The Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the state governor, Alex Otti, of collecting the Seals of the 17 Local Government Areas from the councils’ Heads of Service.

The Abia PDP said the Heads of Service were those whom the immediate past Local Government Transition Chairmen handed over after their dissolution by Otti.

The Abia PDP Vice Chairman/Acting State Publicity Secretary, Elder Abraham Amah, who said this in a statement on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, stated that credible intelligence reaching his party informed them of what he described as Otti’s blatant act of illegality.

He accused Otti of becoming “too power thirsty that he has recently assumed the roles of a governor and Chairman of the 17 Local Government Areas of Abia State at the same time.”

Amah said the implication is that Governor Otti is the one running not only Abia as a state and the second tier of government but also the LGAs, another tier of government, “an act that is not only unconstitutional and a usurpation of the powers of the local councils but also actionable by law.”

He said that to the best of the party’s knowledge, no bill has been passed into law by the Abia State House of Assembly which mandates the governor to run the local governments as one of the Ministries in Abia State.

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The Abia PDP Vice Chairman stated: “This novelty, unfortunately, is one that puts the governor as the arrowhead of those in breach of the Constitution they swore to protect and defend at all times.

“For the purpose of clarity, the local government is a creation of the Constitution of the Federal Government of Nigeria and is in no way an appendage of the State government.

“Though the Constitution mandates the States House of Assembly to make laws for the good governance of the local governments, in no section of it did it make the local government an arm of the State government and its running should therefore not be at the whims of the State governor as we are seeing in Abia today?

“The local government’s finances are run with the States through the process and operation of a Joint Account Allocation Committee, (JAAC), between representatives of the State and the local governments and both tiers are signatories to the local government accounts as funds from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) and other accruals are received monthly and at other times into the joint account.”

The Star