LG Autonomy: Abia Assembly Warned Against Approving N57bn Loan for Govt

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

The Abia State House of Assembly has been warned not to approve a loan request of N56.73 billion which Governor Alex Otti is seeking for the running of Abia State Local Government Areas, LGAs, presently under transition committees.

The immediate past Commissioner for Trade and Investments, Chief John Okiyi Kalu, sounded the alarm in a statement he issued Tuesday, made available to the media.

He said that it was suspicious for the Abia State Government to have gone to the State House of Assembly for loan approval on behalf of the LGAs soon after the Supreme Court ruling granting financial autonomy to the third tier of government.

“Why will Abia State Government rush this borrowing of N56.73 billion bill through the Abia State House of Assembly after the ruling by the Supreme Court on autonomy of LGAs?,” he queried.

The executive bill before the House is “HAB 18: The Abia State of Nigeria Local Councils 2024 Appropriation Bill, which is a Bill for a byelaw to appropriate the sum of N56,732,136,110.00 for the services of Local Government Councils of the State for the year ending 31st December 2024 and for other related purposes”.

After passing through second reading, the Abia House Speaker, Rt. Hon. Emmanuel Emeruwa, had on Monday reportedly committed the Bill to the House Committee of the whole for further legislative action.

But Okiyi, who had also served as information commissioner in the past government, asked the Abia lawmakers to jettison the idea of passing the bill into law.

“The Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Emmanuel Emeruwa, should know that based on the recent ruling of the Supreme Court, the State House of Assembly clearly does not have powers to approve borrowings for our LGAs. Abia State LGAs have legislative arms that should approve any borrowing,” he insisted.

“That loan of N57 billion must not be approved under any guise because that will be an illegal act”.

The former commissioner said that it was wrong for the Abia government to circumvent the verdict of the Supreme Court just as the Speaker has ignored an Appeal Court judgement.

He has so far refused to swear-in a lawmaker-elect, Hon Aaron Uzodike of PDP, who was declared victorious for Aba North State Constituency by the appellate  court, he added.

Okiyi stated that Abia government should borrow a leaf from Osun State where “all the Transition Council Executives have reportedly  resigned in deference to the recent Supreme Court ruling”.

“Obviously, any action taken by those appointed by Governor Alex Otti will be deemed illegal, null and void in the eyes of the law yet he retains them because of hubris,” he said.

The former Abia government spokesman said that instead of looking for ways to beguile Abia people and dip hands into council funds, Otti should “simply go and conduct LGA elections as previous governors did and allow the LGAs run autonomously”.

He recalled that “when we alerted that N45b was borrowed from a commercial bank using the state’s JAAC account they (Otti government) lied about that and denied it. But we said the lie would expire”.

He noted that the opposition has been vindicated with the ongoing move by government borrow money on behalf of the council areas.