National President of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Mr Ibrahim Khaleel, has said that the state governors have hijacked the constitution amendment process, because it was against abolition of joint account through which funds belonging to local government are being siphoned.
Khaleel, who spoke to newsmen at the weekend, in Minna, Niger State capital, after the state delegate conference of the union, said that no part of the constitution gave power to governors or state assemblies to re-appropriate and misdirect local government funds, but said unfortunately, governors had hijacked the councils. He then said that the level of poverty among Nigerians at the grass roots level could easily be averted if governors allowed local government autonomy.
He alleged that now that Nigerians had risen against such unlawful practice by governors, they were out to hijack the process as regards local government autonomy: “Nigeria belongs to all of us, not to governors only. I don’t think there is anybody in Nigeria that is happy with the way governors deprive Nigerians of their right at the local government level.”
He said the union would be staging a national rally against the move by governors to stop local government autonomy in the six geopolitical zones of the country from February 25, in Minna.
