By Ayodele Oni
The Administration of Local Governments in Ondo State has again come under scrutiny following the demand by a legal practitioner, Femi Emodamori, to know how funds accruing to the Councils’ from the Federation account are being disbursed.
According to the operation of the joint account allocation, funds meant for Local Governments as third tier of Government are supposed to be disbursed directly into their accounts.
However, reports indicate that direct disbursement into the Local Councils’ account has been impossible due to the inability of some of them to meet details from the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) to open accounts.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Ondo State had earlier accused Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of tampering with the Councils’ funds, an allegation which was denied by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Emodamori has written to the Ondo State Government through the Commissioner for Finance, Omowunmi Isaac, to demand whether or not the 18 Local Government Areas in Ondo State now receive their statutory allocations directly from the Federation Account.
This is in line with Section 162 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), and in line with the Supreme Court Judgment.
The legal practitioner pointed out that his demand is coming under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI).
“Pursuant to Section 1 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, I, Femi Emmanuel Emodamori, a Nigerian Citizen and Legal Practitioner, hereby requests for documents detailing the disbursements of statutory allocations to all the 18 Local Government Areas in Ondo State from the State Joint Local Government Account.
“Please note that you are statutorily mandated to supply the information requested above within Seven days from the receipt of this application, by virtue of Section 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.
“Please note that by virtue of Section 7(5) of the Freedom of Information Act, it is a crime for any officer to wrongly deny any citizen access to information requested under the Act.
“Consequently, the Hon. Commissioner, I would be grateful to have the above requested information within Seven days. Those who have nothing to hide, have nothing to fear. I am persuaded that your office is committed to transparency and accountability.
“Please take notice, however, that in the unlikely event that the information
requested above is not supplied within seven days as stipulated by law, I will,
without further notice, institute a civil action in court for appropriate remedies and equally set the criminal law in motion against the Hon. Commissioner for the statutorily stipulated criminal sanction.”
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