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From Tony Osauzo, Benin
The Edo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), has accused the state governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, of committing constitutional crime against local government councils in the state. President of the union, Mr Lazarus Adorolo, who made the accusation yesterday in Benin, alleged that the governor has hijacked the functions of the local governments and was ripping the councils of their funds.
Adorolo stated that the abnormal situation has placed the councils in a difficult position to effectively discharge their duties to the people at the grassroots level.
“We cannot impact on the lives of the citizens because the state has hijacked our sources of revenue and yet the same state government comes out to the public that local governments are not living up to their responsibilities.
“Local governments can only work to the benefit of the people if the issue of 1999 Constitution is looked into. Councils need to be completely autonomous.
“It is sad that the Chief Accounting Officers of councils are not taken into account whenever the distribution of the monies that come to local governments are being shared.
“That is to say that the owners of the money do not have any input as to how the money is shared. That is against the provisions of the 1999 constitution. The councils do not get the 10 per cent of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) that the state is supposed to add to what comes from the federation account. They do not know what even comes from the federation account, we are only given what they feel like giving us at the end of every month.
“At the end of the month, we receive all manners of directives from the office of the governor and his deputy to the effect of deductions from projects that have even been funded by agencies like World Bank and UNICEF. As we speak, the councils are being owed between five and 16 months salaries arrears, including deductions not remitted that all amounts to over N5 billion”, Adorolo disclosed.
But in his reaction, the State Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Mr Monday Osaigbovbo, denied NULGE allegations and attributed the problem of local governments to over staffing.
He said he was not aware of a law passed by the State House of Assembly as regard 10 per cent state IGR contribution to the councils but pointed out that what the state is doing was more than 10 per cent. The Commissioner disclosed that the state government has practically taken over the responsibilities of the councils because they are weak financially.
“This is not peculiar to Edo, it is across the country. We are building and renovating schools and primary health centres, which ought to be their responsibilities.
“Again, the councils are fully involved in the sharing of money from the federation, we do Pre -JAAC here in my office before we meet with the governor for the proper JAAC.
“Since we do not have elected officials now, Heads of Service of the 18 Local Government Councils are fully involved in this.
