….asks SUBEB Chair, Adviser to account for 3.87 billion
Benue State House of Assembly has called for the abolition of the State and Local Government Joint Accounts Allocation Committee.
The House said the move to end the Accounts Allocation Committee became necessary to enable Local Government Areas to receive allocation meant for them directly in order to deliver efficient and effective services to their people.
The House took the decision after the Majority Leader, Hon. Saater Tiseer presented the report of the House committee constituted to investigate the activities of the Caretaker Committees of the Twenty Three (23) Local Government Areas in the State from June, 2023 to June, 2024.
After going through the reports, The House resolved that the Chairman, Benue State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) should account for N2,073,779,218.07 being balance of the funds received from the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs between December, 2023 and June, 2024.
According to the resolution of the House, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs is to refund the sum of N1,782,000,000.00 being total sum of the N9,000,000.00 siphoned from security votes of the 22 Local Government Councils excluding Ukum Local Government Area from October, 2023 to June, 2024 for 9 months and report back to the House within one month with evidence of payment.
Relatedly, the House has appealed to relevant authorities to warn Local Government Councils on their refusal to disclose official information as doing so would henceforth attract sanctions.
The House charged Local Government Areas to harness the revenue potentials in their respective areas in order to augment their monthly allocations as well as serve the people better and reiterated its readiness to repeal and reenact the Local Government Law, 2007 to ensure the operation of only democratically Elected Council where Executive Chairmen can be held accountable for their actions and inactions in Office.
In his remark, Member Representing Makurdi South Constituency, Hon. Douglas Akya lamented the rot and high level of corruption going on at the Local Government Areas and called on relevant authorities to work towards providing sanity in the Councils.
On his part, member representing Gwer State Constituency, Hon. Elias Audu appealed to the House to stand firm in order to ensure total cleansing of the Local Government Areas from menace such as corruption and other vices bedeviling the up lift of the various Councils while calling on EFCC and ICPC to beam their searchlight on the activities of Local Government Areas.
In their contributions, members representing Makurdi North and Kwande West Constituency Hon. Alfred Emberga and Thomas Dugeri urged the House to ensure Special Adviser to the Governor on Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs return all funds unlawfully taken from Local Government Councils while a Special Monitoring Committee be constituted in order to deal with issues concerning all Local Government Areas in the State.
The Speaker, Hon. Hyacinth Dajoh directed the Clerk, Mr John Hwand to communicate the resolution of the House to all concern authorities for action.
