SEGUN AYINDE, ABEOKUTA
A former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ladi Adebutu, has accused state governments of hijacking the revenue meant for the development of local government council administration.
Adebutu represented the Sagamu/Ikenne/Remo North Federal Constituency of Ogun State at the 8th Legislature.
He stated this recently at the Second Edition of his Good Governance Symposium held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, Ogun State, with human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome, as the Guest Speaker.
At the event, Ozekhome harped on the theme: “Local Government Autonomy, A Panacea For National Development”, saying the Federal Government needed to develop the LGAs to develop the nation.
The ex-federal lawmaker expressed regrets that the state government had been “killing” LG administrations in their various states by using the revenues allocated to them for other purposes.
He said that unless the state governments stopped taking the allocation meant to develop the councils, the people at the grassroots won’t benefit from the dividends of democracy.
“Revenues coming from FG are being hijacked by the state and making sure it does not get to the local level”, he said
Adebutu said that such action by the state government won’t help the government, saying that a collective responsibility of the people at the grassroots and their traditional rulers was needed to develop the country.
He also accused the Ogun State Government of trying to use the State Independent Electoral Commission to shut out his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, from the LG poll in state
The former lawmaker alleged that the Chairman of OGSIEC, Mr. Babatunde Osibodu, was planning to rig the election in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress in the state.