Safiu Kehinde
The Osun State government has raised alarm over alleged plot by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) to divert the local government allocations to private accounts of some impostors.
This was made known in a statement issued on Wednesday by the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Dosu Babatunde.
In what he described as unfortunate and unconstitutional for these two Federal Government Agencies, Babatunde held that the plan is deliberately aimed at thwarting the cases already filed at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
This, according to Babatunde, will amount to an open violation of public finance regulations.
“Available information at our disposal, as a government indicates that, the offices of The Accountant General of the Federation and Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) have concluded plans to pay Osun LG allocations to private accounts of some impostors.
“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.” The commissioner said.
He recounted how the Auditor General of the state had, in the wake of its discovery of the sinister plot, submitted a letter to the CBN office, introducing the accounting officers of each of the 30 local Governments.
The official list was, according to the Commissioner rejected by the CBN Osogbo office, raising the suspicion of the state government over alleged plan to pay the LG allocation to private accounts allegedly owned by the loyalists of former Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, whose names were submitted without the input of the accounting officers.
“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 with strong suspicion that it planned to pay the allocation of Osun Local Governments 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.” He disclosed.
The Commissioner called for President Bola Tinubu’s intervention over the unlawful act which he claimed to have been carried out without his consent and knowledge as well as the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun.
Babatunde warned that diversion of the fund with have severe impact on the state government while reiterating his call for Tinubu’s intervention.
“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 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 Commissioner added.