The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has threatened to prosecute local government chairmen and councillors who failed to use their Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations judiciously.
Recall that the supreme court ruled on July 11, ruled that the Federal Government should henceforth pay allocations directly to local government councils from the federation account.
The apex court also ordered the federal government to withhold allocations of LGs governed by unelected officials appointed by the governor.
Fagbemi, who was speaking on Thursday at the 17th-Anniversary Annual Lecture of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) in Abuja, noted that the funds allocated to the local government must be used for development and governance.
He explained that going to court was the last resort for the Federal Government as some of the local government secretariats have been overrun with weeds.
“The money meant for the local government was not given to the local government, and if we had gone via amendment of the Constitution, whoever that Speaker was, who attempted to allow an amendment of the Constitution to give serious autonomy to the local government if he survived that term, he is not coming back. That one is sure.
“We now thought, this money is still coming from the federation, and in a way, the money is meant for the local government; the federation now says, states be our agents, hold this money for onward transmission to the local government.
“There are two issues: the states were the agents of the federation; when the money got to the states, they became trustees of the local government so either way, they are to do their utmost to ensure that the funds were not tampered with.
“But what do we have? If you go to some local government today, some have grown with weeds.
“At that stage, we felt it is no longer possible to persuade the states to follow the Constitution unless there is an order,” he said.
He noted that while the governors have immunity, the local government council chairmen or councillors have no immunity adding that they have to choose between dealing with the funds of the local government as they like and risking going to jail.
“Well, we have a situation on our hands, I know that it is still there; the conduct of elections is to be undertaken by the states.
“But the distinction is this: don’t forget, the governors have immunity, the local government council chairmen or councillors, they have no immunity, so they have to choose between dealing with the funds of the local government as they like and risking going to jail. The choice is theirs.
“If they want to tamper with these funds and end up in jail, it is their choice. Or if they want to write their names in letters of gold, activities like construction or upgrading of roads must return to the local government. They don’t all have to come to Abuja.
“If they stay at the local government, we will be able to reduce the level of insecurity that we have in Nigeria today. What obtains offshore is that the security agents are able to perform optimally because of information that comes to them from members of the public and usually it is from the grassroots,” he said.