Residents of the Ijebu Ode Local Government Area in Ogun State were greeted by a series of notices demanding answers from the local government’s Chairman, Babatunde Emilola-Gazal, regarding the utilisation of federal allocations allocated to the area over the past two years.
The ultimatum in the notice gave the chairman 48 hours to provide a detailed account; otherwise, there would be protests against his government.
The notice, which was appended with “By Concerned Citizens”, read, “Gazal must go; Gazal must go; Gazal must go.
“Explain to the Ijebus what you have done with the collected federal allocation according to your claim. You are hereby given 48 hours to furnish the Ijebus with how you spent the allocations. Failing to do this will lead to protests within the local government.”
The chairman, having seen the notice pasted around, was said to have stayed away from the office.
Speaking with our correspondent, Emilola-Gazal, who confirmed this incident, said, “It is a sponsored move. Yes, I stayed away from the office, but we shall come out as appropriate at the right time.”
A resident of Ijebu Ode who craved anonymity said that the situation was a bit tense in the morning as the residents were not happy with how the LG boss had defended the state Governor, Dapo Abiodun, over the allegation of diversion of funds meant to develop the grassroots, as alleged by the suspended Chairman of Ijebu East Local Government, Wale Adedayo.
The Ijebu Ode LGA boss, who doubles as the Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria in the state, while speaking on the alleged diversion of LG funds amounting to N10.8bn as claimed by Adedayo, said there was nothing like that because Abiodun had always allowed the local governments to utilise their allocation.
The resident alleged that Emilola-Gazal, in a viral video, led other local government chairmen in the state last Tuesday to prostrate and beg Abiodun over the outburst of Adedayo, and there he told the governor that the visit was to acknowledge the mistakes that were made and to beg for forgiveness.
The chairmen during the meeting were also said to have acknowledged that in May, N4.5bn was shared by the 20 local governments. In June, N4.4bn was shared, while July also saw the sharing of N4.4bn. In August, N5.2bn was shared. They also confirmed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the governor was augmenting their allocation to the tune of N1bn monthly.
The chairmen were equally said to have admitted that because of insufficient funds from the federation accounts, they have been unable to pay the mandatory Pay As You Earn to the state, and as a result, they are owning the state for several billion.
