Ogun State House of Assembly on Thursday accused the immediate-past governor of the state, Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s government of short-changing all the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in terms of allocation accrued to those councils from the Federation Account within 30 months.
The legislature equally reinstated the 57 council chairmen who were suspended for alleged financial misappropriation in May.
Daily Trust reports that the embattled council officials were returned barely a week to their three years tenure’s expiration. They were elected and sworn in by Amosun on October 10, 2016.
The eighth assembly had on May 31 suspended the chairmen, but the ninth assembly took over the investigation which spanned four months.
However, Olakunle Oluomo-led assembly on Thursday considered the report of its committee on the probe, saying “it detected that each of the local government councils and LCDAs only obtained the sum of twelve million Naira (N12m) each, paid in six months instalments for the entire period of thirty (30) months under review.”
The assembly also found majority of the council bosses “guilty of complacency and docility in the face of constitutional breach on their functions and finances by the immediate-past administration of the state.”
The legislature’s position followed presentation and adoption of the probe report by Hon Akeem Balogun-led committee.
The report partly states, ” following the receipt of various petitions on allegations of financial misappropriation and non-performance levelled against the chairmen of the 57 Local Government Councils and Local Council Development Areas in the state, the 8th Legislature via House Resolution 018/2019 on Friday, 31st May, 2019 suspended all political office holders in all the Local Government Councils and LCDAs in the state.
“Subsequently, after the Assembly’s various investigations, the House noted that: ‘All the Local Government and LCDAs were short-changed in terms of allocation from the Federation Account by the immediate-past administration in the state.
“It was detected that each of the local government councils and LCDAs only obtained the sum of twelve million Naira (N12m) each, paid in six months instalments for the entire period of thirty (30) months under review.
“Majority of the chairmen were found guilty of complacency and docility in the face of constitutional breach on their functions and finances by the immediate past administration of the state.
“Majority of the chairmen were found guilty of not keeping proper records of activities of their councils and nonchalant attitude and violation of procedural rules and financial guidelines by council officials”.
The assembly, therefore, recommended that “those chairmen found culpable be referred to the appropriate agencies of government for further investigation, with a directive to them to put their respective councils in order to ensure transparency and accountability in the administration of the third tier of government.”
