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Oyo ALGON accuses caretaker committee chairmen of looting

By Rotimi Agboluaje, Ibadan
05 March 2020   |   3:02 am
Sacked chairmen across 33 local councils and 38 local council development areas (LCDAs) of Oyo State yesterday accused caretaker committee chairmen of the councils of stealing by tricks

State moves to prevent building collapse

Sacked chairmen across 33 local councils and 38 local council development areas (LCDAs) of Oyo State yesterday accused caretaker committee chairmen of the councils of stealing by tricks a whopping amount of money through phony projects.

The sacked chairmen, under the aegis of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), stated this yesterday in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan by its Chairman, Ayodeji Abass-Alesinloye.

The statement read in parts: “The attention of ALGON, Oyo State, has been called by public-spirited people to the memo dated February 20, 2020, from the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Local Government Service Commission, mandating each of the 33 local councils to release a whopping sum of N15 million purportedly for the “construction of an ultra-modern secretariat complex for the local government service commission/local government staff pension board.

“Mr. Akin Funmilayo, the PS, LG Service Commission, who signed the confidential document, claimed to have acted in line with approval given by the state Governor, Seyi Makinde, for the approval to construct the secretariat complex.

“Having considered the farce behind the issue after a diligent investigation, we hereby submit that the purported project is nothing more than an extra modern fraudulent scheme to siphon local council fund by tricks using the illegal caretakers as pawns. It is a white elephant project designed to siphon money regularly from the local government purse.

“By its constitution and in view of the latest status of the council, which covers autonomy on its finances, project choice and implementation, the order as contained in the memo is illegitimate and contravenes the local council laws, constitutional responsibilities, and purpose of establishing a local government in Nigeria.

“The illegality becomes more pronounced when the huge fund is expected to be coughed out by illegal caretakers, who in principle and law, must not have access to council account. This is also a breach of NFIU guidelines on local government finances.”

In another development, the Oyo State government yesterday expressed its willingness to collaborate with the Nigerian Association of Technologists in Engineering, Oyo State Branch, to curb building collapse in the state.

Makinde disclosed this during an interactive session with the technologists who paid him a solidarity visit in his office at Agodi Secretariat, Ibadan.

The governor, represented by his deputy, Rauf Olaniyan, charged the technologists to give adequate support to the present administration in its quest to transform the state into a modern one.

In his remark, chairman of the association, Wole Ajagbe, said that the visit was part of the activities lined up to commemorate this year’s World Engineering Day.

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