The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has issued a warning to executive chairmen and career officers in all 33 local government councils across the state. The APC cautioned them to distance themselves from Governor Seyi Makinde’s attempts to undermine the Supreme Court’s recent verdict, which granted financial autonomy to local governments. The party warned that aligning with the governor’s efforts could result in legal trouble and potentially lead to imprisonment.
Gov. Makinde has emerged the lone voice among the 36 state governors condemning the Apex Court’s verdict as he was quoted to have described the development as a distraction while he also inaugurated a special committee to review the judgement and mandated members of the committee to come up with recommendations which would enable him maintain the status quo as it concerns the joint account arrangement between states and local government councils.
“The whole world did not realize the magnitude of damage done to the third tier of government in Oyo state in the last 62 months until Gov. Makinde came out openly to castigate both the federal government and the Judiciary on the issue of financial autonomy. The governor has been fighting tooth and nail to promote unpopular call for a reversal of the verdict which has been described, by most people, as a victory for the masses. Unfortunately for Gov. Makinde, his recent actions have confirmed the allegations bothering on the embezzlement of council funds being leveled against him by our Party (APC) and others.
“It is now crystal clear that the PDP governor had mapped out an 8-year plan aimed at looting LGA funds but got his dream truncated by the celebrated verdict of the Supreme Court. For the avoidance of doubt, the decision of the Apex Court remains sacrosanct even if he (Makinde) refused to agree to it. Meanwhile, Oyo state is a fraction of the nation called Nigeria and it is wrong for a governor to claim ‘sovereignty’ even as he depends on the federal government handouts and allocations to pilot the affairs of his state.
“On the final note, the reported withdrawal of the imposed 33 council chairmen from ALGON is just a smokescreen as we are aware of a script already handed to them by their principal. There is absolutely nothing Gov. Makinde can do to make him the recipient of the allocations due to 33 LGAs again and any chairman or career officer who compromise the provision of the law on account of blind loyalty or unfounded fear would pay for it as efforts are also in top gear to make the governor and other accomplices account for the trillions of naira already mismanaged at the expense of the LGAs.” Sadare concluded.
