.
Making this disclosure during a meeting with Secretaries to State Governments (SSGs) in Abuja, Osinbajo said, “It was on account of the security summit that the governors at the Governors’ Forum subsequently decided that they would vote a certain sum of money, which has become somewhat controversial, the $1bn, to assist the security architecture of the country.
“It was to assist all of the issues in the states, including policing in the states, community policing, all of the different security challenges that we have,” Mr. Osinbajo said at the ongoing retreat of secretaries to the government at state and federal levels in Abuja.
This is the first time the administration would be explaining that the money is not intended for anti-Boko Haram efforts alone.
The planned expenditure was made public by Abdulaziz Yari, the chairman of Governors Forum, who said all the state governors had agreed to release the money to the federal government.
Mr. Yari said although President Buhari and several administration officials, including military chiefs, had proclaimed victory in the eight-year long battle against insurgency, a substantial amount of budget was still required to tackle pockets of terrorists around the northeast.
But Governor Ayo Fayose had swiftly opposed any withdrawal from excess crude account to fight Boko Haram.
While acknowledging the viciousness and urgency of the dreaded sect, Mr. Fayose said the ECA had already been overdrawn with barely $2 billion left in it.