Daily Independent Online.
*
Thursday, July 08, 2004.
Coping without statutory allocation is tough,
says Ikeja LG boss
By Stella Odueme
Reporter, Lagos.
The stoppage of statutory allocation to states who
defied President Olusegun Obasanjo’s order by going ahead to create
additional local governments in their states have continued to tell on the functioning of their local
councils.
Katsina , Niger, Lagos and Nasarawa States have had
their allocations withheld since the last local government elections, while
Ebonyi State which initially was included had since had its allocation restored
for converting the councils to community development projects.
The
remaining four had been at loggerheads with the federal government ever since
with the court case between the Lagos state and the federal government due for
hearing on Tuesday.
Chairman of Ikeja Local Government, Mr Wahab
Owokoniran, lamenting the paucity of funds to carry out the basic functions of
the council told Daily Independent in Lagos that
“running the council without the federal statutory allocation, has
been a tough battle”.
He added that in order to survive the hard times, his
council has embarked on intensive and aggressive internal revenue drive by
sending its task force officials to chase debtors.
Owokoniran, who ascribed the situation to pure
politics, lamented that the federal government was now arrogating to itself,
the responsibility of collecting tolls at markets and motor parks which were
the constitutional role of the local governments.
Describing the act as unconstitutional and illegal, he blamed
the Minister of Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe who could not hide his
governorship ambition and think that he could use his ministerial power to
terrorise people of Lagos state to submission for his desires.
“Collection of tolls is essentially the
responsibility of the local government constitutionally and if the federal
government now decides to run everything, including the markets, it is
unconstitutional. It is our responsibility to collect tolls in the markets and
garages and we will continue to perform our constitutional role by collecting
what rightfully is our duty”, he stressed.
He urged the minister to come down and allow the
voice of reasoning to prevail so that an amicable solution would reached
because power was transient.
On the menace of street trading which have taken over the
roads in the local government, Owokoniran said that officials of KAI Brigade
had been arresting street traders who displayed their wares close to the road.
He lamented that the people were stubborn such that after their arrests, the
next day, they were back to the same spot. He added that the local government
would not reneged on its desires to rid the local government of street trading.
