Once again, Umar Duhu, who has become notorious for spreading fake news and fabricated stories, is at it. Obviously, the spider cannot forget its yarn, the latest being a false and unverifiable claim of sundry deductions directed by the Adamawa State from the Account of Local Governments in the state amounting to N1bilion.
In the first instance, the Adamawa State Ministry for Local Government has no power to make deductions from Local Government Accounts, neither has the state government ever made any deductions from the accounts.
Let me offer Duhu free tutorials. Statutory deductions are remitted by the Local Government Councils upon receipt of their allocations and in accordance with statutory details and percentages. Even if there are contributions done jointly by the local government areas, it is always within the legal purview of the local governments.
In relation to the statutory deductions, remittances are made from the coffers of the individual local government, with recourse to the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), as it is.
The latest treatise is a testimony to the fact that Duhu knows little or nothing about local government financial regulation, as much as to be able to make any credible claim or give authentic information about their workings. For someone who is bristling from being ousted from the position of the Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Northeast, this is a huge gaffe.
Duhu’s perception and the latest outburst is nothing but a string of lies and the fabrication of a mischievous mind, very much akin to the Six Blind Men of Hindustan who went to see the Elephant .
What is apparent is that the politician is engaging in wild fishing and a ploy to get facts through the backdoor. Any right-thinking person can see through the smoke screen and, rightfully, disregard any information including a fake April Allocation schedule from the FAAC which he has been circulating on Social Media. All the false claims have not come close to the fact, which is that the April Allocation hit the LGAs Account without the usual details.
Therefore, the chairmen (under the aegis of ALGON Adamawa State Chapter) jointly resolved for the immediate payment of salaries of workers and political officer holders as a priority, while awaiting the detailed allocation paper from the FAAC.
The resolution was prior to the imposition of the 2-week lockdown by the Adamawa State Government , so that local government workers and political office holders can prepare adequately for the stay-at-home order. In the meantime , there is/was no N20million deduction for ‘fumigation and sensitization’ on COVID-19 by the local governments. All Duhu’s claims are, once more, false yarns by a spider.
Finally, the claim that Local Government autonomy is ‘operational only in principle’ is also patently erroneous. The rating of the National Financial Intelligence (NFI) unit which puts Adamawa State as the best in the North and among the best in Nigeria, as regards strict compliance and strict adherence to local government financial autonomy, bears the government out.
As for Duhu, whether he is acting the poorly scripted Drama of another or bent on playing his to the obvious end of self-destruction, is something we all wait to see.
First, he was bitter that President Buhari never gave him the time of day to continue as Vice Chairman, APC, North. Now, he is playing another script with unknown origins. Perhaps, he has got his eyes on the LG Chairmanship? We will keep watching as he tries to court the love of the people of Adamawa the wrong way…and for the wrong reasons.
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