Despite the promise by the Ondo State Governor, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, not to do anything unlawful concerning the administration of local governments, we learnt yesterday that the accounts of the 18 councils in the state had been frozen.
Equally, the state government had stopped the salaries of all political appointees in the third tier of government in the state as their names were allegedly removed from the payment voucher of the state government.
The 18 chairmen and the councellors of the councils except a single ward, were elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), during the local government election held in April 2016.
It was gathered that the state government had sent circular to all the 18 council areas to inform them of the decision to freeze the accounts.
Political appointees, whose salaries had been stopped are Secretaries to the Local Government (SLG), Personal Assistants, Special Advisers, Chiefs of Staff among others.
With the freezing of the accounts, local government area chairmen would not have access to the accounts of their respective councils until further notice.
“The government has frozen the councils’ accounts since last week and all the council chairmen are aware already.
“The implication of this is that the chairmen have been rendered powerless financially because they will not be able to take or spend any money from the council’s purse henceforth,” a source said.
When contacted, the chairman of the state chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Mr. Bayo Alarapon, who confirmed the situation, said the association had not yet decided on the next action on the matter.
The ALGON chairman, who is the chairman of the Akure South Local Government, said chairmen had not really gone into the matter.
(Thisday)
