Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has slammed Nigeria’s ruling the party, All Progressives Congress (APC) for insinuating that the past administration hid the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) dividends from Nigerians.
Chief Olisa Metuh, PDP National publicity secretary, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, stated that none of its (PDP) successive led governments ever tampered with the NLNG dividends in the last 10 years.
Metuh noted said that the fund at the end of President Goodluck Jonathan tenure had risen to a cumulative 5.6 billion dollars.
“It is imperative to note that by the end of the tenure of President Goodluck Jonathan, NLNG dividends had risen to a cumulative $5.6billion and not a single cent was ever taken from the funds,” the statement read.
PDP noted that its attention had been drawn to the “misleading and outright falsehood” by the APC on the issue. “The truth is that the NLNG had been on a 10-year tax haven until 2014.
“Within this period, successive governments, right from President Olusegun Obasanjo, never shared nor tampered with the cumulative dividends over the years.
“Whatever taxes paid from the NLNG go through the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) and recorded as part of the income of the Federal Government.
The statement said although it was within the rights of the APC administration to spend the funds in any way it might decide, it was, however, wrong for APC to try to insinuate that the past PDP-led governments had hidden the fund.
Meanwhile APC has called on the Federal Government to probe how various revenues and incomes were paid into the federation account during Jonathan’s administration.
The party said president Muhammadu Buhari should urgently uncover how Company Income Tax/Education tax as well as dividends paid to the Nigerian government by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) was utilised.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary, the party said the call for the probe was against the background of published reports that the funds were never paid into the Federation Account as they should have been.
It also described as example of grandstanding opposition, PDP’s move to “distort the facts about the source of the $2.1 billion that was approved for sharing by the three tiers of government by President Muhammadu Buhari.”
It said, “Whereas the Presidency corrected the initial erroneous report that the shared money was sourced from the Excess Crude Account (ECA), the skittish opposition continued to insist it was from the ECA and that it was part of the ‘savings’ by the Jonathan Administration.”
The APC said “in addition to paying it into the Federation Account for sharing, hence those who call it their ‘legitimate’ earnings should be asked why they did not demand the sharing of such ‘legitimate’ earnings in the past.
‘’We can tell Nigerians that apart from the said $1.6 billion NLNG payment for 2015, NLNG also paid $1.4 billion as Income Tax/Education Tax in May 2014, paid $0.3 billion as Education tax to the FG in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and $1.2 billion in VAT and With-holding Tax to the FG since 2009. These payments are just those made in the past six years alone, hence there were other payments before then.”
The ruling party also said “dividend payments totaling $4.7 billion was paid to the FG between 2004 and 2009, out of which only $128 million was credited to the FG’s Independent Account with JP Morgan,” leaving a balance of over $4 billion.
“The questions to ask therefore are why all the past taxes and dividends were neither fully paid into the Federation Account nor shared by the three tiers of government and what happened to the funds,’’ it said.
The party also said that as part of the investigation, the PDP must be asked where it kept the $5.5 billion which it said was the dividend paid to the FG by the NLNG before the 29 May handover.
‘’Since, according to the PDP, President Goodluck Jonathan asked that the money be ‘left for the incoming administration to manage’. it is important for the party, therefore, to tell Nigerians in which account the money was ‘saved’ because it is definitely not in the Federation Account,’’ it said.