By Aideloje Ojo
Minna
A civil society group known as Human right and Public Advocacy has called on state Governors to stay clear of Local Government finances in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment on the matter delivered last year.
The Chairman of the group, Barrister Alfa Mohammed stated this in a press conference in Minna
Ge said, “it is disheartening to note that one year after the Supreme Court judgment, states government are still in custody of local government allocation in the country, a fragrant disregard to the rule of law”.
He advised state Governors to state full implementation of the Supreme Court judgment on the local government autonomy in the country or face mass protest.
According to him, “if by July 30th, the states government failed to implement the autonomy granted to local government in the country by the Supreme Court, we would have no other option than to declare a nationwide protest”.
Barrister Alfa, argued that despite the massive fund standing in the credit of local government councils from the federation account since the inception of the present administration and acclaimed progress being recorded through the ongoing economic reforms at the micro economic sector, poverty and insecurity still persist at the grassroots level
“The consensus of opinion among economic experts is that the situation is largely due to the states governor’s control over the local government finances and administration”, he said.
The Chairman regretted that for the past 25 years, states governors have stifled local government councils capacity to function effectively by misappropriating funds meant for the local government councils from the federation account.
He said, “verifiable data indicates that despite substantial monthly allocation from the federation account, only 30 percent of these funds are released to the local government by the stateGovernors who withhold significant portion and therefore making it impossible for local government councils to record any impactful achievement through out their tenures”.
