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Adamawa councils personnel heads seek EFCC’s probe of Bindow’s plan to borrow N10b

By Emmanuel Ande, Yola
22 December 2018   |   4:29 am
Some Directors of Personnel Management (DPMs) in Adamawa State local government areas have urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe Governor Muhammed Jibrilla Bindow’s planned borrowing of N10 billion on the councils’ accounts.

[FILE PHOTO] Governor Muhammadu Umaru Jibrilla Bindow of Adamawa State

• Fintiri Cautions Banks On Dangers Of Granting Illegal Loans
Some Directors of Personnel Management (DPMs) in Adamawa State local government areas have urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe Governor Muhammed Jibrilla Bindow’s planned borrowing of N10 billion on the councils’ accounts.

They hinged their demand on the governor’s failure to conduct council polls, insisting that as civil servants, they lack legal powers to borrow money using the local government accounts.

One of the DPMs in the northern zone of the state and Bindow’s area told The Guardian that the Ministry of Local Governments Affairs asked the council areas to fill and return distributed forms to them, but that they should not fill the column of the amount to be borrowed.

“Our fear and concerns is that this will put us and our career in danger, we are civil servants, it is councilors that have the legislative powers to approve borrowing of money for the Chairman, in our case who is approving? We want the EFCC to intervene in this matter if actually they are fighting corruption,” he said. He pointed out that the state House of Assembly had last month approved N5 billion for government to pay the six months salaries arrears of council workers and health workers.He wondered why the state government wants to use the local governments to borrow money again when its tenure ends next year.

“We are suspecting foul play in this issue. We discovered from the grapevine that the governor wants to borrow N10 billion on local governments account, so when will the governor pay the money before his tenure ends in May next year, considering the facts that he may not win the election based on the political calculations in the state,” he stated.

While addressing a forum of former councilors, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s governorship candidate, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, said the plan to borrow money in the name of local governments was illegal. Fintiri, who spoke when the forum paid him a solidarity visit to pledge their support for his candidature, said since civil servants were heading the councils, they lack the powers to borrow money using the council accounts.He cautioned that any bank that grants such illegal loan may face tough times in recovering the money due to the illegally of the transaction.

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