- Safiu Kehinde
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has slammed the Caucus of the state’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives for writing to President Bola Tinubu over the allocation of the state’s local government areas allegedly withheld by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
As contained in a statement issued on Thursday by its Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, the Osun APC berated the lawmakers under the aegis of the National Assembly caucus from Osun State, labelling them as a meddlesome interloper over their letter to the President.
Olabisi accused the caucus of misinforming and misleading unsuspecting members of the public.
“It would be recalled that eight members in the House of Representatives under the aegis of the National Assembly caucus from Osun State wrote a letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, falsely accusing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of continuous withholding of the allocations of the 30 local government council areas for four months running.
“It is a pity that the complaining Federal legislators of the lower chamber extraction of the National Assembly could descend so low not to know the extent of their statutory authorities and roles under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
“The efforts of the plans of the Osun PDP House of Representatives Caucus to twist the real issue at stake have further exposed them as a bundle of legislators who are out to misinform and mislead the unsuspecting members of the public.” the Osun APC spokesperson wrote.
While refuting the caucus’ claim of the CBN withholding the LGA allocation, Olabisi charged the lawmakers to account for the billions of Naira allocated to them for constituency projects.
“We make bold to state that the confused Osun State PDP Caucus allegation of withholding of the local government funds by the CBN is a fallacy as it is a known fact that the legally elected council executive officers who have the legal right to the said allocations are currently processing the withdrawal of the allocations.
“It is shameful that the federal legislators who collected billions of naira as Constituencies’ Allowances without meaningful projects to show for it could have the effrontery to write a letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the Osun State local government allocation.
“We are tasking the meddlesome interloper members of the Osun State Caucus in the House of Representatives to account for the constituency projects first, before they can be considered eminently qualified for having the moral rectitude and legal right to be asking questions about the local government affairs.
“Is it not crystal clear to the complaining federal legislators that the local government council administrations own both local government and constituency projects?” The Osun APC asked.