DIRECT ALLOCATION TO LGs BEGINS JUNE 1, EVEN AS GOVERNORS KICK

Governors of the 36 States of the country have opposed the Buhari government’s announcement that direct allocation to local government councils will begin June 1.

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) had embargoed  transactions on state and local governments joint accounts.

The NFIU also placed a limit on cash withdrawals from local governments accounts to a maximum of N500,000 per day.

In a statement by NGF’s Head of Media, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, on Sunday, the Governors said the agency was going beyond its bounds.

Chairman of the NGF and Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, who signed a protest letter to the federal government, expressed dismay at the brazen attempt by the NFIU to ridicule the collective integrity of the Governors and show total disregard for the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) as amended.

The Governors said they extracted “copiously from the constitution” to draw the attention of the president to section (6) (a) and (b) “which confers on the States and National Assemblies the powers to make provisions for statutory allocation of Public revenue to the Local Councils in the Federation and within the states respectively.”

The Governors added, Section 162 (6) expressly “provides for the creation of the States Joint Local Government Account (SJLGA) into which shall be paid all allocations to the LGAs of the State from the Federation Account and from the government of the state.”

They accused the NFIU of “stoking mischief and also deliberately seeking to cause disaffection, chaos and overheat the polity.”

According to them, local governments are not reporting entities and are therefore not under the NFIU in the manner contemplated by the NFIU so-called guidelines.

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) is the Nigerian arm of the Global Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) once domiciled within the EFCC but now for the purpose of institutional location domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria.