‘Governors contribute to insecurity by stifling LG autonomy’

Former Commissioner for Local Government in Benue State, John Tondus, has said that depriving local councils autonomy contributes 75 to 80 per cent of security problems in the country.

After receiving ‘Icon of Societal Development’ award from the National Association of Northern Nigerian Students (NANNS), in Abuja, Tondus alleged that the high level of greed among governors also contribute to insecurity.

According to him, local council chairmen were chief security officers of their domains, only on paper, because they don’t even have as little as N2 million as security vote to tackle security challenges in their domain.

He lamented the situation where a local government chairman, who needed just N2 million for security in his domain, would have to get approval from the governor for his council’s money to be released.

Against this background, Tondus called on the National Assembly to ensure that the autonomy of the third tier of government is guaranteed in the new Constitution.