Lagos Assembly Accuses Local Council Administrator Of Corruption
The Lagos State House of Assembly Tuesday accused the Sole Administrator (SA) of Oriade Local Council Development Authority (LCDA), Habib Aileru of corruption, calling on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to immediately suspend him.
The House took the decision at plenary after listening to the complaints of the chairman, committee on public accounts (Local Government), Hon. Bisi Yusuf, who alleged that Aileru is involved in misappropriation of council funds, disobedience of local council laws and flagrant disregard of directives by government.
According to him, since becoming the Sole Administrator of the LCDA, Aileru has been fraudulent as indicated in the state Auditor- General’s report that the committee is currently working on.
According to Yusuf, there was a clear directive as contained in the law that authorizes Sole Administrators when they were sworn-in that they must not embark on new projects but rather, that they should settle outstanding debts of the council to make take-off for the incoming elected council administration seamless.
Yusuf said Aileru, who was indicted by the Auditor-General report went ahead to embark on new projects instead of settling outstanding debt, saying he increased the debt for the LCDA from N285m to N406m within three months.
“Against the directive of the governor that collection of revenue by local council should not be contracted out, Aileru single handedly appointed a contractor to collect revenue for Oriade LCDA, without the involvement or knowledge of the management of the council, even when he was cautioned, he claimed that as SA, he could do and undo.
“The council chairman wrote him severally to disengage the contractor but the Sole Administrator refused and the contractor is still collecting revenue and nobody knows where the revenue is paid into. A total of about N17.8m IGR of the council has been diverted, the whereabouts of which is only known to Aileru”, Yusuf said.
Other lawmakers who contributed to the debate condemned the attitude of the SA calling for his immediate suspension.
The appropriation committee chairman, Hon. Rotimi Olowo called for Aileru’s arrest “because he has changed the structure of the appropriation law.”