300 million LG funds diversion allegation baseless, unfounded and false – Judicial Panel

Kwara State government has debunked allegation by a Civil Society group that over 300 million of Local Government is being monthly diverted by the state.

The Judicial Panel inaugurated on 11th August, 2020 by the executive governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq disclosed this while presenting the report of the investigation on the allegation of monthly diversion since the commencement of Abdulrasaq’s administration.

Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Rafiu Ajakaye made this known in a statement he issued in Ilorin.

The allegation was made by a Civil Society group known as The Elite Network for Sustainable Development (ENETSUD) that governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq administration has been deducting the said amount from the LGs Account.

Mr Ajakaye in the statement said, the governor had earlier inaugurated eight members panel called Judicial panel headed by the retired justice Mathew Adewara along with other members from DSS, Police, CSOs, NLC, ICAN and legal practitioners.

Justice Adewara on behalf of the panel said, “We want to state categorically that there is no evidence either oral or documentary to support the allegation of N300m monthly deduction from the local government funds by the state government. The allegation of such deductions is therefore baseless, unfounded and false.”

He stressed further that, 35 members testified and several documents were tendered before the panel in the process of the investigation. Adding that, the panel also visited some of the local governments to see some of the executed projects as submitted by the Director of Personnel Management (DPMs) who also appeared before them.

“The past administration obtained a loan of N4bn from a commercial bank for payment of two months arrears of salaries of local government staff. It was this loan that the Local governments were repaying at monthly installments of N317m. The loan of N4bn has been fully repaid in September 2019″

“There is another loan of N1.6bn also obtained by the past administration while the repayment of the loan is ongoing and will terminate in August 2022. It means therefore that the present administration inherited the obligation to repay the loan.” he said.

Finally, the Panel appealed to the state government to ensure that total wage bill, IGR and expenditures at state and local government are published on monthly basis in a bid to enhance accountability and transparency in the government.

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