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From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The Minority Caucus of the Ogun State House of Assembly has called on the Executive Arm of the State Government led by Governor Dapo Abiodun to be more transparent in reacting to the accusation made by a Local Government Chairman, Wale Adedayo, over the diversion of funds meant for the LGs in the state.
The Caucus equally urged the governor to provide enough evidence to address the allegation of withholding statutory federal allocations and non-remittance of the 10% Internally Generated Revenue, due to local governments in the state, in the last two years, as alleged by the LG boss.
Adedayo in a letter addressed to a former governor of the state, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, had complained that the LGs in the state have been receiving zero allocations since 2021.
The governor, in a statement on Tuesday by his Chief Press Secretary, Lekan Adeniran, however, refuted the allegations raised by Adedayo.
Abiodun said that his administration never tampered with money meant for local governments, rather, it has been augmenting the allocations to help councils meet up with their responsibilities.
Speaking with newsmen on behalf of the Minority Caucus of the OGHA on the matter on Wednesday, the Minority Leader of the 10th Assembly, Lukman Olalekan Adeleye, said that the Local Government Councils must be allowed to thrive as a grassroots government of the people by allowing proper accountability.
Adeleye noted that apart from the letter written by Adedayo to former Governor Olusegun Osoba to complain about how the LGs allocations were withheld by the governor, the council chairman allegedly wrote petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) calling for the investigation of the governor over alleged diversion of local government funds.
He explained that, though the governor in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Lekan Adeniran, denied the allegations, proof of payments, receipts and other documents would go a long way in ensuring transparency.
He said, “As the representatives of the people, it behoves the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in the House to be on the side of the people, unravel the true situation and act accordingly.
“Truly, it would be bad if money meant to be used by the local governments to make the lives of the people better is being siphoned. By the time the Assembly would start investigating, we would sure get to the end of this.
“There is an accusation, and as of now, unless we know the true situation, nothing can be done. Of course, before now, we have been asking questions as a party, and now these chairmen are re-echoing our stand. We won’t shy away from the complaints that the councils are handicapped to handle any projects as this seems visible.
“The chairmen of councils must help the people by coming forward to substantiate their allegations. This is not a party thing. If we need to help our society, we must be ready to stand up for what is right,” the lawmaker stated.
