By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja
SENATOR Sunday Steve Karimi, representing Kogi West Senatorial District has revealed that the National Assembly would soon enact enabling laws to aid President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the recovery of stolen Local Government Council funds by some state governors.
The Parliamentarian who is also the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Services disclosed this while hosting his constituents during the yuletide break in Ijumu.
Karimi said that law would
compel state governors to strictly adhere to the Supreme Court judgment on fiscal autonomy for the third tier of government and give legal backing to the President to recover trillions of Councils’ funds allegedly stolen.
He recalled the landmark ruling of the Supreme Court of Nigeria dated July 25th, 2024, which directed seamless Federal allocation of funds to the 774 councils in the country.
According to him, the apex Court judgement declared that the state governors’ control over Local Government resources as unconstitutional, and equally voided caretaker committees declaring it illegal.
Sen. Karimi however observed that the judgement aimed to strengthen grassroots democracy and governance by ensuring that allocations go directly to elected officials, without state interference.
According to him, despite the explicit and unambiguous declaration by the highest court in the land, some states have continued to disregard and disrespect the ruling.
“Cognisant of the errant conduct of some state governors on the issue, President Tinubu warned at the recent National Executive Committee meeting of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) a fortnight ago, that he may be compelled to issue an Executive Order to whip defaulting governors into line”
He however, stated that the President had exercised restraint for so long with noncompliance by some governors, despite the fact that the had the powers to compel them to do what is right.
“The National Assembly will prioritise the matter of the non-adherence of certain governors across the broad spectrum, to the subsisting Supreme Court ruling on local government financial autonomy.
“We will back the President with relevant laws which will be retroactively effective. The laws will track the kleptomania and squandermania of governors who have been looting the commonwealth of the people of Nigeria.
“They will be prosecuted, compelled to make returns and punished for undermining the wellbeing of the generality of the people, by wilfully stealing what rightly belongs to them”, he said.
Speaking further, Karimi said that trillions of naira had been pilfered from the resources of Nigerians by gluttonous governors.
“There is general consensus that no administration in contemporary history has made as much resources available to states and local government areas as the Tinubu government, but the people are barely feeling the impact in many places”, he added. (Ends)
