Local council chairmen in Cross River State are presently enduring torrid times following their visible inability to access parts or all of the N11.386 billion purportedly left and widely declared as money in the coffers of the local councils by state governor, Ben Ayade.
Investigations carried out by www.calitown.com further revealed that apart from their inability to access these funds, all of them have no official vehicles and have, in largely recurrent cases, resorted to attending official functions in hired taxis. We also discovered that most of the chairmen are beginning to pile up debts on this taxi hire, done mostly on credit.
Sources spoken to are maintaining that only the state governor and a few others can account for why official vehicles were not distributed to the chairmen at their swearing-in, more than a month ago, as it is always traditional. “They have been left to their own fate, audio sums of money announced while it is becoming clear that the purported funds are not where they should be”, one source told us.
In more than ten council premises visited in the course of this investigations, there is evidence that several structures in these premises have become dilapidated, urgently needing attention. In more than three extreme cases, the offices of the these chairmen are not habitable. ” They cannot even fix these offices because there is no money in their coffers. Some of them are attempting to use personal funds to create spaces they can at least call office space and this is an anomaly. When will they get refunds? Please if these chairmen are sincere, they will tell you that council accounts are empty and the situation will not change because not one of them can ask questions because they are all puppets in this unfortunate government show. I think most of them aren’t happy because like every other thing in this state, the noise is louder than the actual substance”, we were told.
One chairman of council is said to have disclosed to a close friend that on resumption of office, he met a paltry N63, 000 in the council coffers and not the collosal sums bandied around by officials of government.
Sources inside Government House, Calabar, say a meeting between the governor and the council chairmen is billed for Wednesday this week at the Obudu Ranch Resort but declined further comments on what will be on the front burner during the meeting.
