Rivers council chairpersons accuse Fubara of withholding money meant for local councils

The chairpersons of local government areas in Rivers State have accused Governor Siminalayi Fubara of withholding the statutory allocations meant for the 23 council areas in the state.

The chairperson, under the aegis of Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Rivers State Chapter, stated this through its chairperson, Allwell Ihunda, at a press briefing in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, Vanguard newspaper reported.

Mr Ihunda, who is the chairperson of Port Harcourt City Local Government Area said the governor has withheld local councils’ allocations since April.

The State Commissioner for Information, Joseph Johnson did not respond to requests for comment on the allegation when contacted on Wednesday.

The ALGON chairperson said Mr Fubara deliberately refused to hold a meeting of the Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC), which he said was a prerequisite for the release of statutory allocations to local government councils in the state.

“It has also come to our notice that the Governor of Rivers State held a meeting with Heads of Local Government Administration (HLGA), Heads of Personnel Management (HPM), Treasurers of Local Governments and other Directors on Monday in Government House Port Harcourt where he directed them to go and compile for presentation to him of the salary vouchers,” Mr Ihunda said.

According to him, the meeting “excluded Chairmen, Vice Chairmen, Councilors and other political office holders for the various Local Governments with a view to unlawfully dipping his hands into Local Government funds to pay staff salaries directly without the involvement of the democratically elected Local Government Chairmen.”

Mr Ihunda described Mr Fubara’s action as a violation of the Nigerian constitution and called on the Rivers House of Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against the governor.

Loyalty to Wike

Majority of council chairpersons in the state are loyal to the immediate-past governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, under whose tenure they were elected in 2021.

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Mr Wike, now minister of the FCT, also played a pivotal role in the emergence of Mr Fubara as governor of the oil-rich state, but the duo later fell out as a result of the battle for the control of the political structure and governance in the state.

The feud between the two former allies had deteriorated steadily, prompting the intervention of President Bola Tinubu, who brokered a peace deal between them after seats of 27 pro-Wike lawmakers were declared vacant following their defection to the APC.

Following the peace deal brokered by President Tinubu, Governor Fubara was asked to allow the 27 pro-Wike lawmakers to return and conduct legislative businesses with their rights and privileges restored.

The tenure of the present council chairpersons in the state will expire in June after serving a three-year tenure, but the state lawmakers had amended the local government administration law and stripped Governor Fubara of the power to appoint a caretaker committee when the tenure of the current council chairmen ends in June.

In the amended law which the lawmakers overrode Mr Fubara’s veto, the pro-Wike lawmakers granted six months extension to the current council chairperson, if Mr Fubara fails to conduct local government election before the end of their tenure in June.

Addressing reporters on Tuesday, the Legal Adviser of ALGON in Rivers, who is also the chairperson of Andoni local council, Irastus Awoto said council chairpersons will not vacate office after their tenure expires next month.

“We got elected in 2021 and our tenure is to expire in June. But by now local government elections ought to have been concluded and the winners awaiting swearing in,” Mr Awoto said.

He said the state assembly extended the tenure of the local council chairpersons for six months to avoid a vacuum.

“As a matter of fact, in respect of this too we went to court, because the state government has not shown any intention as regards local government elections. What we are seeing is associates of the governor making comments that on 17 and 18 of June they are going to invade local government offices and they will bring everybody down. This is an invitation to anarchy.

“We as local government chairmen are going to remain in office because the law as amended by the Rivers State House of Assembly says so. That law has given us an additional six month and we will remain in office,” Mr Awoto said.

Mr Fubara recently said that Rivers has no House of Assembly.

“Let me say it here, those group of men who claim that they are assembly members, they are not existing. I want it to be on record,” Mr Fubara said.