FEC approves N18bn reimbursement to Yobe for construction of federal roads

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the reimbursement of N18 billion to Yobe State Government for the construction of five major roads on behalf of the Federal Government.

The government said about N477 billion had been refunded in the first tranche of reimbursement  to some states.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who briefed State House correspondents on behalf of the Ministry of Works and Housing, disclosed that in the first tranche, Edo got N30 billion, Lagos N106 billion, Niger N333 million, Ogun N37 billion, Delta 56 billion, Ebonyi N10 billion, Enugu N12 billion, Jigawa N10 billion and Ekiti N10 billion.

According to Mohammed, this is not the first time the federal government has reimbursed states for jobs done contrary to claims by some opposition states.

He said: “The last memo by the Honorable Minister of works and housing is memo seeking Council’s approval for the reimbursement of the funds that were certified recommended for refund for the Yobe State government.

“You will call that when this administration came in, many states made requests that under the previous administrations they undertook construction of roads and bridges, which were supposed to be federal government roads and bridges and they actually asked federal government to reimburse them.

“I think it’s important to say that well, it is true that we are just reporting this particular memo, which is a refund  being sought by Yobe government.

“The Yobe government is asking for the sum of N18,663,843,009 as reimbursement for five federal roads, which they rehabilitated or constructed.

“A Committee was set up to inspect the claim and were actually found to be true. They were reviewed, and then out of the N20 billion they asked for, they certified N18 billion as refund due to Yobe State for undertaking the construction and  rehabilitation of these federal roads on behalf of the federal government.”

“This is not the first time since 2015 we made refunds to about 24  states if my records are correct.

“I want to put on record here that but for the benevolence of this administration many states would have sunk under,” Mohammed told reporters.