President Bola Tinubu has been called upon by the Osun State Government to intervene in an alleged plan by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Accountant General of the Federation to pay the state local government allocations into private accounts of those it described as “impostors”
This call was contained in a statement issued and signed by the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Hon.Dosu Babatunde on Wednesday.
The Commissioner noted that available information indicates that, the offices of AGF and CBN have concluded plans to pay Osun Local Government allocations to private accounts of some impostors.
The move according to the commission was a planned action deliberately aimed at thwarting the cases already filed at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
“As a government, we are of the strong contention that this is quite sad, unfortunate and unconstitutional for these two Federal Government agencies to conclude plans to pay Governments money into private accounts. This will amount to an open violation of public finance regulations.
“When Osun State Government first heard about this plan, it quickly took a step through the office of the the Auditor General for Local Governments in the State by sending a letter to the CBN introducing the accounting officers of each of the 30 local Governments to them such as the Heads of Local Government Administrations(H.L.A) and Director of Finance.
“However, to our great consternation and dismay, the CBN Osogbo office rejected the list and then decided to pay the allocation of Osun Local Government allocations to private accounts of former Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s men who submitted their names without the input of the accounting officers of all the LGs in Osun State.
“To this end and with all sense of responsibility, we wish to draw the attention of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to this constitutional shenanigans, because, we are of the conviction and belief that, this unlawful act is being done without the consent and knowledge of Mr President as well as the Honourable Minister of Finance.
“We wish to further add and warn that , any money paid into the private account of any individual is not and will never be Osun State Local Government money, and the consequence for this will be very severe as Osun State Government will not spare any action in line with the dictates of the law in order to redress such anomaly.
“Finally, we are using this medium to appeal to Mr President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to intervene before some people for their own self centered reasons subvert the rule of law to unconstitutionally tamper with people’s money in Osun State” the statement concluded.