Benue govt orders sacked LG chairmen to vacate offices

The Benue State government has ordered three local government council caretaker chairmen who were sacked over allegations of gross misconduct and embezzlement of council revenues to vacate their offices.

The affected chairmen include Tervershima Abraham Agber of Gboko LGA, Reverend Gideon Haanongon of Ukum LGA and Francis Zazan of Katsina-Ala LGA.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that state Governor Hyacinth Alia, on Tuesday February 19, through an executive communication to the Benue State House of Assembly, requested the sack and replacement of the Caretaker Chairmen for alleged “misconduct and misappropriation of council funds.”

The Assembly had complied with the Governor’s request and promptly approved the sack of the trio and replaced them with Verlumun Avar for Gboko, Victor Iorzaa, Ukum and Justin Shaku for Katsina Ala LGCs respectively.

However, the latest directive followed insistence by two of the sacked chairmen that they were still in charge of their councils with the claim that they had not received official communication from the state government about their sack.

The directives were contained in a circular issued on Saturday by Special Adviser to the Governor for Bureau for Local Government and Chieftancy Affairs (BLGCA), Dr. Dennis Akura, who affirmed their sack by the Governor and ordered that they immediately handover to the next in line who are their Deputies.

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“There is a law in place guiding the smooth operation of the Local Governments in the state, it was on the premise of that law that Governor Alia requested for the replacement of the three Council Chairmen,” the circular reads.

“And we here at the Bureau overseeing the administration of the Local Governments in the state have accordingly communicated to the affected Local Governments for action.

“There were allegations levelled against them and they were asked to defend themselves and their defence was not good enough, that is why they were sacked. And when you are sacked you leave the office and hand over to the next person who is the Deputy. The directive is very clear.

“We, at the BLGCA operate a zero account expenditures and that is what the Joint Accounts Allocation Committee, JAAC, is all about.

“Therefore, it is the LGCs that spends their money and so, anytime we are informed of misappropriation of funds, we arrest the situation immediately. So the Governor has taken a decision and we have communicated same to the affected chairmen.”

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