The Labor Party (LP) caucus in the National Assembly has accused Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State of trying to “circumvent” the Supreme Court ruling on local government autonomy.
The group, led by LP Senator Tony Nwoye of Anambra, said this at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday.
Nwoye expressed his discontent over the steps being taken by the governor to enact the state and local governments joint accounts law.
He said such a move was aimed at circumventing the Supreme Court's landmark ruling on the financial autonomy of local governments.
He charged the Speaker and members of the Anambra House of Assembly to follow the path of honor and immediately stop consideration of the “disgusting” executive bill for the sake of posterity.
Other federal legislators, who spoke in turns, argued that the provisions of the bill titled 'Anambra State Local Government Administration Act, 2024' were against the Supreme Court ruling.
The aggrieved LP legislators specifically disapproved of the provisions of Clauses 13, 14 and 20, among others, with special attention to the 'Local Government Joint State Account'.
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This includes the Local Government Consolidated Account, the Consolidated Account Management Committee and the Local Government Security Trust Account.
The accounts committee of the local government security trust was also included, among other topics.
According to Mr Nwoye, the controversial clause 13(1) stipulates that the State will maintain a special account called the State Joint Local Government Account.
“And it will pay all Federation allocations to local governments in the state.
“The State shall distribute funds due to local governments as provided in sub-section (1) of section 11, on such terms and in the manner prescribed by the State House of Assembly,” it said.
The legislators also protested against the provisions of clause 14 on 'Consolidated Local Government Account'.
According to Nwoye, this stipulates that a consolidated local government account will be established and managed on behalf of the local government areas of the state.
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“The consolidated account will be administered for the uniform delivery of common services in all local government areas of the state, among others.”
Nwoye also denounced the security situation across the state and questioned the rationale for the proposed deduction of 20 per cent of the federal allocation to local government, as proposed in the bill.
(YAYA)