AGF, ALGON, NULGE WARN OVER MOVES BY GOVERNORS TO CORNER LG ALLOCATIONS
THE Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), had issued a stern warning to state governors bypassing the Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy, threatening to seek a contempt of court suit if the defiance continues.
Fagbemi also cautioned local government chairmen across the country against mismanaging or looting public funds.
The AGF stressed that the autonomy granted to local governments by the Supreme Court is to empower the grassroots and not for carting public funds into private pockets.
Also kicking, the Secretary-General of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, Mohammed Abubakar, while speaking on the delay in the direct payment of federal allocation to local governments, lamented the non-implementation of the Supreme Court ruling.
“Sincerely, we are all in the dark as we stand now. People who don’t want this LG autonomy to work are having a field day. Ordinarily, the Supreme Court judgment should not be left unattended. We are in the dark, to the extent that we cannot pinpoint what the government is trying to achieve by not enforcing the Supreme Court judgment allowing allocation to be paid directly to local government accounts,” Abubakar told The PUNCH.
He added, “The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees and ALGON had made their submissions that the LGs accounts should be opened across board and submitted to the Office lof The Accountant-General for the allocation to be disbursed directly.
“But the governors are claiming that they already utilised funds for the interest of the local governments. They also argued that the local governments’ money is not enough to take care of all the health and the primary school teachers. But we are saying they should allow the implementation first, then we can make a case for whatever deficiencies we have.
“In a situation where you don’t act but worry about some issues raised by the governors, which include that they have incurred a lot of loans on behalf of the local governments, then we may not have a way forward. So, these are the bottlenecks that we understand are causing these delays, but again there can be a way out of these issues and we have proffered some solutions to the committee. It is best known to the committee why it has not carried out the advice we gave to them.”
Also, the Ogun State Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees, Bayo Adefesobi, on Monday blamed the Federal Government for the non-implementation of the court judgment.
“We have not seen the implementation of LG autonomy in Ogun State just as it is across the country. The blame for the non-implementation should go to the Federal Government that made the pronouncement but refused to follow up on its decision.
“Once the Federal Government pays the allocation into the respective accounts of the local governments, the chairmen will access the funds and use them for grassroots development. So, we all await the Federal Government to do the needful.”
The Chairman, Kwara State chapter of NULGE, Seun Oyinlade, expressed disappointment over the non-implementation of the LG autonomy six months after the judgment.
He said “All the 16 local governments in the state did not receive their allocations directly from the Federal Government. If the councils had received direct allocation from the Federal Government, there would have been no need for the JAAC meeting held with the council officials before the payment of LG workers’ salaries for the month of November.”
Speaking, ex-chairman of Atakumosa West LG in Osun State, Francis Famurewa, lamented the fate of the lgs, saying despite being elected, LG chairmen were made to take instructions from the state’s Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, an appointee of the governor.
Asked if he was satisfied with the situation of the LGs, Famurewa said, “Nobody will be satisfied with the current situation where local governments are appendages of the state.
“Most of the time, they are not just appendages, they are under the control of the Ministry of Local Government. When I was in office as chairman, we were more under the Commissioner for Local Government, which was a terrible scenario.”
