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The National Economic Council, ( NEC) Thursday threw its full weight behind President Muhammadu Buhari over the purchase of super Tucano fighter jets for the Nigeria Air force
Governor of Jigawa state Abubakar Badaru who spoke on behalf of the governor’s after the National Economic Council meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, berated the National Assembly for insensitivity to the nation’s security needs.
Badaru recalled that the nation has been battling with approvals for the purchase of the jets from America since 2014.
According to him” We have been begging America to sell these equipment to us. We tried Dubai, they could not allow us, we tried a factory in Brazil, we couldn’t get it. America still could not sell to Nigeria, until luckily, President Trump said it was okay now for us to buy, so, we had to quickly buy before they change their minds”
Badaru said the President acted to overcome the deadline add that “this is a state to state transaction, no middleman”
He noted that the President acted due to the pressure to deal with security threats under an emergency situation
“we are all here concerned about security and they are raising questions on way and manner you protect people. This is an emergency situation”
Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Oluranti Adebule, gave breakdown on the balance in the Excess Crude Account ( ECA) as at April 23, 2018 which she said stood at $1,8b, while in the Stabilization Account balance was put at N14,2b,
The balance in Natural Resources Account according to NEC is N134, 912,870,000.
Also giving updates on budget support loan facilities to states, it was revealed that 35 states had commenced the programme in 2016 and collected N1.3 trillion
” In addition to that, another N1.11billion has also been collected and repayment of the facility was extended from one year to two years. Analysis of compliance level showed that 52.5 per cent was the highest while 13 per cent was the lowest with respect to the conditionalities for budget support loan facility.
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
