The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has faulted the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s claim that no state was discriminated against in the fund disbursement in 2013.

The governor, who is the chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC) ad-hoc committee set up to probe the ecological fund management, had in a report to NEC accused the former president of sidelining some states in the distribution of the fund.

But Jonathan, who was irked over the interim report of the committee said last week that every state benefited from the fund.

In a statement by his Media Aide, the ex-president described Governor El-Rufai as a big liar, whose penchant for name calling and character assassination are becoming pathological, urging Nigerians never to take him seriously.

But, El-Rufai has shot back at the former President, insisting that the interim report of the committee he headed detailed how the ecological fund was disbursed mainly to 17 states controlled by the PDP, while those controlled by the opposition were shut out from benefits in 2013.

Addressing a news conference in Kaduna, Governor El-Rufai’s spokesman, Mr Samuel Aruwan, insisted that Jonathan disbursed N34 billion to 17 states controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party and AGPA to the exclusion of opposition political parties as at then.

Mr Aruwan also explained that El-Rufai only presented the findings in his capacity as the Chairman of the ad-hoc committee set up by the National Economic Council to investigate how ecological funds were shared to the states, and not in his personal opinion as alleged by Jonathan.

He challenges the former president to explain the rationale behind the skewed disbursement of the ecological funds largely to PDP controlled states and its allied parties, while states controlled by the opposition were sidelined.