11 councillors accuse chairman of corrupt practices

Cajetan Mmuta, BENIN

Nine out of 11 councillors at Uromi, headquarters of Esan North East Local Government council area of Edo State, have accused the council chairman Honourable Augustine Okoibhole of alleged corrupt practices.

Okoibhole was accused of enriching himself at the detriment of the welfare of the people of the local government area. He was also accused of abuse of office and disregard for the traditional institution of the area, among sundry allegations.

The chairman, however, has denied the allegations, insisting that he ran the council in line with procedures just as he denied any financial wrong doing.

The nine councillors from wards one, two, three, six, seven, eight, nine, 11 and 20, in a petition to Governor Godwin Obaseki, accused the chairman of financial recklessness. According to them, he operated multiple accounts in the name of the council as against a single account policy of the state and federal government.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Hon Iluobe Christina, from Ward Seven accused the chairman of not being able to account for a N13,348,000 remitted to the account of the council by the revenue verification committee.

The council legislators alleged that the sum of N144,000,000 realised as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the past 16 months has not been accounted for.

The aggrieved councilors also claimed that the chairman has not been able to account for the N116,350,894 Paris Club Refund .

The lawmakers in a petition to the Edo State House of Assembly dated 2nd of October also accused the council chairman of reckless spending of the council funds and for operating multiple accounts in the name of the council. 

They accused the chairman of operating multiple accounts with three commercial banks, Unity, Zenith and Fidelity banks. 

According to them, the action of the embattled council boss was against the federal government single account policy. 

In the petition, it was alleged that the council under the chairman  has the following account numbers with the mentioned banks;  Unity bank 0030202481, Zenith bank 1015212907 and Fidelity bank with account number 6220020870. 

They disclosed that the sum of N13, 348,000,00, which was remitted to the council through the revenue verification committee of the council, was paid into the Zenith bank account by the chairman. 

Some aggrieved members, who spoke on condition of anonymity said that  efforts to drag the chairman before the anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, (EFCC), have been thwarted by some forces from the area.

They urged the State House of Assembly to look into their petition in order to take the matter to the appropriate anti-agency even as they requested that the chairman should step down to enable, “effective investigation of about N313, 698, 894.34 and abuse of office.” 

Okoibhole, yesterday, said: “The new Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) directive gives us room to operate three accounts and that is what we are doing, we are operating three accounts.”
On not being able to account for IGR, he said: “We have been paying salaries. We do not owe workers’ salaries. I have done many projects. I have built a livestock market done drainages; all these monies did not come from my personal pocket. What we have done is even far more than N144 million. My wage bill on monthly base is over N30m and for the last 25 months, I have paid salaries. I have debts that we owe on rented properties and several other spending.”

On Paris Club refund, he explained that he acted as directed by the state governor to pay salary arrears.

His words: “We owed eight months and now we owe only two and half months, which means I have paid five and a half months.”
He said that the only thing he had with the traditional institution as alleged was that he built a new livestock market, with abattoir and other facilities. He noted that while the Hausa and marketers from Kogi State have moved into the market, traders from the local government refused it on the ground that he was trying to divide the traditional market in Uromi.