Election /Security:Govs request Immediate Release Of It's $2bn By FG

State governors have sent a proposal President Goodluck Jonathan requesting his approval for release of $2 billion from the foreign Excess Crude Account (ECA) to complete on-going projects and to fund forthcoming elections.
The governors hinged their demand on the need to tackle security and next year’s elections.
The balance in ECA is put at $4.1 billion. Chairman of Commissioners of Finance Forum, Timothy Odah confirmed the governors’ proposal Tuesday in an interview with journalists after the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.
Meanwhile, a gross revenue of N536.692 billion was approved for sharing Tuesday by the FAAC, a figure higher than the N502.097 billion received in the previous month (September) by N34.595 billion.
Of the figure, distributable statutory revenue for the month stood at N484.321 billion while N35.549billion was shared as Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program (Sure-P) funds.
Of the amount, the federal government got the lion’s share of N224.264 billion followed by states (N113.750) billion while local governments got the least allocation of N87.696 billion. Oil producing states got an additional N47.123 billion being 13% derivation.
According to the breakdown made available, the grand total stood at N593.337 billion as against the N603.529 billion realised in September.
Addressing the media Tuesday, Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda said the meeting discussed challenges faced by the economy and the dwindling revenue occasioned by fall of oil prices at the international market.
He said there was a need for all tiers of government to be pro-active and assured that government will do everything to cushion the effects of sliding oil prices.