By Amos Aar
BARELY 24 hours after it set up an ad hoc committee to probe alleged financial misappropriation by the 23 elected local government chairmen in Benue State, the Benue State House of Assembly on Wednesday recommended the immediate and indefinite suspension of the council chairmen and councilors (local government legislators).
Speaker of the House, Hon. Aondona Dajoh, made the recommendation after a consideration of the report of the ad hoc committee set to investigate the income and expenditure report forwarded to it by Governor Hyacinth Alia.
According to the Speaker, the suspension became necessary to avoid interference by the chairmen into the ongoing prob and to ensure detailed investigation into the income and expenditures.
While the suspension of the chairmen was for alleged mismanagement of funds, the councilors were to be suspended for allegedly conniving with the chairmen to commit the said misappropriation.
The House equally resolved to extend the investigation to cover the entire tenure of the local government council chairmen, saying the three months report into the finances of the councils so far revealed serious infringements on the financial memorandum of local government and other extant laws governing the management of funds at the third tier of government.
Council chairmen were to handover all properties under their care to the Directors, General Services and Administration (DGSA) pending the completion of the investigation.
The house further requested the governor to set up caretaker committees without delay in line with the Benue local government law and urged the Benue State Commissioner of Police to ensure a seamless transition at the various local government headquarters.
Earlier, while presenting the report, chairman of the ad hoc committee and member representing Katsina-Ala state constituency, Hon. Peter Ipusu, revealed that the committee discovered huge financial misappropriation by the 23 local government councils in the state and among other things recommended the house to pass a resolution, calling on the governor to suspend all the council chairmen in order to give way for a detailed investigation.
He pointed out unnecessary payments into individual accounts and double payment into account of the Bureau of local government and chieftaincy affairs.
“Instead of the Bureau of local government and chieftaincy affairs to pay money to the local governments, the local governments were paying to the Bureau”, he pointed out.
Fielding questions from journalists shortly after the plenary on how the ad hoc committee was able to perform the herculean task and come up with the recommendation in less than 24 hours, Hon. Ipusu said: “Our people at the rural areas have been troubled. So, immediately after the committee was set up, we swung into action.
“We were all out, we took our time and we had sleepless night because from the first report the chairmen submitted by themselves and signed by treasurers and DGSAs, immediately we opened the first one, we saw a lot and a lot that had been going on in the local government system that was not right.
“From what we have seen, a local government for three months is getting [sic] about one point something billion naira and you see that the expenditure is much but there is nothing on ground to show. You transfer a hundred million naira to an individual to do what with it?”.
National Record had reported on Wednesday that Governor Hyacinth Alia sent a correspondence to the State Assembly on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 (yesterday) requesting the probe of the council chairmen and the House had set up the ad hoc committee immediately following the governor’s request.
