El-Rufai should account for deducted LG allocations – ALGON ex-scribe
A former Secretary of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria in Kaduna State, Kabiru Jarimi, has disputed former Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s claim that he never interfered with local government funds during his tenure.
El-Rufai, in a recent interview with Freedom Radio Kaduna, accused his successor, Governor Uba Sani, of diverting local government funds to purchase properties in Seychelles, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
The former governor, who recently defected from the All Progressives Congress to the Social Democratic Party, alleged, “As I speak, no local government in Kaduna receives more than N50m per month. Once the allocation arrives, they siphon it, exchange it into dollars, and use it to buy properties in Seychelles, South Africa, London, and other places.”
However, Jarimi, who served under El-Rufai’s administration, described the claim as misleading, stating that local governments in the state were routinely deprived of their full allocations during the previous administration.
He said that funds were deducted from the councils’ allocations under various guises.
“I was shocked by El-Rufai’s comment because local government funds were deducted without our approval. Most of these deductions targeted Southern Kaduna LGAs,” Jarimi explained. “We never received our full allocations under El-Rufai. His government kept introducing policies that unnecessarily deducted funds. I even considered resigning at times, as we often didn’t have enough funds for overhead costs after paying salaries.”
Jarimi further alleged that El-Rufai justified the deductions as necessary to settle workers’ salaries, but claimed the state government also employed additional methods to withdraw more funds. He cited the creation of the Kaduna Capital Territory Authority, Zaria Metropolitan Authority, and Kafanchan Municipal Authority as mechanisms for short-changing local governments.
“Salaries were shared 60-40 between the capital territories and the local governments around them. In Kaduna South, deductions were made in the name of sanitation, forcing us to remit funds to the Kaduna Capital Territory Authority every month,” he stated.
Jarimi also challenged El-Rufai to explain where the deducted funds went, specifically questioning the use of the security and riot damage funds.
“We contributed to a security fund, yet no former LGA chairman can account for how it was used. The same applies to the riot damage fund; no LGA benefited from it. I challenge the former Governor to explain where the money went,” he said.
The former ALGON secretary commended Governor Uba Sani for reversing many of El-Rufai’s policies, particularly the abolition of the Kaduna Capital Territory Authority, Zaria Metropolitan Authority, and Kafanchan Municipal Authority, as well as the security and riot damage funds.
He also praised the Sani-led administration for allocating a percentage of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue to local governments.
