The chairman of Ijebu East local government area of Ogun State, Mr. Wale Adedayo, has carried out his threat to petition the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over alleged refusal of Governor Dapo Abiodun to release federal allocation due to the local governments in the state.
This is as chairmen of other local governments in the state visited the governor and are captured in a viral video prostrating to tender apology over Adedayo’s action.
FrontPage had exclusively reported the threat by the local government boss to petition EFCC and ICPC over the case.
The petition is a follow up to the one he had written to former governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, to intervene in the case of alleged non-release of the allocation to the local governments.
Dated August 28, 2023 and addressed to the chairman of the EFCC, Adedayo sought the intervention of the anti-graft agency to intervene in the case.
The petition reads in part: “Your urgent intervention is sorely needed to convince the Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, that the statutory Federal Allocation to Local Governments in Ogun State should be allowed to reach each of them as envisaged by the 1999 Constitution. Since we (Ogun State Local Government Chairmen) got on board in 2021, it has been ZERO Federal Allocation to each local government. The 10% of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue, which the Constitution also stipulated should go to the local governments has not been given since Abiodun got into office. You may want to deploy the instruments of your office to confirm the veracity of my claim as well.
“Former President Muhammadu Buhari assisted the states and Local Governments with what we call palliatives today. They called it, SURE-P. The first sent to the 20 local governments in Ogun State was N2.5 billion. The second one was N2.6 billion. The third was N2.8 billion, while the fourth shortly before Buhari left office was N2.9 billion. Not a dime of these funds was released to ANY local government in Ogun State. The Ogun State Executive Committee of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) had a meeting with the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Dapo Okubadejo, early this year. The Commissioner claimed that the 20 local governments were owing the Ogun State Government N17 billion, which they continue to deduct. But I know for a fact that my Ijebu East Local Government is NOT owing Abeokuta one Naira. Kindly use your good offices to verify this fact.”
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It would be recalled that the governor, Dapo Abiodun, has denied the claims by the local government boss.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by Mr. Lekan Adeniran, his Chief Press Secretary, Abiodun said he had often had to augment the funds allocated to local governments in the state from the Federation Account to enable them to meet their obligations.
He said he never tampered with local government funds.
It wondered “how adding to the funds allocated to the local councils to enable them to meet their obligations amounted to hijacking their funds.”
It said that funds meant for local governments in the state were being handled by the constitutionally recognised Joint Account and Allocation Committee, JAAC.
According to him, JAAC members ensured that the third tier of government got the required allocations for optimal performance.
