AbdulRazaq Not Touching LG Funds, Says Kwara NULGE

Kwara State Governor, Mr. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq does not interfere in the management of allocations to the local government councils in the state, the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), clarified yesterday, giving lies to claims that the state government was pilfering local government funds.

The governor’s Special Adviser on Political Communication, Alhaji Bashir Adigun, has also disclosed that AbdulRazaq’s administration has remained transparent, accountable and focused on developments that transform lives in the state.

“The union wishes to inform the general public that monthly allocation to all the sixteen (16) local government councils in Kwara State is being administered by local government representatives, and all the union leaders at local government level are also observers at the monthly allocation meeting,” state Secretary of Kwara State NULGE, Comrade Hotonou Rafiu, clarified in a statement in Ilorin, the state capital.

“NULGE Kwara State chapter wishes to inform the general public and most especially Kwarans that Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is not stealing local government fund as captured in a report credited to our National President Alhaji Ambali Olatunji Akeem.”

Rafiu said the misleading report has also been refuted by the NULGE President.

“We assert that neither the Governor nor the state government is interfering in the management of local government funds,” the NULGE Secretary added.

The state chapter of the union meanwhile joined the national secretariat of the NULGE to reject a bill to delist local government from the Nigerian constitution, describing the proposal as “outrageous.”

Meanwhile, the governor’s Special Adviser on Political Communication, Alhaji Bashir Adigun, has also disclosed that AbdulRazaq’s administration has remained transparent, accountable and focused on developments that transform lives in the state.

“We are constrained to react to a mischievous publication by a national newspaper (not THISDAY), alleging diversion of allocation to local governments by some states including the state government.

“The said publication is to say the least, sensational, mischievous, unethical and failed the test of balanced reporting.

“The report, broadcast by some radio stations and bloggers in the state, made a weighty allegation of diversion of funds by some state governments in its headline but nowhere in the body of the story is this found,” Adigun explained.