The PDP in a press statement released by the State Publicity Secretary, Mr Bode Ogunmola on Tuesday disclosed that any other release of allocation to Admnistrators heading the local government would be challenged in a court of competent jurisdiction.
The Peoples Democratic Party,PDP disclosed that the administrators were planted by Gov.Yahaya Bello to scam the good people of Kogi State.
The PDP further observed that despite the billions of Naira accrued to the councils, percentage payment is still being paid, with no visible development to point to by the administrators.
” We advise the Federal Government of Nigeria to release the allocation to only elected local government officials henceforth describing the continuous release of funds to the councils as a recipe for a legal action that would cripple the administration in the third tier of government.
” It is a constitutional matter not to allow illegal administration order than elected councils to subsist as third tier of administration.
“In almost four years, the Gov. Bello’s administration has continuously recycled the administrators, looting their funds at the expense of payment of salaries and infrastructure development,” The party added.
It will be recalled that the Kogi State All Progressives Congress (APC) Stakeholders Forum last month sent a petition to President, Muhammadu Buhari against the second term ambition of Governor Yahaya Bello,
Kogi State is set to hold its gubernotorial election in November 2019.
“Governor Yahaya Bello was never elected by the good people of Kogi State. The death of Abubakar Audu made it possible for Bello to be Kogi State Governor. He has shown everyone that he lacks leadership abilities. He can’t fight for the rights and privileges of Kogi people.
“We request you to step down your support for the candidature of Governor Yahaya Bello for the forthcoming election in Kogi State.
“If the party fields him as a candidate, we are sure of losing the state to the opposition.”
“For the past 38 months, including February 2019, Governor Yahaya Bello has not paid full salaries to the workers of Kogi State, despite the fact that the state received full allocation from the Federation Account as detailed below: Statutory allocation, Excess Crude and Value Added Tax (VAT) (N132b); Internally Generated Revenue by the state(N51b); total allocations to local governments(N111b).
“Total funds received by the state and local governments: N294 billion. The other funds received by the state are as below: Bail Out (N20b); Paris Club refunds 1, 2, and 3 (N19b); and refunds for road construction by previous governments (N11b).
“The governor had conducted multiple staff screening for both the state and the local governments. And from the report of the screening, the monthly wage bill (state, local governments and pensions) at the inception of the administration stood at N5.8 billion. After screening, this figure reduced to N4.4 billion.
“From the table above, it is evidently clear that the total revenue received by the state government was more than enough to settle all salaries, pensions and gratuities with huge balance remaining for overheads and capital projects.
“It is very instructive to note that even without bailout and other funds received outside statutory allocation, Governor Yahaya Bello could have still paid all salaries including pensions without conducting multiple screening and inflicting pains on Kogi State and local government workers. This must hurt APC at the polls.
SOURCE: DAILYPOST, SAHARA REPORTERS
What do you think about this story ? Share your views below