PDP, AD Trade Blames Over New Councils in Lagos
By Olawale Olaleye
Leadership of both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Alliance for Democracy (AD) have continued to trade blames over the current plight of the newly created local government in Lagos State as each of the parties defended its position on the council controversy.
While the PDP maintained that it would continue to recognise 20 councils as enshrined in the constitution, the AD on its part said the PDP's position was only informed by the imminent defeat at the supreme court over what it described as illegal withholding of the council allocations.
In a statement by Muyiwa Collins, PDP said the recent capitulation of the Lagos State government over the council creation was an indication that the state government does not desire development for the state, wondering why Lagos was the only state yet to revert to the old councils of all the states that coasted along initially.
The PDP said it authoritatively gleaned that the state government had already borrowed the new councils 40 per cent of the seized allocation with 40 per cent interest, hence the reason the state government is enjoying the delay.
"The agenda of the Lagos State Government is to destroy Lagos State as they have seen the hand writing clearly written on the wall of being voted out come next election in Lagos State because of their woeful performance and deceitful government coupled with their extravagant spending with no capital projects for almost six years now.
"We wish to appeal to Lagosians to remain calm as the local government funds is their right and the money is being kept in a safe custody and it will be released as soon as Governor Tinubu reverts to the 20 local governments as provided in the 1999 constitution and the money will be distributed directly to these recognised local governments for proper development of Lagos State", the statement reads.
In its reaction however, AD in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Toyin Caxton-Martins said what the PDP was seeking was an escape route to avoid the anger of the people of Lagos. AD said the feeling of the PDP was manifest in its argument that the seized funds would be released once it reverts to the old 20 local government councils.
Dismissing the allegations posed by the PDP against the AD and its government in Lagos, the party stated that "Lagosians can see through the cheap lies and dump hallucination of the Lagos PDP. They know that the people of Lagos State were the ones who clamoured for the local governments.
"They know that the Lagos State House of Assembly fulfilled the constitutional procedures in creating the new 37 local governments and they know that but for the decision of the state government to rescue the local governments from the financial strangulation plotted by the federal government, the school children, teachers, health officials and other stakeholders in the local government system would have suffered because the centre wants to play God.
"These are the stakeholders who curse the Lagos PDP everyday as they pray for the success of the Tinubu administration. These are the people who are ready to sacrifice more to show the PDP that its anti-people policies and programmes will be resisted by Lagosians", the statement posited.
AD however said while it looks forward to January 7, 2005 when judgment would be delivered on the council controversy, "we are confident and sure that the spirit and letters of the constitution will prevail over the arbitrary power of an authoritarian emperor foisted on Nigeria by the PDP to perpetrate misrule and oppression".
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