Paying last tranche of Paris Refund to Out Going Governors is a dangerous gamble – Shehu Sanni
– Sen. Shehu Sanni has stated that paying of last tranche of Paris Refund to out going state Governors is a dangerous gamble
– This comes after the Federal Government disclosed that it would release the sum of N649.43 billion to state governments as final refund for Paris Club debt
According to a report, the Federal Government on Thursday made it know that it would soon release the sum of N649.43 billion as the final refund for the Paris Club debt to state governments.
The report was also confirmed by the Minister for Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, who said, ”for the final phase of the Paris Club debts refunds, the total sum of N649.434bn was verified by the ministry as the outstanding balance to be refunded to the state governments.
“The payments made by the Central Bank of Nigeria as of March 2019 is N691.56bn. The increase in CBN payments partly arose from the exchange rate differential at the point of payment. Although some states still have outstanding balances, they will be refunded in due course.”
However, in a reaction to the move, Sen. Shehu Sanni has advised the Federal Government against proceeding with the payment.
He said paying the last tranche of Paris refund to Governors, who have finished their terms and those with litigations challenging the outcome of their state elections is a dangerous gamble.
The Senator stressed that it could be the same set of people that are pushing for the payment of the tranche of the Paris refund.
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Shehu Sanni said, “Given out Billions of the last tranche of Paris refund to Governors who have finished their terms and those with litigations challenging their elections is a dangerous gamble; And it’s possible that it’s this category of people pushing for it.”
Also in a similar response, the Nigerian Labour Congress NLC has advised the Federal Government against paying the money to outgoing governors.
