Following the public hearing by the Nasarawa State House of Assembly (NSHA) to scrutinise local governments’ fiscal responsibility as a result of their inability to pay staff salaries for up to three months, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Abubakar Gada Mohammed, has cautioned the lawmakers against inciting local government chairmen in the state against Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura.
Alhaji Mohammed said this yesterday in Lafia while condemning, in strong terms, inciting statements by the lawmakers that Governor Al-Makura is withholding finances meant for local councils, especially the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (Sure-P) fund.
He condemned the lawmakers’ action, pointing out that it was the same Assembly that outlawed the former arrangement where the state government augmented salaries of financially backward local governments only to turn round and blame Al-Makura for non-payment of staff salaries.
The APC chieftain also cautioned that the action of the lawmakers is in furtherance of their botched attempt to impeach Al-Makura as they are finding it hard to concede defeat.
The lawmakers had on Monday at a public hearing by the Joint Committee on Public Accounts and Petitions and Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs accused Al-Makura of starving the chairmen of funds, thereby making it impossible for them to deliver on their campaign promises.
