President Muhammadu Buhari today declared that State Governors steal local government (LG) allocations.
Governors force elected local council chairmen to sign for their allocations but turn around to give them a little fraction of the amount, he said
“They have virtually killed the local government (system)” he lamented in an exclusive interview with Arise News.
Analysts said today that the President would not have gone public with the accusation unless he has evidence of the practice.
“What this means is that the current crop of governors will also be dragged to the EFCC and be shamed when they leave office in 2023 because of local government funds,” a security analyst said.
A south east politician who confirmed that the practice is widespread in the region said it will be easy to get any governor from the zone who engages in the practice.
This, according to him, is because the local council chairmen are not happy with the development.
“Most of them are not carrying out any projects because the governors are taking the money belonging to the councils and just giving them enough to pay salaries.
“The council chairmen are being cursed by their people for doing nothing. They cannot say anything against the Governor who unilaterally imposed them as chairmen, so they bear it.”
“Those who became local government chairmen are being compromised, the President said and threw up his hands in despair.
“This is not good for this country,” he said.
The President however never named the governors directly nor indicated whether he was going to do something about it.
Watch the president’s interview where he accuses the governors of stealing local council funds:
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