by Tunde Olamilekan
A member of the elder caucus of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State, Alhaji Gbadebo Ajao, has defended the presentation of local government budgets by chairmen elected under the party before their councillors.
Speaking after the executive chairman of Egbedore Local Government elected under the APC, Hon Hissa Akinwale presented the proposed 2026 budget before the legislative council, Ajao said the state House of Assembly no longer have business with the local government budget.
The APC chieftain said with the Supreme Court judgment, the local government Chairmen now have financial autonomy and only have to deal with their council legislatures.
He said, “Local Government is another tier of government, and we have our legislation. The first person to receive the budget will be the legislature. Why are they here? Why do we have councillors? The first set of people to receive the budget must be the legislature at the Local Government level, which is the councillors.
“That is what the chairman is presenting to them today for their consideration. If anybody else is going to do anything after that, it must have been after the legislature has already approved that thing.
“Also, the Supreme Court judgment clears everything. Financial autonomy for all Local governments. So the state has no business investing its budget again. The Supreme Court has already given its judgment. So what is the business of the House of Assembly in that?”.
Earlier, the council chairman presented a budget totalling six billion, two hundred million and five hundred thousand only (N6,200,500,000).
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