The Association of Local Government in Nigeria (ALGON), Osun State chapter, has lamented the role played by the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Federal Ministry of Finance, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the ongoing local government crisis in the state.
To avert looming anarchy, ALGON has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to direct the relevant government authorities to do the right thing by releasing the local government fund allocations to the duly elected council chairmen in the state.
The local government chairmen elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called on the president to redirect those above so as not to cause anarchy in Osun State.
Addressing journalists at the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftain Affairs in Osogbo on Tuesday, the ALGON state chairman, Sarafadeen Awotunde, said that following the president’s directive that local governments across the country should open accounts with the CBN, they approached the Osogbo branch of the bank but were not attended to.
Awotunde said that when they heard that the chairmen elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) approached the bank on Monday to collect account opening forms, six of them also went there the same day as the legitimate chairmen, only to be directed to come the following day.
His words: “We talked to the person we met at the CBN Osogbo about it. He promised to relay a message to the Controller General of CBN. Still, we are sure the CG knew the rightful owner of the form and legally backed council chairmen who were eligible to append their signatures. While we settled that one, they gave us 8 a.m. today to come to their office.
“We arrived at the CBN quarter to 8 O’ clock to wait for the controller, we later learned that she is inside her office, probably she went through the back door to her office and doesn’t want to attend to us, we are harmless, those of us who are eligible for the form, we are about six of us.
“After a while, they started rushing to close the gate on the controller’s instructions. There was a behaviour from a lady who is a security operative from the Mopol department; she uttered unprofessional words. We have her recorded and will take the matter up in due time. We informed her that she is probably unaware of the Appeal Court verdict, which affirmed the sacking of the Yes, No chairmen.
“The Certified True Copy of the Appeal verdict was with me, and I handed it over to them. One of the private security personnel was marching on the court paper; it is so unfortunate that they even barricaded the CBN so that nobody could stay there, and we left”.
Osun ALGON claimed that what is happening in Osun is illegal, adding that the All Progressives Congress should learn to rejoice when it wins and concede defeat appropriately.
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