The Office of the Ondo State acting governor has denied the report that the acting governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has frozen the accounts of the 18 local governments in the state.
It was gathered that the chairmen, whose names were sent to the state House of Assembly by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu for screening and approval, had been inaugurated but had yet to perform in office.
To this end, an unofficial piece of information were said to been sent to them through a text message, purportedly from the office of the acting governor, directing them not to tamper with the finances of their local governments.
The message made available on Sunday read, “Distinguished HOLGAs, Your Excellency the acting Governor of Ondo State has directed that all spending/expenditure from local government account should be suspended, no signing of cheques, no change of signatories, no withdrawal of any sort until further directive. Please, adhere strictly to instruction and be guided.”
However, a senior a senior staff in the acting governor’s office, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the text message was true but denied the report making the rounds in the media, that Aiyedatiwa had frozen the account of the local government councils.
According to him, the directive given was due to the subsisting court order on the appointment of the caretaker chairmen.
Text except headline courtesy of Punch
