Govt stops funds to Jigawa, Anambra over council polls
- Lagos council chairmen fault presidency’s actions
From John- Abba Ogbodo (Abuja) and Idowu Ajanaku (Lagos)
PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo has directed the Federal Ministry of Finance to withhold monthly allocations to states that are yet to conduct elections into their local councils.
To be affected by the directive are Anambra and Jigawa States.
The Lagos State government is currently at the Supreme Court challenging a similar Federal Government action for conducting elections into new councils.
While Jigawa has fixed its elections for next Saturday, Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State has tied the conduct of the exercise to the restoration of his Police orderlies by the Federal Government.
The governor's orderlies had been withdrawn by the police, claiming compliance with the January 2 controversial order by Justice Stanley Nnaji of an Enugu High court, although the Court of Appeal has reversed it while Nnaji has been suspended by the National Judicial Council (NJC).
Yesterday morning, the 57 council chairmen in Lagos State addressed a press conference where they criticised the Federal Government action.
President Obasanjo, in a June 19 letter to the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, directed that the states that were yet to conduct the elections into the third tier of government be regarded as engaging in illegality and appropriately dealt with.
He noted that the absence of election in those states had become a veritable source of waste at the state level.
Obasanjo said that there was no justification for further allocation of funds to such states, as was the case with states that created new local councils in a manner he considered illegal.
He said: "Since democracy based on elections is fundamental in the constitution to the existence and operation of local government system throughout the country, it stands to reason that states where local government elections have not taken place are unconstitutional in their local government system as at the date of this note almost three months after local government election in the country."
Obasanjo continued: "This has become a veritable means of mismanagement of local government funds at the state level. Therefore, in addition to states that have unconstitutionally created local governments not stipulated in the constitution, states that have not had local government election will have the allocation to their local governments stopped forthwith and only resumed after evidence that such elections have taken place".
The Federal Government had applied a similar measure to the states that created new local councils on the ground that they are illegal. The states are Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ebonyi and Katsina.
Lagos State is currently challenging the Federal government's action in court.
Yesterday afternoon, the 57 council chairmen in Lagos State strongly condemned the Federal Government's action.
The chairmen, most of whom belong to the Alliance for Democracy (AD), threatened to do anything within the constitution to defend their mandate and contain the "illegal activities" of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders in the state.
The chairmen said that the Federal Government's action, despite the advice by the Supreme Court that such allocation be released for the payment of workers' salaries, portended grave danger to the survival of democracy not only in Lagos State, but also the entire country.
This was contained in a statement read at the press conference in Ikeja by the chairman of the Apapa Local Council, Alhaji Muniru Muse.
The council chairmen said that the kite of emergence rule, which the Federal Government is allegedly flying to intimidate the people in the state, would not deter them from demanding for their rights.
His words: "Anybody who thinks that the fear of state of emergency in Lagos will deter out people from defending their rights, is living in a world of illusion. We shall stand by the people's mandate at all times. We will never compromise the cause of truth and justice."
And for those who are clamouring and working towards a state of emergency, the chairmen urged them to pause and learn from history.
Just as it happened in the Western Region in the First Republic, any abuse of emergency powers in Lagos, the chairmen maintained, will only propel Nigeria's fragile democracy to the emergency casualty ward from which she may never recover.
The AD, the chairmen maintained, would no longer sit back and watch "lawless elements of the PDP" who are bent on causing confusion in the state.
They said that a situation where "political rascals who neither understand nor believe in democracy openly insult and assault the sacred mandate imposed on us by the people at the grassroots" would not be allowed to go unchallenged.
Commenting on the activities of Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in the state, the chairmen said that the PDP through the Federal Ministry of Works, was undermining the internally generated revenue base of local councils in Lagos.
They alleged that FERMA had been illegally and forcibly collecting tolls and fees from markets, garages and car parks located on the so called federal highways and on state roads.
