Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state on Sunday said he is not against local government autonomy as being reported in a section of the media.
Ortom recalled that he was one of the governors who supported constitutional amendment granting local governments autonomy and that his stand prompted the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) to give him an award in Abuja last year.
The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, said that the headlines in some newspapers indicating that Ortom is opposed to local government autonomy are therefore misleading and mischievous.
He stressed that at a recent interaction with journalists in Makurdi, he had frowned at the statement credited to Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) which tended to describe state governors as fraudsters who divert local government funds for personal use.
“Governor Ortom had taken exception to such sweeping incriminating comments by NFIU which sought to indict all governors and he demanded an apology.
“I have never touched one kobo of local government funds so it’s an insult for NFIU to refer to all governors as corrupts. So, they have to apologise to me,” the statement reads in part.
The governor added that Benue State under his watch was already practising local government autonomy as council chairmen in the state are directly responsible for the payment of workers’ salaries and general running of administration in their areas.
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