Fuel subsidy: States challenge FG deductions at Supreme Court

Governments of the 36 states in the country are challenging at the Supreme Court, Federal Government’s deductions of funds for fuel subsidy and related expenses from crude oil proceeds before making payment into the Federation Account.

They are unconvinced about the federal government’s transparency in its handling of proceeds from crude oil sales and urged the apex court to stop the practice.

The states, in a suit filed by their Attorneys General, described as “unwholesome and unconstitutional,” the practice of deducting “fuel subsidy funds and other expenditure from oil proceeds before it is paid into the Federation Account.”

They contended that the practice by the federal government, carried out through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation formed one of the measures through which the FG shortchanges the states and local governments.

The states claimed that the practice has occasioned inaccuracies in the computation of oil revenue remitted to the Federation Account by the FG and its relevant agencies and urged the court to abolish the practice.