Civil Society Group Urges President Buhari to investigate alleged LGs funds diversion in Osun

The Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State has urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to investigate the alleged diversion of local government funds by the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

The Chairman of the CSCEOS, Mr. Adeniyi Sulaiman, said this in a letter written to the President and a copy of which was made available to our correspondent in Osogbo on Monday.

The group also called on anti-corruption agencies to carry out a forensic audit of accounts of executive secretaries and directors of local government councils as well as other political appointees in charge of administration of the councils.

Sulaiman called on the President to stop releasing LG funds to the governor while calling on the Federal Government to take over payment of the council workers in the state.

The group said Buhari would prove to Nigerians and those outside the country that he truly did not have sacred cows if he could probe the Osun State LG finances and the projects they executed.

“It is duty bound on us as an organisation that is craving for egalitarian and corrupt-free society to draw the urgent attention of your good office(s) to the ongoing advancement of illegal and unconstitutional diversion of the monthly allocations of 30 Local Government Areas of Osun State by Governor Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola since November 2010.

“To affirm this illegality and unconstitutionality, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola suspended the democratic system in the constitutionally recognised 30 Local Government Areas of Osun State by appointing the grade level 14 local government officers as ‘Council Managers’ to man the council areas of the state instead of ‘democratically-elected chairmen and councillors as stipulated in the Section 7(1) of the amended 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria in order to give Aregbesola a leeway in the criminal diversion of local government funds.”

The group said its position on the alleged diversion of councils fund was corroborated by the non-payment of six months salaries of the LG workers as well as primary and middle school teachers.
The governor could not be reached for his reaction as efforts to speak to his media aide, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, were unsuccessful.
A male voice who picked the call put across to his telephone number said Okanlawon would call back but he had yet to do so as of the time of filling this report.