4th December, 2023
Dissolution of Benue LGs based on Assembly’s order -Official
By Emmanuel Antswen
The Benue Government has accused Senator Abba Moro of lying and hypocrisy over his recent motion in the Senate over dissolution of elected local government officials in the State by Governor Gov. Hyacinth Alia.
Moro had tabled the issue at the National Assembly, accusing the Alia led administration of illegally dissolving the elected councils and replacing them with caretaker committees.
The Senate had based on Moro’s motion, urged the Federal Government to withhold federal allocations for the state 23 LGs until the elected local government councils were restored.
But Tersoo Kula, Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Gov. Hyacinth Alia at a news conference on Sunday in Makurdi accused Moro of displaying hypocrisy in the motion as he was also a former caretaker committee of a local government
He said:“We are also worried that of all people, it is Sen. Abba Moro, a former Sole Administrator and a former Caretaker Committee Chairman of Okpokwu LG under the same 1999 constitution of the FRN as amended that had the brazen counterfeit boldness to speak of Erosion of Democracy.”
Nevertheless, Kula said the dissolution of the state local government councils was not done unilaterally as it was based on the order of the State House of Assembly, which has powers to legislate over their affairs.
Kula said that contrary to the assumption that Gov. Hyacinth Alia unilaterally dissolved the elected local councils, it was the lawmakers who ordered for their dissolution after uncovering large scale fraud in their operations.
Kula accompanied by Mr Dennis Akura, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Bureau for Local Government and Chieftainacy Affairs, said that the senator distorted facts and misled the Senate on the status of the local government councils in the state.
“Alia did not dissolve the democratically elected local government leadership in the state. The Benue State House of Assembly that is vested with the constitutional powers to legislate over their affairs did.
“The Assembly did this in exercise of their constitutional responsibility as enshrined in sections 7 and 8 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
“Alia only appointed caretaker committees to avoid lacunas that would have been created following recommendations of the state House of Assembly which investigated, indicted and sacked the 23 elected councils chairmen.
“They were found to have perpetrated monumental fraud in their councils in active connivance with various councilors,”he said.