The Labour Party caucus in the National Assembly has queried the alleged move by the Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling on local government autonomy.
The caucus, led by Sen. Tony Nwoye (LP-Anambra), said this at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.
Mr Nwoye expressed displeasure over ongoing moves by the governor to enact State and Local Government Joint Account law.
He said that such a move was aimed at circumventing the landmark judgement delivered by the Supreme Court on local government financial autonomy.
He tasked the speaker and members of the Anambra State House of Assembly to toe the path of honour by stopping forthwith further consideration of the obnoxious executive bill for posterity sake.
Other federal lawmakers, who spoke in turns, argued that the provisions of the proposed bill titled ‘Anambra State Local Government Administration Law, 2024’ were against the judgement of the apex court.
The aggrieved LP lawmakers, specifically frowned at the provisions of Clauses 13, 14 to 20, among others, with special focus on the ‘State, Joint Local Government Account’.
This includes Local Government Consolidated Account, Consolidated Account Management Committee, and ‘Local Government Security Trust Account.
Also included was the local government security trust account committee, among other issues.
According to Mr Nwoye, the controversial clause 13 (1) stipulates that the State shall maintain a special account called State Joint Local Government Account.
“And shall pay into it all allocations from the Federation to the local governments of the state.
“The State shall distribute the funds due to the local governments as provided in subsection (1) of section 11, on such terms and in such manner as prescribed by the State House of Assembly,” he said.
The lawmakers also protested against the provisions of clause 14 on ‘Local Government Consolidated Account.
This, according to Nwoye, stipulates that there shall be established a local government consolidated account that shall be managed on behalf of the local government areas in the state.
“The consolidated account shall be administered for the uniform provision of common services across all the local government areas in the state, among others”.
Mr Nwoye also decried the security situation across the state, questioning the rationale behind the proposed 20 per cent deduction from the federal allocation to local government as proposed in the bill.
Credit: The Nigeria Lawyer