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| Abiola Ajimobi |
The last may not have been heard about
allegations of corruption rocking the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)
led-administration in Oyo State.
This time around, it is about the administration of the 33 local governments councils in the state which has been enmeshed in allegations of bribery over tenure elongation amongst others.
Expectedly, people think, and rightly too, that the raison d’être for the creation and continued existence of local governments as the third tier of government is to take development to the grassroots, and improve the living standards of the rural dwellers.
But on the contrary, instead of becoming agents of development in the grassroots, as envisaged by law, these local governments are increasingly becoming cesspools of corruption, and a breeding ground for fraudsters, if what is going on now in the councils in Oyo State is anything to go by.
Indeed, the caretaker administration in the local governments are not only unconstitutional, null, and void, but their tenure have been extended thrice for a term of six months each by the State House of Assembly, a development that has become worrisome to a lot of people in the state.
The third term tenure of the LG Caretaker administration is expected to end on the 10th of this month.
Weekend Compass reliably, gathered that in their desperate bid to retain their seats for another illegal term, each of the caretaker chairmen was alleged to have doled out a sum of N1.6million to the coffers of the State Assembly for the tenure extension.
It was learnt that all things being equal, as soon as the Speaker returns from his current Hajj in Saudi Arabia, the Assembly would extend the tenure of caretaker administrations for another six months as a lot of money is said to have exchanged hands.
Besides, behind the tenure elongation bribery allegation, Weekend Compass can authoritatively reveal that each of the caretaker members per local government do not want to leave because they receive between N30,000 and N50,000 as weekend bonus since their appointment.
Though the bonus is not backed up by any circular from the state government, but there are variations in the amount which depend on financial buoyancy of each local government.
What is more, while workers in the state could not be paid their salaries for the month of October, thus making Sallah festival a bleak one for them, investigations have shown that members of the local governments caretaker committees in the council were smiling to the banks as they received showers of naira rain during the festival.
While the Chairman and other Caretaker members received between N80,000 and N50,000 respectively, Secretary to the Local Government got N60,000 as Sallah’s gifts.
Also, special Assistants received between N30,000 and N40,000, depending on the buoyancy of the local governments.
This time around, it is about the administration of the 33 local governments councils in the state which has been enmeshed in allegations of bribery over tenure elongation amongst others.
Expectedly, people think, and rightly too, that the raison d’être for the creation and continued existence of local governments as the third tier of government is to take development to the grassroots, and improve the living standards of the rural dwellers.
But on the contrary, instead of becoming agents of development in the grassroots, as envisaged by law, these local governments are increasingly becoming cesspools of corruption, and a breeding ground for fraudsters, if what is going on now in the councils in Oyo State is anything to go by.
Indeed, the caretaker administration in the local governments are not only unconstitutional, null, and void, but their tenure have been extended thrice for a term of six months each by the State House of Assembly, a development that has become worrisome to a lot of people in the state.
The third term tenure of the LG Caretaker administration is expected to end on the 10th of this month.
Weekend Compass reliably, gathered that in their desperate bid to retain their seats for another illegal term, each of the caretaker chairmen was alleged to have doled out a sum of N1.6million to the coffers of the State Assembly for the tenure extension.
It was learnt that all things being equal, as soon as the Speaker returns from his current Hajj in Saudi Arabia, the Assembly would extend the tenure of caretaker administrations for another six months as a lot of money is said to have exchanged hands.
Besides, behind the tenure elongation bribery allegation, Weekend Compass can authoritatively reveal that each of the caretaker members per local government do not want to leave because they receive between N30,000 and N50,000 as weekend bonus since their appointment.
Though the bonus is not backed up by any circular from the state government, but there are variations in the amount which depend on financial buoyancy of each local government.
What is more, while workers in the state could not be paid their salaries for the month of October, thus making Sallah festival a bleak one for them, investigations have shown that members of the local governments caretaker committees in the council were smiling to the banks as they received showers of naira rain during the festival.
While the Chairman and other Caretaker members received between N80,000 and N50,000 respectively, Secretary to the Local Government got N60,000 as Sallah’s gifts.
Also, special Assistants received between N30,000 and N40,000, depending on the buoyancy of the local governments.
Commenting on the development, some concerned
groups of youths under the aegis of Vanguard For Social Justice and Good
Governance, noted that what is happening at the local governments borders on
unspeakable irresponsibility and uncommon criminality being perpetrated by the
present administration in the state.
The group led by Usman Mamman, stated that what is happening at the local governments is a clear indication that the ACN government has shown no capacity and competence to confront the corruptible tendencies in practice in the local governments.
According to him, “we must be blunt in evaluating what has gone wrong – perhaps the moral outrage that results will be the basis for action to change things for the better.
Strangely, the people seem to have focused their attention more on the goings-on in Abuja, where, admittedly, many outrage and obscene things are the order of the day, without being bothered by large scale corruption and financial impropriety similarly taking place at the council level”.
He added that “there is nowhere this “egregious graft” is more evident as in the management of the huge monthly allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee to the local government areas.
What seems to rankle the more, however, is that nobody appears to give a hoot what happens to the huge allocations accruable to the councils every month at a time when statutory functions such as the repair of local feeder roads, streets, construction of public health centres, maintenance of local dispensaries, parks, gardens as well as markets and abattoirs, which the local governments could easily perform, are essentially left unattended to”.
The group led by Usman Mamman, stated that what is happening at the local governments is a clear indication that the ACN government has shown no capacity and competence to confront the corruptible tendencies in practice in the local governments.
According to him, “we must be blunt in evaluating what has gone wrong – perhaps the moral outrage that results will be the basis for action to change things for the better.
Strangely, the people seem to have focused their attention more on the goings-on in Abuja, where, admittedly, many outrage and obscene things are the order of the day, without being bothered by large scale corruption and financial impropriety similarly taking place at the council level”.
He added that “there is nowhere this “egregious graft” is more evident as in the management of the huge monthly allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee to the local government areas.
What seems to rankle the more, however, is that nobody appears to give a hoot what happens to the huge allocations accruable to the councils every month at a time when statutory functions such as the repair of local feeder roads, streets, construction of public health centres, maintenance of local dispensaries, parks, gardens as well as markets and abattoirs, which the local governments could easily perform, are essentially left unattended to”.
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