PDP Blasts Hembe Over Plan to Abolish Local Govt. Joint Account if Elected Gov.

By our Reporter

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue said it was bemused by Barrister Iorwase Hembe, the All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial aspirant's declaration that he would abolish the monthly Joint Account Meetings of Local Government councils if given the mandate to govern the State in 2023.

This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Bemgba Iortyom, the Publicity Secretary of the party and issued to newsmen on Wednesday in Makurdi.

"We are particularly bemused by Hembe's declaration that he will abolish the monthly Joint Account Meetings of Local Government Councils.

"Considering that the meeting derives in specificity from Section 162(6) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999 As Amended) which states inter alia that each state shall maintain a special account to be called State Joint Local Government Account into which shall be paid all allocations to the Local Government Councils of the State from the Federation Account and the Government of the state.

"How then does this federal lawmaker, himself a lawyer, hope to achieve his abolitionist declaration? 

"Will he be having that law repealed before his departure from the Green Chamber in the time left to him there, or is he planning on outright anarchy; a refusal to heed to and abide by the extent laws of the land?," he queried.

He asked Hembe to tailor his views along areas in the law and its application which might need improving upon, against the backdrop that, even with the autonomy being enjoyed by council administrations in the state under Gov Samuel Ortom's administration, there might still exist areas for improvement which a succeeding administration could address in the natural order of continual evolvement of governmental policies and actions.

He said that Ortom administration had invested massively in infrastructural linkages with ongoing construction of major and strategic road arteries in the urban centres as well as rural areas of the state, a feat outstanding in its own right beyond the shroud and din of opposition nay saying. 

"There has also been major impact in the educational sector with the payment of state counterpart funding to development partners for critical intervention in schools in the form of construction of new classroom blocks, renovation of existing structures, provision of learning aids touching every community across the state.

"Placement of the funding of the state owned University on first-line charge and enhanced funding to other state owned tertiary institutions, massive intervention in the primary, secondary and tertiary health care delivery systems in the state with the total transformation of state owned health care training institutions including the accreditation and graduation of the first set of medical doctors from the College of Health Sciences of the Benue State University, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Makurdi.

"Also, other training institutes, as well as upliftment of standards at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital," he said.