It’s criminal for states to misappropriate LG funds – Ex gov, Chime

The former governor of Enugu State, Mr. Sullivan Chime, has said it is criminal for states to misappropriate local governments’ funds, saying it hinders development at the grassroots.

He said any governor that runs the local government system without a democratically elected council as stipulated by the Nigeria constitution, amounted to misappropriation.

According to him, Nigeria has a perfect local government system as the constitution empowers states to make laws for the existence of the local governments under a democratic elected council.

“But, sadly, I don’t know how many states in this country since 1999 that obey that constitution. I can beat my chest that from 2007 when I became governor until we left, we ran a local government system in Enugu State by the democratically elected council uninterrupted for eight years.

“When we came in, there was none in place, so to meet the requirements of the law, we had a transitional government, as we came in May 2007, and by December same year, we held our first local government election. And from December 2007, it was held every two years until we left office in 2015.”

He explained that council chairmen under his administration built paved roads because they had access to their money.

“So, it is criminal for states to misappropriate local government funds, that is, states dealing with local government funds other than the system provided by the constitution.”

He observed that the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) was not up and doing in arresting former governors, who failed to conduct council elections which had led the country into the mess.

He added that if one or two former governors had gone to jail for misappropriating local governments’ funds, the serving governors would take caution.

“Federal Government is wasting money to take serving governors to the Supreme Court over councils’ funds. Send one or two former governors to jail or all who did not observe the law, and it will stop.

“We don’t need any reform but implement the law as it is. Even the Supreme Court has course to make pronouncements on the illegality of the caretaker committee, yet it is going unabated,” Chime said.

On calls for INEC to conduct LG elections, Chime said it would be difficult for the commission to handle it.

He said that states had the capacity to run the council election in accordance with the law, saying “If you feel SIECs are not performing, take them to court.

“The INEC you are rushing to conduct the election, are they any better?”