The Nasarawa State House of Assembly has summoned two commissioners and the state Accountant-General to account for some finances.

The invited commissioners are those for Local Government, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Yusuf Turaki; Finance, Daniel Agyeno, and Accountant-General Zakka Yakubu.

They are to appear before the legislature on Tuesday (September 27) by 10:00 a.m. at the assembly chamber.

This, the lawmakers said, was to enable the invitees to explain how the State Financial, Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Funds, Ecological funds, State Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) and Paris Club fund were received and disbursed between the state and local government councils in the state.

Ibrahim Abdullahi, the speaker of the house, invited the government officials after Agah Muluku, the chief whip of the assembly, moved a motion to that effect under Matters of Urgent Public Importance at the plenary on Monday.

The speaker said their appearance was also to ensure that the right things are done to ensure speedy development at the grassroots.

“In the process of discharging our duties, we will receive condemnations and insults from people who do not understand legislative work and activities.

“We are doing our best to protect the system and let them say what they want to say.

“But how can we allow something that was for local governments to be diverted somewhere? We have to investigate that,” he said.

Mr Abdullahi said the assembly had passed a law on how state finances should be disbursed amongst the tiers of government in the state, especially the LG law and “we will not sit and watch the abuse of the laws passed by this Honourable house”.

In their contributions, Mohammed Okpoku, Daniel Ogazi and David Maiyaki lamented how the lack of finances at the local government level had affected development at the grassroots.

They said if urgent steps were not taken, the aim of establishing a local government would be defeated.

They also decried how chairmen of local government councils and overseers of development areas cannot execute projects and perform their duties effectively due to a lack of funds at their disposal.

Earlier, the chief whip of the house raised the issue of lack of physical development at the local government level under matters of public interest.

“There is no development at the local government level. FAAC is being received every month, there are State Financial, Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Funds.

“We have over N400 million ecological funds, but as I am talking, no kobo was given to the local government to address ecological problems in their areas.

“The state government by law is supposed to give local governments 10 per cent of its IGR, but we learnt that they are not giving,” Mr Muluku said. 

(NAN)