Ex-Rep, Dagogo, accuses N’Delta govs of mismanaging 13% derivation funds
A former federal lawmaker, Farah Dagogo, has raised concerns about the utilisation of the 13 per cent derivation funds by the governors of the nine Niger Delta states, which are intended for oil-producing communities.
Dagogo, who represented Bonny-Degema Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, made this assertion in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Monday morning.
The statement was signed by his media aide, Ibrahim Lawal, and sent to PUNCH Online.
A governorship aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 general elections, Dagogo expressed alarm that the Niger Delta region has received trillions of naira constitutionally accrued to it through the 13 per cent derivation for over 23 years.
While noting that over N600bn of that sum has already been received in the first half of 2024, he criticised successive governors from the region for failing to improve the welfare of the communities, where people continue to live in “squalor, diseases, and reeking with the worst and highest form of poverty.”
Despite the apparent failures of the Federal Government, Dagogo acknowledged that it “has not failed to actualize a steady increment in the 13 per cent derivation to the Niger Delta governors.”
The statement reads, “In January, N57.92 billion was released to oil-producing states. In February, it rose to N85.10 billion, and in March, the Niger Delta oil-producing states got N166.24 billion.
