By Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
Former Secretary of the Association of Local Governments Of Nigeria (ALGON), Kaduna State chapter, Alhaji Kabiru Jarimi, has dismissed ex-Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s claim that he never interfered with Area Councils’ funds during his tenure.
Alhaji Jarimi, who served under El-Rufai’s administration, described the claim as misleading, stating that funds were routinely deducted from councils’ allocations under various guises by the previous government.
The ex-ALGON State Secretary and also the former Chairman of Kaduna South local government, who disclosed this in an interview over the weekend, reveled that Most of the deductions targeted Southern Kaduna LGAs.
“I was shocked by El Rufai’s comment because local government funds were deducted without our approval. Most of the deductions targeted Southern Kaduna LGAs.
“We never got our full allocations under El-Rufai. His government kept introducing policies to deduct funds unnecessarily. I even considered resigning. At times, we had no funds for overhead costs after paying salaries,” he recalled.
Kabiru Jarimi, who said that El-Rufai justified the deductions as necessary to settle workers’ salaries, further noted that the state government also employed various means to withdraw additional funds.
The former Council Chairman cited the creation of the Kaduna Capital Territory Authority, Zaria Metropolitan Authority and Kafanchan Municipal Authority as a means of shortchanging local governments.
“Salaries were shared 60–40 between the capital territories and LGs around them. In Kaduna South, deductions were made in the name of sanitation, forcing us to remit funds to the Kaduna Capital Territory Authority (KCTA) every month,” he stated.
The former Chairman further alleged that the funds of local governments outside the capital territories were also deducted without explanation, citing deductions for security and ‘riot damage.’
Recalled that the former Governor El-rufai had recently accused his successor, Governor Uba Sani, of diverting local government (LG) funds to purchase properties in Seychelles, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
El-Rufai, who recently defected to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), made the allegations in an interview with kaduna based Freedom Radio.
He also claimed that Sani converted local government allocations into dollars to acquire the foreign properties.
He said that this was a departure from what transpired during his tenure when he did not interfere with local government funds.
“When I was governor, I never took a kobo from local government funds. We gave them their allocations to operate. Once we set aside funds for SUBEB, primary healthcare, and other necessary deductions, we handed over the remaining money. Both the PDP and APC chairmen are alive to testify,” he said.
El-Rufai alleged that the current administration was embezzling local government funds, adding that the federal government agencies were overlooking this because the governor was allegedly carrying out the operation to pull down El-Rufai at the behest of powerful forces in the presidency.
