Amos Uchiv, President, Defenders of Democracy (DoD), has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to direct the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to beam their searchlight of funds released to Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Benue state.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶
He argued that as the graft agencies move in, they would avert the alleged further plundering of Local Government (LG) resources in the state which they alleged was perpetuated through Caretaker Committee Chairmen in the state, now that over N9 billion has been remmited into the coffers of the state for the LGs.
Uchiv, who disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Makurdi on Friday, impressed the need for the graft agencies to immediately take the step, before the full implementation of the autonomy granted to LGAs across the country.
The DOD President, stressed that failure to do so would pave the way for the state government to disregard the law, which would set a dangerous precedent that may undermine the development of the third tier of government.
According him, “As part of our selfless contribution to development and good governance, DoD, deployed independent assessors to the 23 LGAs, of Benue state in the last two weeks to examine the performance of the caretaker local government chairmen installed by Governor Hyacinth Alia since last year.
“What our assessors brought back left us wondering what has been happening to the multi billions that have been coming into the state meant for the 23 LGs. There was no single project on ground anywhere executed by the caretaker chairmen in one whole year and two months.
“We recall that during the previous administration of Dr. Samuel Ortom, many local governments were executing projects of their own because the then Governor, Ortom, allowed funds to get to the local governments directly. The immediate past Chairman of Gboko, Isaac Mtom for instance executed a number of projects and was still doing more when Alia illegally removed him.
“The same level of performance was witnessed in other LGs of the state during that time. The likes of George Alli of Otukpo, James Oche of Ado and Stevie Ayua of Ukum were busy carrying out mega projects for their people. And the federal allocations that time were three times lower than what is coming in for the 23 LGs now during Alia’s time.
“Shockingly, under the Alia government, in most of the local government secretariats, the few staff met on ground confirmed that the caretaker chairmen are never seen around the secretariats and their offices remain locked for months.”
Therefore, Uchiv said, “We appeal to President Tinubu to direct the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to move in swiftly and avert further plundering of local government resources in Benue State through caretaker committees. This must be done urgently while we await the implementation of the granted autonomy for the local governments.
“Failure to do so will not only pave the way for the perpetuation of Benue State Governor’s impunity and disregard for the law but also set a dangerous precedent that could undermine development at the third tier of government.
“Our findings also revealed that the caretaker chairmen are like errand boys of the Governor and his Special Adviser on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Dennis Akura. They are always in Makurdi, the Benue State capital looking beggarly as their council allocations are being spent by the Governor and his cronies at the LG Bureau.
“This month of July 2024, what has come for the 23 local governments of Benue State as federal allocations is over N9 billion. Allocations are usually paid for the previous month, the one that has come in July is for the month of June. None of the local governments receives less than N350 million monthly from Abuja since President Bola Tinubu removed fuel subsidy.
“So much money has come into the state meant for the councils. Gboko for instance has received N454,793,148 this month, but there is not even one borehole or public toilet constructed by Alia’s government using the huge allocations for Gboko.
“If you multiply N454,793,148 by 14 months from May 2023 when Alia took over to July 2024, Gboko alone has received N6.3 billion. The wage bill of Gboko for each month is not above N57 million. So if you subtract N57 million from N454,793,148, what is left in the hands of Governor Alia and his cronies which is never used for the benefit of Gboko people is N397,793,148 (N397.7 million). This means that in 14 months, Alia and his men at the LG Bureau are comfortably in charge of N5.5 billion of Gboko funds. That is money big enough to make a meaningful impact in the loca within one year.
“You can now understand why Governor Alia was strongly opposing the local government autonomy. He wants to remain fully in charge of the local government funds without allowing the local councils to execute any project”, the president of the group alleged. End.