Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) says it will ensure that governors do not frustrate the constitutional amendment process for the autonomy local government councils in the country, its National President Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel has said. Khaleel told newsmen in Minna at the weekend that the decision for NULGE to take the lead in the struggle is because the generality of Nigerians are against the obnoxious states and local governments Joint Account which his union in particular has been campaigning against.
He said “no section of the Nigerian constitution gives power to the governors or the state assemblies to re-appropriate and misdirect local government councils’ funds”. Khaleel argued that governors were all out to hijack the process of constitutional amendment in respect of councils’ autonomy because it appeared to them that the people of Nigeria have risen against such unconstitutional practice through which councils’ funds are plundered by the governors. He said the union will stage a national rally against the move by the governors to stop local government councils’ autonomy in the six geopolitical zones of the country. The rally, he said, will start in Minna from March 25.