Dickson Seeks Governors’ Monitoring Panel for $1bn Security Fund

Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa

As Nigerians continue to raise posers over the proposed withdrawal of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to fight insecurity in the North-east, the Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Seriake Dickson, wednesday demanded the setting up of a governors’ panel to monitor how the funds are disbursed.

Dickson, who called for a bipartisan approach to security issues bedevilling the country, noted that all military and other security procurements made with the funds should be done in the open.

The governor who spoke in Yenagoa yesterday after arriving the state from his party’s peace and reconciliation shuttle to Abuja, Lagos and Ibadan, maintained that to avoid the trouble associated with such funds in the past, all stakeholders must be carried along in the spending of the about N365 billion.

“First of all, our position is out there in the public domain. I want to restate that this is not the first time this is happening. As leaders, the first issue of concern is that of security.

“I have always said that leaders, irrespective of partisan differences must unite when it comes to two critical issues: the issues of the national economy and that of national security.

“On these two issues, there should be no partisan divide or differences. That’s our basic standpoint. Our duty is to support the work that our security agencies are doing across the country. It’s not limited to the insurgency fight , the Boko Haram challenge in the North, that’s a major national challenge no doubt, but there are also other equally compelling national security challenges which are required to be solved to secure the lives and properties of Nigerians, Bayelsa inclusive.

“We are interested in how much of these funds when eventually disbursed will actually help the work that the security agencies are doing in the Niger Delta, and in Bayelsa, just as we are concerned about the challenges in the north east.

“Ensure that the details of these procurements are public and we are briefed because it is our money and we have a right to be briefed about what these equipment are, what they are meant for and the modalities for the procurement so that we take or address the concerns that these kinds of issues have raised in the past which are out there in the public domain,” he said.

According to Dickson, who was flanked by the Bayelsa Speaker, Mr. Kombowei Benson and the Secretary to the State Government, Kemela Okara, the committee of governors to be established would be briefed on the modalities for the procurements to allay concerns already expressed by a cross segment of the populace.

He noted that while the state had no objection to the security spending, it was important to follow up on how the money would be spent, especially how the state will benefit from the security equipment.

“We have no objection, but we have taken it up and have shared it with his excellency, the Vice President, Chairman of the National Economic Council and I have also shared the concerns with the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum and we expect some follow up positions to be taken,” he noted.

He also reiterated his earlier position that it was unfair to deduct oil producing states twice , requesting that the derivation element of the fund should be returned to the affected states.

“The other one is that we think that it is unfair to this state and the other Niger Delta oil producing states if the derivation component of the $1billion is not deducted or remitted to the oil producing states because every other states would have contributed it’s statutory allocation, but in our own case it is going to be both statutory allocation like in every other state and the 13 per cent derivation,” he argued.

According to him, “We realise that for those states like Bayelsa producing oil, the 13 per cent component will have to be worked out otherwise the Niger Delta states, including Bayelsa would have contributed twice.”.