THE Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to probe all past state governors on how they administered local government appropriated funds.

The National President of the union, Ibrahim khaleel, who made the call in Abuja after the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union, explained that the call for the probe is necessitated by the lack of development at the local government level despite huge resources that have been allocated to the level since 1999.

His words: “The NEC-In-Session call on President Muhammadu Buhari to conduct a thorough probe of all the former state governors that have served from 1999 to date. The quantum of money that has been appropriated to the local government administration for development is mindboggling and we do not see the so-called development. In most cases, the money is allocated on paper and not on ground. The state/local government joint account was and is still being mismanaged. All the governors must be probed to determine the destination of the moneys. We believe that the fight against corruption by the present administration must include probe of past governors on how moneys allocated to the local governments were used during their tenures.”

The NULGE boss reiterated the desire of the union to see Buhari extending his anti-corruption crusade to the local government administration especially the operation of state and local government joint account, which has been bastardize by many state governments, must be of great concern to Mr. President and his government.

Khaleel also said the union will collaborate and cooperate with the Buhari administration to in the fight against corruption.

He expressed the readiness of NULGE to mobilize its members for the planned rally against corruption slated for Abuja this Thursday by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

“We are going to mobilize all our members for the rally against corruption by the NLC. We are very interested in the fight against corruption because local administration suffers most in a corrupt system. The state governments always hijack all the money appropriated to the local government with nobody intervening in the matter. All the money earmarked for development at the lowest level of government does not get there and nobody is bothered. Therefore, the earlier we address the issue of corruption perpetrated by state governments at the local government level, the better for the development of our country,” he explained.

He also said the union will re-kick-start its agitation for local government autonomy, saying, “we also resolved that the issue of local government autonomy, we must re-strategies and articulate our position to Mr. President for us to have a functional, more reasonable and result oriented third ties of government. Towards achieving this, the-NEC-in-session resolved to organize a national retreat where intellectuals will be drawn from the academia, civil society organizations other sisters trade unions to articulate our position on the kind of local of government we all desire for our country. The NEC-In-Session frowned at some ugly policies of some state governors, particularly the non-payment of salaries.”