The Oyo State Chapter of the Labour Party, LP, has warned the 33 local government chairmen in the state against going into any financial alliance with the state government against the Supreme Court ruling on local government autonomy.
LP Chairman in the state, Sadiq Atayese, stated this on Tuesday in Ibadan, saying that the monthly allocations accruable to local governments were in the public domain.
He reminded the chairmen that they would be held accountable for the utilisation of the allocations as chief accounting officers of their respective local government councils.
Governor Seyi Makinde had been vehement in his opposition to agitations for local government autonomy as well as the Supreme Court ruling which eventually granted the autonomy.
The chairmen of all the 33 local government councils in the state had also dumped the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, the umbrella body for all the elected council chairmen in the country.
They said that they took the decision in solidarity with the governor’s stance on local government autonomy, as ruled by the Apex court.
Atayese, however, urged the council chairmen not be blinded to the fact that they were elected representatives of the people of their respective local government areas.
According to him, the people who voted them in have irreducible minimum expectations from them in terms of their stewardship.
“They are responsible to the people of their local government areas, not to any other person.
“Moreso, they should bear in mind that chairmen of local governments do not have immunity either from the government or the people.
There are insinuations that the chairmen are working hand in glove with the governor on his stand on the local government’s financial autonomy, as against the ruling of the Supreme Court.
“We in the Labour Party do not want to believe that the governor has any hidden motive for his statements on the local government autonomy.
We want to believe that Gov. Makinde only expressed his genuine views about the matter. Also, we do not want to believe that the chairmen’s decision was influenced by anyone.
“We want to believe that they are mature and responsible people and that they should act as such,” he said.