NULGE calls for audit of state-LG joint accounts

The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to institute an audit enquiry of state and local government joint accounts in the states over perceived diversion of the funds.

NULGE President, Ibrahim Khaleel, made the call while speaking on the topic, “Local Government Autonomy: There is no Better Time Than Now. Our State Assemblies Must not Betray Nigerians Again,” after the National Executive Council, NEC, of the union in Abuja.

He said auditing the joint accounts is necessary as there is little or nothing in the 774 LGAs to show for the huge resources allocated to states over the years.

Khalel also expressed worry over the oppression of state houses of assembly by governors, calling for the scrapping of the state independent electoral commission from the country’s constitution, alleging it has remained a tool for governors to manipulate elections at the grassroots.

He claimed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors, under the APC Governor’s Forum, had engaged in a dubious political project against local government autonomy under the guise of restructuring.

The NULGE president commended the state houses of assembly that had passed the bill granting local government autonomy, despite pressure from the governors.

The nine states that have passed and voted for the bill include, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Kwara, Niger, Ogun, Sokoto and Plateau.

He said: “With the signing into law of the financial autonomy bill by President Buhari, which effectively puts an end to hegemony of absolute control of state legislatures by state governors, state lawmakers no longer need to fear or be intimidated in asserting the logic of the constitutional provision which empowers them to check the excesses of governors.’’

He threatened that the union would influence workers and their families in the 774 local government areas to vote out politicians opposed to local government autonomy.