The Benue State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has described the decision by the Benue State House of Assembly to vote against Local Government Autonomy as insensitive, callous, undemocratic, and wicked.
The publicity secretary of the opposition party in the State, Daniel Ihomun, who disclosed this in a statement, accused the Benue State Government for deducting N49million from local government funds for each unit of the refurblished Hilux vans donated to local government council chairmen recently as well as the deduction of N4m per local government for the domestic security outfit, amounting to N92million per month.
He averred that for Benue State House of Assembly to vote against Local Government Autonomy, it showed the total disconnect between the lawmakers and the plight of people at the grassroots, whom they are supposed to represent.
According to him, “the State and Local governments Joint Account which was created to share Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) collected by the State on behalf of the Local Governments has become the umbilical cord used by the State Government for suckling LG Allocation sent from the Federation Account,” he added.
But, in a swift reaction to the allegations, the state chapter of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it viewed as most unfortunate a statement credited to the state chapter of the APC in which it accused the Benue State House of Assembly and its Speaker, Engr. Titus Uba, of scuttling passage of the Local Government Autonomy Bill.
The PDP in the statement through its publicity secretary, Bemgba Iortyom, said: “out of about 10 states that supported the Bill on both occasions in 2018 and 2022, those controlled by PDP were about half, including Benue, and with the Bill needing only 24 states to pass it, it would have been successful if the 23 APC states had given their consent to it.”
The PDP spokesperson said the APC’s diatribe was pathetically ineffective as a weapon against the weight of facts which place the blame squarely at its doorsteps for the failure of the Local Government Autonomy Bill.
He added, “it is the position of Benue PDP that the local APC chapter, rather than play cheaply to the gallery, ought to hide its face in shame since the failure of the Bill to scale through the legislative processes across the country.
“On the other allegations bothering on theft of public funds levied by Benue APC against the Ortom administration, which are quite weighty and construe punishable offences under law, we will be requiring the opposition party through its agents who levelled those allegations to prove same, and this we will call for in subsequent correspondence.”
However, the APC spokesperson emphasised that what the Uba-led Assembly did goes to show that members of the current Benue State House of Assembly dominated by the PDP members have deliberately refused to have anything positive to do with history and posterity which ironically is the desire of every public official.
“The deliberate refusal by Hon. Uba-led Benue State House of Assembly to liberate the local government system from the draconian grip of the governor shows disdain, lack of empathy and concerns for the development of the Local Government Areas and the people at the grassroots.
“It’s shocking that the very people who were elected to represent the people at grassroots in the Benue State House of Assembly are rather conniving with the State Government and enemies of the people to perpetually enslave the Local Government and by extension the Benue people through their vote against Local Government Autonomy.
“The current decision of members of the state assembly explain why they look the other way while funds meant for the administration and development of local governments in Benue state have not been visible in the development of the councils,” the APC spokesperson stated.
While lamenting a situation where N20million was being deducted from the Local Governments monthly to give the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) N460m, he said the monies that were unaccounted-for with other unnecessary deductions from the local government coffers adding that local government system in Benue state has collapsed except a few where the governor is seeking favours for his senatorial ambition in 2023.
“It is therefore shocking that the Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Hon. Titus Uba, a man who is the candidate of the PDP for governorship in Benue state will lead the coup against the very people he wants to govern in 2023 by looking away while local governments are being trampled upon in Benue state,” APC added.
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