‘Shame On You’ — Gov Fayemi Rebukes Ekiti Ex-Council Boss For Accusing Him Of Shortchanging Her LG N93m Monthly
Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, has denied allegations that his administration shortchanges local government chairmen in the monthly disbursement of revenue allocations from the Federal Government.
Fayemi’s denial followed a claim by a former local government chairman, Mrs Omotunde Fajuyi, that she received N7 million instead of N100 million as monthly allocation throughout her stay in office under his administration.
Fajuyi had claimed that, “Sometimes, the Fayemi government will give us N2 million, N3 million monthly; the highest I received was N7 million and that was after the government created LCDA (local council development area) while N2.5 million was given to the LCDA, so what I actually got to us was N4.5m.”
But responding, the governor said he does not involve himself with activities of the state’s Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC), hence could not have had anything to do with funds allocated to local government councils.
Fayemi, who responded through his Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode, said Fajuyi deliberately misrepresented the facts to create an impression that his administration is corrupt.
Oyebode explaind that the JAAC usually deducts local councils’ commitments at source before crediting their accounts with their balances, adding that the deductions include payment for staff salaries, primary school teachers’ salary, and payment of traditional institutions.
Others are proportional payment of pensioners, payment of political office holders, including the Chairman, payment of health workers’ salaries and proportional payment to security outfits.
“The monthly allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee to the councils are determined by the JAAC at the state level in line with relevant provisions of the law.
“The JAAC meeting usually have in attendance the council chairmen, the commissioner for local government, state’s and local governments’ auditors-general, among other state officials,’’ Oyebode stated
“While the JAAC meeting is held monthly to determine how the allocations to the local council would be disbursed, it is on record that Gov. Fayemi never meddled in the JAAC affairs nor superintends over any of its meetings.
“Except for the purpose of mischief, Mrs Fajuyi knew the governor never had anything to do with JAAC throughout her tenure as council boss,’’
Oyebode stressed that it was common knowledge that the difference between Gross Allocation to local councils after FAAC and Net Distributable after JAAC was because of statutory deductions.
“It is important for serving and former public office holders to always demonstrate a high sense of responsibility in their daily conduct and public engagements.
“They should be as truthful as possible and avoid mischief and unwarranted mudslinging as did Mrs Fajuyi.
“It is a shame that Mrs Fajuyi’s remarks have created the impression of unwholesome financial activities on the part of state officials,’’ said Oyebode.
The Nigerian Senate had last month passed a bill seeking amendment to the 1999 Constitution to grant full financial and administrative autonomy to local governments in the country.
If the bill becomes law, each local government council would be allowed to create and maintain its own special account to be called Local Government Allocation Account into which all the allocations will be paid.