ALGON slams Makinde over LG secretariat construction
·        Says it’s attempt to steal Council funds

The directives of the Oyo State government to Caretaker chairmen to put up N15m each for the construction of an ultra-modern secretariat complex for the Local Government Service Commission an d staff pension board has been described as a fraudulent scheme to siphon Council funds.

This assertion was made by the Association of Local Government Chairmen (ALGON) in a statement signed by its chairman in the State, Prince Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye.

According to the statement issued yesterday, ALGON said after considering the issue diligently, it found out that the directive was a fraudulent scheme to siphon Council funds by using the illegal caretaker chairmen as pawns. “It is a white elephant project designed to siphon money regularly from local government purse”.

Referring to the memo issued by a Permanent Secretary, Local Government Service Commission on the directives of the Governor. ALGON said the memo was illegitimate and contravenes the constitution which grants financial, project choice and implementation autonomy to local councils. “The illegality becomes more pronounced when the huge fund is expected to be coughed out by illegal caretakers, who in principle and law, must not have access to local government account. This is also a breach of NFIU guideline on local government finances”, ALGON said.

The statement stated further, “building an imaginary secretariat is not, cannot and must not be a priority of any serious people-focused, responsible local government administration in view of compelling needs to provide good roads, renovate dilapidated primary schools, primary health centres, provide water, markets, agricultural inputs, among others, for the grassroots.

“These illegal caretakers are hereby strictly warned in their own interest not to be accomplices to this “ultra-modern” fraud by the State Government. It is a sure way to EFCC net, to prosecution and eventual imprisonment. The Governor has immunity against arrest and prosecution which they don’t have, so don’t be entrapped by any illegal gubernatorial order. In a democracy, there is nothing like “obey the last order” and ignorance is never an excuse in law. We advise them not to ruin their lives because of mere pittance they may receive from the “ultra modern” loot. No law, we repeat, no law empowers a State Governor to direct Local Government Administrators to release money or stylishly loot for him. Local Government finances are properly budgeted for based on needs assessment of the Council Area and appropriately approved by the Legislative Arm. Anything to the contrary is fraud and stealing by tricks”.

ALGON also referred to what it described as the panicky auctioning of local government property on the eve of its resumption in office. “It will be recalled that we also alerted the general public on the panicky auctioning of local government property by the illegal contraption tagged Caretaker Committees on the eve of our recent resumption  of office and the N3m ‘chop money’ illegally withdrawn from each council account to sponsor thuggery and  violence against our resumption”.

The Association also cautioned the state government against its continued resort to blackmail as contained in the corruption allegation against the Council chairmen because it refused the out-of-court settlement from the government based on principle, it urged the government to recognize the legitimacy of the Council chairmen.
“In order to achieve this crude objective, some senior council officials are being lured or intimidated to lie while those who refused to join in the conspiracy of false allegations against the elected chairmen are punitively transferred outside their council areas against the norms and rules of staff transfer because they refused to manufacture figures and cook books to implicate chairmen since the books are clean and the records are unambiguous.
“We are unshaken in our resolve to protect democracy, rule of law and good governance. No intimidation or blackmail can stop us on this path because where a tradition is lacking, a striking example is very necessary.
ALGON also described as blatant falsehood the allegation that the Chairmen did not collect nomination form from the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission before they were elected. “This will go the way of other previous lies from the State government”.