National president of Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) Comrade Ambali Akeem Olatunji has said if local governments across Nigeria enjoy autonomy, there would be massive reduction in banditry.
He stated this in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital yesterday during the 8th delegates’ conference of the union.
Olatunji stated that the massive recruitment of youths by bandits from the villages was as a result of the inactiveness of local government system in Nigeria and further revealed that if the local governments are fully functional with the resources allocated to them from the federation account, it would go a long way in tackling insecurity.
“We are agitating for local government autonomy not just for the funds from federation account to local government councils, we are saying federal government can provide physical structure to the local government directly instead of passing through their various states.
“Granting local government autonomy means the federal government can provide graders, fertiliser, other farm inputs, to empower the local government, the local governments can engage the youths who are idle and are being employed for banditry all around.
“Why we are still having issues with local government autonomy is because most of the state governors are feeding fat on the local government funds and it has a huge negative effect even security wise.” Olatunji stated.
