Ondo And Four States Share N148 Billion Federal Government Refunds

<p><em>Ondo and four other States share N148 billion Federal Government Refunds<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>OpenLife Nigeria reports that three States from the Niger Delta Region&comma; namely&colon; Rivers&comma; Bayelsa&comma; and Cross River states and two States from South West&comma; namely&colon; <strong>Ondo<&sol;strong>&comma; and Osun States have gotten Senate approval to share N148&comma;141&comma;969&comma;161&period;24 federal government refunds on federal projects executed in their respective states&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Senate on Tuesday approved the request of President Muhammadu Buhari’ request&comma; seeking a refund to states that executed federal projects&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The amount was meant for projects they executed on behalf of the Federal Government&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The approval was sequel to the consideration of a report by the Committee on Local and Foreign Debts led by Senator Clifford Ordia<br &sol;>&NewLine;Ordia in his presentation stated that most of the federal highways in the beneficiary states where the projects were executed&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;were in a deplorable state before the intervention of the state governments&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;He said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Series of visits were carried out by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing on all Federal Roads completed by the States and ascertained that the quality of work done met the required standard&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;The lawmaker however noted that states like Cross River&comma; Rivers&comma; Bayelsa and Ondo States embarked on the highway projects execution as far back as 2005 to date&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He added that while the state governments have completed all projects&comma; as well as paid all contractors&comma; the Bureau of Public Procurement on its part certified that due process was followed accordingly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;