The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked President Bola Tinubu to withhold allocations to states that have failed to conduct credible local government elections.
Recall on October 5, elections were held at the grassroot levels in some states like Rivers, Benue, Akwa Ibom, Jigawa. However, most states are yet to conduct local government polls and still collect money from the federal allocations for their respective local council.
Displeased by the development, the group described the action of some state governors as wrong.
In a statement on Sunday, SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, specifically wants Tinubu to “direct Mr Olawale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, to immediately withhold federal allocations to states that have failed and/refused to conduct credible local government elections, and to ensure that any allocations from the Federation Account is paid only to democratically elected local government councils and no other body or institution.”
Oluwadare urged the President to “details of the number of local government councils that have directly received federal allocations and whether the councils are democratically elected, as provided for by the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and ordered by the Supreme Court in its judgment of 11 July 2024.”
