By National Record, With Agency Report
THE SPECIAL Adviser to Gov. Hyacinth Alia on Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Denen Aondoakaa, said local government areas in Benue are financially autonomous.
Aondoakaa made the disclosure on Monday in Makurdi while interacting with members of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Benue Council.
It could be recalled that Benue NGO Network (BENGONET) had last Friday called on the Federal Government to ensure full implementation of local government autonomy in states to enable local government areas (LGAs) to execute projects that would impact the lives of people at the grassroots.
The chairman of BENGONET, Mr Laz Mom, made the call at a stakeholders meeting where he said through a representative, Mr Victor Eboh, a lawyer, that by fully implementing LG autonomy, money meant for the development of local government areas would be used judiciously.
But in obvious response, Aondoakaa said that the Bureau only coordinates the affairs of the local governments to ensure order. He emphasised that the LGAs in the state were executing their projects and programmes without interference.
“It must be noted that the finances that accrue to each local government vary, and they utilise the resources based on their financial strength. “Local government chairmen were given official vehicles before my appointment.
“But some chairmen gave theirs out to security agencies for patrol to stem insecurity in their domains. Some chairmen even bought motorcycles to add to that,” he said.
He described the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) as a creation of the law with the responsibility to address the humanitarian crisis.
Aondoakaa said that the state government was working tirelessly to improve health service delivery, stating that it had equipped 98 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHC) facilities, and some local governments have up to three and some four.
The special adviser said that to prevent drugs at the headquarters of the PHCs from going bad, the bureau had provided a transformer to serve its drug stores.
